A Special Winter Showdown: Hellboy and the Yule Cat’s Clash

Dark Horse Comics has announced Hellboy Winter Special: The Yule Cat, a new holiday one-shot pitting Mike Mignola‘s demonic superhero against a key figure from Icelandic folklore.

Per The Beat, Hellboy Winter Special: The Yule Cat arrives in comic shops early this coming December. Matt Smith wrote and illustrated the latest Hellboy winter special, colored by Chris O’Halloran, and lettered by Clem Robins. It features a main cover by Smith and a variant cover by Mignola.

In a press release, Dark Horse explained that “the special one-shot is inspired by the stories of Jólakötturinn, the ferocious Yule Cat of Icelandic folklore, who is said to come down from the mountains, on the prowl for people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve.” In the comic, “Hellboy travels to Reykjavik, where children are disappearing and a giant beast has been spotted … could it be the infamous Yule Cat of Icelandic lore?”

“The land of fire and ice, trolls and necropants, Iceland is as natural a setting for a Hellboy story as any I could think of,” Smith said of the 2023 winter special. “Set in 1990 and coming close to the events of the Hellboy: Bones of Giants, Hellboy likely hasn’t forgotten about the wrath of old Norse giants. But a giant, child-eating cat — that would be something new.”

“Matt Smith’s great,” Mignola added. “I have been very fortunate to have him working on Hellboy and thrilled that he came up with a story of his own, especially a holiday story about a monster cat! Merry Christmas to me and to everybody who loves this kind of thing. He does it so well.”

Hellboy Winter Special: The Yule Cat goes on sale Wednesday, December 6 from Dark Horse.