This year’s Hellboy holiday special issue will take Hellboy to Iceland for the first time in the history of the character.  Hellboy Winter Special: The Yule Cat will be a one-shot by writer and artist Matt Smith, with coloring by Chris O’Halloran.  The story is based on the Icelandic legend of the Yule Cat, or Jólakötturinn, who is said to live in the mountains and roam the earth hunting for people who have no new clothes to wear on Christmas Eve.  In the comic, Hellboy goes to Reykjavik to investigate the disappearances of local children and sightings of a beast who may or may not be the Yule Cat.  Dark Horse Comics will publish the one-shot on December 6, 2023 with a variant cover by Mike Mignola, who created the character.

“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 in a statement accompanying the announcement.  “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.”

Smith has been the artist for several Hellboy series, including Hellboy in Love (see “Hellboy Creator Mike Mignola Returns for a Romantic Tale”).

Click Gallery below for covers!