Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Dark Horse Comics | Tagged: Barbarian Lord, hellboy, matt smith, mike mignola

Matt Smith's Hellboy: The Yule Cat For December 2023

This year's annual Hellboy Winter Special from Dark Horse Comics will feature The Yule Cat one-shot by Barbarian Lord creator Matt Smith.

Published Mon, 11 Sep 2023 13:57:08 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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This year's annual Hellboy Winter Special from Dark Horse Comics will feature The Yule Cat one-shot, written and illustrated by Barbarian Lord creator and cartoonist Matt Smith, coloured by Chris O'Halloran, lettered by Clem Robins, and featuring a variant cover by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. 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. "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" said Matt Smith. "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."

Hellboy Winter Special: The Yule Cat marks his first visit to Iceland in the character's 30+ year years of publication. In the one-shot, 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? "Matt Smith's great. 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!" said Mignola. "Merry Christmas to me and to everybody who loves this kind of thing. He does it so well."

Hellboy Winter Special: The Yule Cat will be published on the 6th of December. Hellboy first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 in 1993, created by Mike Mignola and has appeared in hundreds of comic books since, as well as three live-action feature films – two starring Ron Perlman in 2004 and 2008, and one in 2019 which starred David Harbour.

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