Comicon Advent Calendar 2024 Day 13 — ‘Hellboy: The Yule Cat’

There’s nothing more seasonal than a giant red demon that’s also the Right Hand of Doom, right? Well, for today’s Comicon Advent Calendar, we take a look at one of Hellboy’s seasonal adventures.

One of the best things about the current era of Hellboy is Mike Mignola allowing his collaborators to fill in the gaps of story between World War II and the first ongoing stories of the series. Hellboy: The Yule Cat is exactly one of those stories from Matt Smith, Chris O’Halloran, and Clem Robins.

A gut feeling leads Hellboy to Reyjkavik, Iceland, where he reconnects with an old friend. He soon hears whispers of a giant cat, matching the Icelandic legend of the Yule Cat, that has scared residents of the small country- perhaps even eating some people. Hellboy goes looking for the creature, and naturally finds himself in a lot of trouble.

I picked up with one-shot last year because of a familial connection to Iceland, and I was glad for it. It was a great little one-off that linked to a fun, and creepy, regional holiday legend.