As befitting a story that takes place at the coldest and bleakest time of year, The Yule Cat is unsurprisingly set in Iceland, as it draws heavily from, and on, the festive folklore of said nation, and a particularly grizzly aspect of it that involves a giant cat and the consumption of idle children. The legend of the Jólakötturinn is a tale passed down through the generations in order to, as are most myths that are entwined with the gruesome fates that await the indolent and disrespectful, scare youngsters in an attempt to encourage them to walk the straight and narrow path to adulthood. But sometimes, the fiction in the dark fables whispered to children late at night to ensure their acquiescence can become all too real as Hellboy discovers when he comes face to face with The Yule Cat.

In twenty two pages, the blink of an eye in the four colour realm, Matt Smith manages to tell a ripping yarn that incorporates the aforementioned legend, Norse mythology and a battle of epic proportions with the denizens of the Icelandic wastes who are, to this day, pacified by, and kept alive in the minds of, the people of Iceland. Smith’s art reflects his epic, concise and direct storytelling, dialogue and characterisation perfectly, and he is responsible for bringing to life, and unleashing on the world, a Hellboy one shot that is destined to take its place in the Halls of Valhalla, where the mightiest tales of Big Red live forever. Það er jólakraftaverk… Tim Cundle