So I had this weird idea for a Hellboy Christmas story in that haze between sleep and wakefulness, the nuances of which were almost all fully formed when it came to me, the plot of which was fairly simple: Father Christmas enlists Hellboy's expertise as fighter of the forces of evil to help rescue children from Krampus, the germanic Yuletide demon, and save Christmas in the process.
boom.
I'm about halfway through a draft right now, and though I know I will never get around to illustrating it before this Christmas comes, it's the sort of thing that might make a cool Christmas 'card' next year.
At any rate, this is just a link dump of the research sites in the tabs I have open. Submitted for your approval:
St. Nicholas (wikipedia)
Father Christmas (wikipedia)
Krampus (wikipedia)
Noel (wikipedia)
Amulet (....wikipedia...)
Ephesia Grammata (yup...wikipedia...)
Magic (yeah...you guessed it...)
seal of St. Nicholas (google image search)
Medieval Christmas Traditions
Fairy Tale Channel
Who was St. Nicholas?
Also, there's an elf named Tollenbeck, the ghost of a thief indentured to St. Nick, and a few various demonic associates of Krampus.
The only thing that irks me a bit is that it's a Hellboy story and I'm not a professional, which means....this is basically 'fan-fiction.' And that term makes me want to vomit, a little bit. But pairing Hellboy with Santa to go up against Krampus is just a little too perfect, it almost writes itself. A very preliminary google search tells me it hasn't been written yet, so...there ya go.
Anyway, enjoy the links.
Merry Christmas.
-P
