The upcoming graphic adventure series Yuletide from creator/writer George Northy is almost a perfect confluence of elements for horror fans, and even before its release by Oni Press on the page, it’s being planned as a film by Valhalla Entertainment noted for The Walking Dead franchise.
Northy, whose comics credits include EC’s Shiver SuspenStories, joined artist Rachele Aragno (Mike Mignola’s Leonide the Vampire) to create the graphic tale.
It’s being described as “a fast-paced family adventure in the tradition of The Goonies, Goosebumps, and Hocus Pocus.”
Furthermore, it has “a horrifying holiday twist…ancient creatures let loose upon an idyllic Northeastern town at the height of the gift-giving season.” Only three teenagers interested in ancient holiday legends are capable of holding things unleashed “at bay with an ancient secret tied to the origins of the holiday itself.”
Northy – a writer/producer best known for his work on Charmed for The CW and his recent comics debut as part of Oni’s best-selling EC Comics relaunch – will produce and script the film adaptation as well. Gale Anne Hurd and Phillip Kobylanski will produce for Valhalla, alongside David Steward II, Hunter Gorinson, and Jeremy Colfer for Oni Press.
Northy fielded questions from Wicked Horror about the holiday scares in store.
WH: As mentioned in some of the promotional material, many darker elements of winter and holiday lore have been lost or forgotten. Was there any particular discovery that sparked the idea for Yuletide?
George Northy: For me, it was really the discovery that there were so many more of these dark Yuletide legends from different cultures beyond the best known Christmas monster, Krampus. In looking at them all, you see their connections and differences and it really hits home that while the Midwinter has always been a time of cheer and merriment, it’s also always been a time of fear, darkness and demons.
WH: Did you have to do any fresh research into the darker creatures associated with the holiday season? Were there any interesting discoveries?
George Northy: The thing that unlocked the whole story was the legend of Perchta. She’s evolved in so many ways over time, in some versions she’s a wicked German witch who slices open naughty children’s bellies and replaces their entrails with garbage…but in others she has origins as a Pagan goddess of winter and led this thing called The Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession of wild spirits and monsters haunting the night skies. That part of the story allowed me to connect all these different Yuletide folklore monsters from different cultures into one legend.
WH: Can you tell us a little about the protagonists of Yuletide?
George Northy: Our leads are a group of kids growing up in a Christmas-obsessed town called (naturally) Christmas, Pennsylvania. It’s loosely inspired by a real place called Bethlehem, PA. Jake, the lead character, is skeptical of all the ‘fakeness’ he believes surrounds the holidays, while his friends Abe and Wyn have their own unique perspectives on the Yuletide. When they try to uncover the hidden darkness buried under all the cheer, they accidentally unleash this horde of forgotten holiday horrors on their town.
WH: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Goonies have been mentioned as similar adventures to Yuletide. Do you have a favorite from that vein of horror/fantasy/adventure?
George Northy: I love pretty much everything across those genres, especially the works referenced above, because they knowingly play with and twist the tropes to tell new emotional stories. I think the dark 80s fantasy adventures like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and The Neverending Story are big influences on this tale as well.
WH: And what about the key antagonists in the tale. Can you give us a hint at some of the dark figures the young heroes encounter?
George Northy: Our kid heroes will face off against Pertcha, a cursed Yuletide witch with a magic dagger, and her Wild Hunt minions The Yule Cat, a gigantic child-hunting feline, Mari Lwyd, a rhyming horse-skull-wraith, 13 chaotic mischief-goblins called The Yule Lads…just to name a few.
WH: We think of the holiday season as fun and festive, but as you’ve mentioned, there can be pain and personal demons associated with the holidays. How did you set out to explore that in this title?
George Northy: That’s the central theme of our story. I realized the way these dark creatures have been buried under all the tinsel and cheer of the modern-day Yuletide, is the perfect metaphor for how we often have to bury our darker emotions around the holidays (especially if you happen to be visiting relatives who really push your buttons). In crafting this story, I wanted to make sure each human character had something in them that reflected this theme, each in a unique way.
WH: What was the visual development like on Yuletide. There must be a lot to draw on. How did you and Rachele Aragno go about defining the look you wanted for the series?
George Northy: I looked at any depictions of these creatures I could find and sent them all to Rachele, while talking with her about how we might put our own spin on each creature. Perchta for example, we wanted her to feel demonic, but instead of giving her goat-like devil horns, we thought adding stag horns to her design would speak to her connections to winter and the Yuletide.
WH: What do you hope for in seeing the series adapted to film?
George Northy: Right now, we are focused on making this comic the best it can be, but we are also exploring paths forward in film – it could be animation or a combination of live action & CGI or we might even lean into the old school puppetry of Jim Henson in the 80s and really pay homage to those classics. Whichever direction we go, our hope is this could be a holiday classic that’s rewatched every December.