Gros Noël

In the mid-1990s, French publisher Editions du Zebu released Gros Noël, a short-lived but distinctive three-issue series that reimagined the Santa Claus mythos with a darkly humorous, almost feral twist. This cult oddity strips away the jolly iconography, presenting a gritty, pre-modern Noel who is more a force of nature than a gift-giver. The series stands as a curious artifact of the European alternative comics scene, remembered for its raw, expressive art and its willingness to subvert a beloved holiday figure into something primal and unsettling.