Location: The Lobby

But First, Cerberus

Sometimes I forget that Doris is the receptionist for the office, and can be used in that capacity for joke delivery purposes! It’s also fun to bring the janitors back, because I like drawing those green weirdos. They’re a department, like I.T., that could probably carry their own comic. Not them, specifically, because they’re barely characters, but I think the ideas of “I.T. Crowd but in Hell” or “demon janitors” have something to them as workplace comedies.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Sebastian is Employee of the Week, and you can, too! It’s how I have predictable money, which is both Cool and Good because we live in capitalist hell-world. If everyone who read the comic in a month chipped in $1, I’d be able to turn down most freelance work and focus on doing Hell, Inc. stuff and my own graphic novels! That would be preeeeetty cool. Especially now, because I am brooooke.

You can help Hell, Inc. for free by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which has been a great way to draw in new readers. Click the banner below to vote daily!

Next Week: And now, non-Cerberus business. Read it early on Patreon!

What IS New?

The preview post for this comic on Patreon talks at length about how my attitudes about my work processes have changed since I started making comics, and how that shows in the comics I make. You’re welcome, because the other option was going into way too much detail about how I did the receptionist’s speech balloon.

In other news, Edmonton Expo is this weekend, which really snuck up on me! I’ll be at table P09 on the Comic Creator wall of Hall H.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Cait is Employee of the Week, and will ALSO be at Edmonton Expo. Possibly at my table, but more likely with her sword fighting club. If YOU want to be Employee of the Week, and also help me keep making art you like instead of continuing to flail about in the chaos that is freelancing. Patreon is the most convenient way to do that, and you also get to see a bunch of cool art way before other people!

You can also help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which helps bring in new readers. Click on the banner below to vote daily!

Next Week: Doris the greeter. Read it early on Patreon.

Don’t Look at the Sun… er, Angels

The Kickstarter for Hell, Inc. The RPG is over, and it, quite frankly, staggeringly overperformed expectations. In an extremely funny turn of events, the Kickstarter for the RPG sold more copies of the Hell, Inc. Volume 1 and 2 comics than their own Kickstarter did. By A LOT.

The good news for you, the newspost reader, is that I don’t have any more campaigns to promote this year, so you’re back to the usual content of “stream-of-consciousness nonsense, Employee of the Week, Next Week on Hell, Inc.”

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Brien Aronov is Employee of the Week, and you can too! Get Employee of the Week shoutouts, read my next graphic novel as I draw it (more on that in the near future!) or commission digital art! All of those things also help provide a level of predictability to my income that basically doesn’t exist otherwise, because freelancing is chaos.

If you want to keep up with what I’m working on, what my friends are doing, and (most importantly) see cute photos of my pets, sign up for my monthly(ish) newsletter!

Next Week: What, you thought I’d talk about face melting and there would be no face melting? Read it early on Patreon!

The Angel of Face Melting

The Angel of Face Melting is like the Angel of Death, except you only die if face melting is fatal. So I guess what I’m saying is they’re basically the same thing? Who knows what I’m saying, I don’t. I just tabled at a convention for the first time in 3 years, and have spent 3 days straight talking to an almost unending tide of other humans. My brain is soup.

Hell, Inc. The RPG is only on Kickstarter until September 22nd, so get on board before the clock runs out! THREE stretch goals have been unlocked, and the fourth and final stretch goal is less than $700 away. The 200 backer mark is also within sight, and I would very much like to hit that. I won’t belabour all of the free additional content that every pledge is getting, but suffice to say it is an increasingly great deal with each stretch goal unlocked.

Click on the images, back the Kickstarter, play the RPG! Like the intramural slo-pitch tournament, it’s mandatory.

Not an Angel Drill

Angel drills must be like fire drills in Hell. They’re mostly nothing and everybody resents them, but occasionally they’re vitally important and nobody is ready in those circumstances. Actually that reminds me of a story from when I was a teacher – during my second round of student teaching, I’ve got a class in the computer lab and an alarm goes off. Okay, but I know what the fire alarm sounds like, and this is a different alarm. I have no idea what it’s for. I look over at my mentor teacher, and he just says “it means lockdown.” Oh, okay, that makes sense, those should be different alarms since they have opposite intentions. Here’s the thing, though – I have no idea what I’m supposed to do in a lockdown. Nobody has mentioned it prior to this alarm going off. He isn’t really saying anything, but then I look over at the kids and they’re all closing the windows and blinds, then they go under the computer desks. I look over at my mentor teacher and he points at the door, so I lock it. Then I’m just standing there with a dude in his mid-60s thinking about how if this was an actual danger situation and he had wandered out of the room (as he often did once he was comfortable with me being in charge), we would be fuuuuuucked.

Completely unrelated to me being a teacher with no training for emergency procedures, the Hell, Inc. The RPG Kickstarter continues to steamroll forward. The second stretch goal, The Soup Drawer, has been unlocked! This means that for a meager 5 Canadian dollars (or 12, for a print version of the Employee Handbook), backers will be receiving the 32 page (maybe more) Employee Handbook, which includes all the game rules, a PDF blank character sheet, 6 PDF pre-made characters for the pre-written adventure about paperwork errors warping reality (also a PDF), and a PDF Hell, Inc. themed soup recipe ‘zine. Substitutions will be provided for consumption by humans. Click on the images below to head to the Kickstarter page and back the project, because it’s rad and I want you to have that in your life.

Next Week: It turns out that angels don’t sound threatening unless you’re from Hell. Read it early on Patreon!

Wrong for the Job

Sara is far and away the most “silent film comedian” of the Hell, Inc. cast, as whenever somebody is doing broad, physical comedy it ends up being her. She is the Buster Keaton of having her face try to escape her body in a comic strip. I don’t think she’s competing with anybody for that title, mostly because I don’t know if people’s faces try to escape in other comic strips.

Speaking of faces trying to escape… nope, I don’t have a transition for this. Hell, Inc. The RPG is still going pretty strong on Kickstarter, and is nearing the second stretch goal, The Soup Drawer. What does that mean? It means Caitlin is writing a Hell, Inc.-themed soup recipe ‘zine, I will be illustrating it, and it will hopefully be pretty weird and funny. When that’s unlocked (at $2500), backers who pledge at the $5 CAD or higher tiers (ie. any tier other than the tip jar) will get The Soup Drawer PDF at no additional cost! Backers are already getting an additional adventure module about paperwork errors warping reality. I just ran that adventure at Rolling Tales in Edmonton as part of their 1 year anniversary celebration, and we had a blast! Click on the images below to check out the Kickstarter. It is mandatory.

Next Week: … angels!? Read it early on Patreon!

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is a very fun word to say, even if Doug apparently doesn’t know what it means. This strip means I’ve caught up with the buffer again, so I’m going to have to get back to the comic mines.

I’ve lately been spending almost all of my creative/work time in the RPG mines, which I didn’t expect to have such veins. As I mentioned last week, Hell, Inc. The RPG has launched on Kickstarter. This was a project undertaken on a whim and which we didn’t have huge aspirations for – the costs involved were pretty low, so we figured we’d recoup those pretty easily and then maybe hit the first stretch goal. Instead, it’s absolutely blowing away every crowdfunding thing I’ve done to a pretty comical degree. Not in terms of dollars, because the rewards aren’t that expensive, but the backer numbers are already nearing the most I’ve had one one project and it’s not even been a week. Is this being successful? If you haven’t, yet, click the images below to head over to the Kickstarter and check it out – it’s a very fun rules-lite RPG with a unique mediocrity-based dice mechanic.

Next Week: Sara plays motor oil mixologist. It goes as well as you think it will. Read it early on Patreon!

Excellent Taste

I don’t know why I decided that Stan’s costume would be part-CEO part-Napoleonic general, but I’m very pleased I made that decision because it is a lot of fun to draw. I don’t know why, but I always forget to draw his tail at first, though. Maybe just because I didn’t give most of the regularly appearing characters tails, so I forget they’re an option? Who knows.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Cait is Employee of the Week, and is also the co-author of the upcoming Hell, Inc. The RPG, which is based on the system she created for Fail Marines, our surprisingly successful debut in indie TTRPGs! The Hell, Inc. RPG is a 32 page full colour ‘zine with the full game system, loads of art, GM and setting development advice, and whatever the office-equivalent of an adventure is! Incidentally, if anyone has ideas for what an adventure module should be called in a game where you’re office drones battling demonic photocopiers instead of swinging swords at goblins, I would love to hear them! You can go to the pre-launch page to sign up for a notification when the campaign launches.

Speaking of being notified for things, click on the banner below to sign up for my monthly(ish) newsletter, where I talk about the various things I am getting up to, such as developing RPGs on the spur of the moment.

The Boot-lickening

One of my favourite ways for people to signal that I should not respect them is when they are shitty to anyone “below” them in whatever hierarchy they are part of, but a sniveling toad to anyone “above” them. I have seen this at comics industry parties and the secondhand embarrassment is STRONG.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

“Game Time” Art Middleton is Employee of the Week! Follow him on Twitter or check out his Twitch streams, OR… do both of those things.  Also, head over to the Hell, Inc. Patreon, where you can support the continued existence of your favourite office demons. It turns out that humans, like demons, need money to live! Me, specifically.

You can also sign up for my newsletter, where I just announced that Hell, Inc. The RPG will be part of Kickstarter ZineQuest, launching on August 23rd!

Next Week: Stan and B.L. Zebub have a stirring intellectual debate about the finer points of motor oil. Read it early on Patreon!

Butt-based Stealth

Butt-based stealth usually means “not farting,” so this is a new, dynamic approach to the topic.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Leonardo is Employee of the Week, and you can, too, by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon at the $2/month or higher levels!

You can also sign up for my newsletter, where I’ll be announcing a new Hell, Inc.-related projected later this week!

Next Week: Stan is back, and Satan-y-er than ever! I don’t know what that means, either. Read it early on Patreon!