Location: The Office

Here There Be Monsters

I’ve drawn weird monsters on bathroom signs in a couple of series now, and every time it’s because I’m imagining a fantasy map with “here there be dragons” written on it and applying that logic to toilet signs. I think I used it first in Hockeypocalypse, but regardless of which was first, it’s appeared in that and in Hell, Inc. In this week’s Patreon preview, I talked about how early the geography of the office was decided on, but how the reader gets that information much more slowly.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

“Game Time” Art Middleton is Employee of the Week! Follow him on Twitter, if that’s still a thing you do, 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 and read new strips early (see above!). It turns out that humans, like demons, need money to live! Me, specifically.

In other news, social media’s slow collapse strengthens the case for Top Webcomics. The Old Internet becomes the New Internet! Click the banner below to vote daily.

Next Week: Hey, so if you didn’t know WHERE the bathroom was… Read it early, and with author commentary, on Patreon!

The Judgement is Mandatory

Sideswiping Doug’s self-esteem is time honoured mid-strip joke, if time honoured such things. This week’s Patreon preview doesn’t talk about that. It instead talks about how sometimes I put a ton of work into a thing that I know nobody will see, and then fall ass-backwards into that ending up being worthwhile.

In other news, I’ve been deep in the project mines while I await the finalized version of an upcoming contract. BURGERPunk stretch goals have been on the frontburner (oh god why are there so many of them). I’ve also gotten back on my Rent-A-Thug shit, and have upgraded and prepped La Cosa Glasnostra for eventual print (sometime in 2024). It turns out that I just needed to get to the right part of the Creativity Wave, which for me goes “I just finished this thing and it’s amazing -> I can only see the things I’d do differently now -> there are flaws, but this is pretty good!” I need to be in the first or third stage to be in the headspace to get something prepped for release, but because La Cosa Glasnostra was a Webtoon contest entry, I landed in the second stage before I got to getting the print release ready.

I’m also working on making a video game version of the Spreadsheet Tetris that gets mentioned in Hell, Inc., but programming is hard, so that’s probably going to take a while even though all the art is done.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Leonardo is Employee of the Week! They supported the creation of Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, and helped make that book possible! You can do that with my next graphic novel, which I will be serializing on Patreon as well. Backers at the $5/month and up tiers will get a copy mailed to them when it’s finished! You can also help me out for as little as $1 a month, because that really adds up when enough people get involved.

You can help out Hell, Inc. for free by clicking the banner below to vote on Top Webcomics, which you can do daily! It helps make the comic more visible to webcomic readers.

Next Week: Sara asks the hard-hitting questions that make everyone else uncomfortable. Read it early on Patreon!

The Empty Cubicle

This week’s Patreon preview talks about the phenomenon where a piece of media advertises a mystery character death, and then it turns out to be a whole lotta nothing. Except in this case, I killed a “character” unadvertised to empty a desk. Real galaxy brain stuff.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Shane Lees is Employee of the Week! He has a webcomic, Tales of Abuse, which you can check out at his website. You should also check out the Hell, Inc. Patreon, which is my predictable form of income. One of these days it will replace the need to freelance! Not a SOON day, but one day!

You can help out Hell, Inc. for free by clicking the banner below to vote on Top Webcomics, which you can do daily! It helps make the comic more visible to webcomic readers.

Next Week: Have you heard that judgement is mandatory? Read it early on Patreon!

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!

Huffing Misery

You probably shouldn’t huff misery – like any inhalant, it will kill a whole lot of brain cells. Like sadness whippets. This week’s Patreon preview is about the amount of time it takes to make a comic compared to the amount of time it takes to read it.

This strip is the “Halloween” one, which I put in quotes because all of them and none of them could be considered Halloween-y. It’s a story where everyone is monsters, which is a point in favour of Halloween, but it also doesn’t really have what I would consider Halloween energy. I haven’t really thought about how Halloween might be reflected in Hell, Inc. Maybe I should? If nothing else, drawing everyone in dumb costumes might be fun.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Barrie Deatcher is Employee of the Week, and will get to read my next graphic novel as I draw it! It was intended to be Rent-A-Thug, but now it might end up being a different thing, depending on how some things pan out! Freelancing is chaos, as I often say, and part of that means pitching a lot of things, and almost all of them being rejected! In this specific case, it also means getting offered an illustration job completely unrelated to all of the work I’ve been doing on pitches. Patreon is my predictable source of income, and I would very much like it to grow to the point where I can get into a workflow of webcomic + graphic novel, without worrying about pitches and the publishing industry.

Remember Top Webcomics? That’s still a thing, so if you want to boost Hell, Inc. in the rankings and funnel some new readers in, click on the banner below. You can vote daily.

Next Week: Important Cerberus Update. Read it early on Patreon!

 

Office Raccoons

Office Raccoons could also be a desperate 2000s attempt to reboot The Raccoons by capitalizing on the popularity of The Office. It could also be a genuinely very funny comic about a Toronto overrun by raccoons to the point where they have just replaced humans entirely, which I kind of want to make. Add another project to the list of roughly 200 that I think would be fun.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

You, if you stopped by my table at Edmonton Expo! It’s always wonderful to be reminded that the numbers in the stats dashboard are, in fact, actual people reading the comic and not just algorithmic errors. If YOU want to be shouted out specifically as 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, go to Patreon! Supporting Hell, Inc./me on Patreon is an ideal way to ensure I can work on projects because they’re interesting instead of churning out pitches in hopes that one of the hundred or so people that can make the publishing industry pay me a livable amount of money do so.

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: Ray’s corporate family recipes. Read it early on Patreon.

Totally Under Control

Do I identify too much with Sara in this comic, but where the giant three-headed dog is life? MAYBE, WHATEVER, YOU’RE NOT MY THERAPIST.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Ben Hamlin, host of Syndicated with Lesley and Ben (among other casted pods), is Employee of the Week. You can check out the two episodes of Syndicated that I guested on to hear my talk with my meat voice about workplace comedies. I’m on the episodes about extremely well-crafted but under-remembered ’90s sitcom NewsRadio and 2010s stoner thing that loosely adheres to its premise, Workaholics. You can also hear me on it at some point in the near future talking about Hell, Inc. adjacent cartoon Ugly Americans! I’ll let you know when that happens.

In other news, Webtoon is running a contest called Call to Action, and I entered with the first Rent-A-Thug comic published since 2010! Please go check it out and like and comment, because audience interaction is part of the criteria (which I both understand fully and dislike tremendously). Click on the banner below to check it out!

Probably Not the Worst Job

I think it’s pretty reasonable to consider manual labour less bad than wrangling a giant demon dog who will almost certainly pee on you. Those of you who have read book version of Hell, Inc. Volume 1: Welcome to Hell… Inc. have seen Cerberus before, but the rest of you will be introduced to him soon enough.

Unrelated, but I’m always somewhat amused when a Hell, Inc. update coincides with a major Christian holiday. Even though Hell, Inc.’s version of Hell is far more influenced by depictions of Hell in popular culture than it is the Biblical conception of it, I’m tickled by the idea that someone could be going to an Easter service and reading about demons decorating for Hell’s Christmas party in the same day.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Azhar Baig is Employee of the Week, and has a podcast called The Wisdom of Love that you should check out. It’s a comedic recounting of the Great Western Philosophers. You, too, can support Hell, Inc. on Patreon, and also read my new graphic novel, Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, as I draw it!

As always, you can vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics to help it get in front of new readers! Click on the banner below to vote daily!

Next Week: The Arrivals department, where every soul passes through and nobody wants to return. Read it early on Patreon!

Voluntold

As I juggle projects like I’m in a circus, Hell, Inc. is being drawn week-to-week for the first time in… I don’t even know. I’ve had buffers as large as six months in the past, but taking other work has chipped that all the way down to nothing. I’m currently figuring out a schedule that will let me get the wheels in motion on several upcoming short-term projects while building a little bit of a buffer back up for Hell, Inc. It turns out that needing to write one script for pitching, one script for a Webtoon contest, the script for my next graphic novel, and put together Hockeypocalypse: Slashers for print proofing is A LOT OF THINGS.

Congratulations on Goran, by the way, for finally getting a name. He will no longer be referred to in the script as “the one-eyed guy with the rhino horn.” He doesn’t have a rhino-like horn, I don’t know why I describe it that way, but I almost always do.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Sebastian is Employee of the Week, and you can, too! Patreon is how I afford to draw Hell, Inc. without drowning in freelance work, and also how I’m funding the creation of Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, which you can read as I draw it! For $5/month or higher you can read Slashers and even commission art from me, but every patron is deeply appreciated, regardless of amount.

You can also continue to vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which a lot of you have been doing! Click on the banner below to vote daily.

Next Week: Is the worst job solely defined by amount of Cerberus pee involved? Find out on Patreon.

One of THOSE Jobs

You know THOSE jobs. The ones that people hear about and flee so fast that they leave nothing but a dust-ghost in their wake. The ones that are even shittier than the baseline of your normal tasks by incalculable orders of magnitude.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Jillian Dolan, artist of Kyle the Nihilist Dinosaur, Misha, and other delightful comics, is Employee of the Week! She has access to Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, my new graphic novel, which is being serialized on Patreon as I draw it! The first 5 pages are available on Patreon for free, and the rest are unlocked by donating at the $5 and up tiers. So go do that. Another freelance gig has concluded, which means Patreon money is the only predictable money contributing to this expensive-ass “being alive” thing.

You can vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which gets more eyeballs on it as it goes further up the ranking chart. Click on the banner below to vote daily!

Next Week: Sara must approach The Other Guys. Read it early on Patreon!