Visual Learner
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Visual Learner

The Patreon preview for this strip is about not remembering which jokes were in short stories that most of the audience didn’t read! It’s fine, it makes sense without that knowledge.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

In a break from tradition, the Employee of the Week isn’t a bit, I actually hired somebody to do website work. Christian DeWolf of Shellscript.ca came on board and did a great job of fixing a bunch of site issues that had accumulated, and also made it so more people will actually see these newsposts, which is very helpful. If you need web development services, I highly recommend reaching out to Christian!

Relatedly, such services cost money, so if you want to kick in a buck or two to the Patreon, that would be very helpful! Patron support pays for things like “the website existing” and once that’s covered, “thing I need to live.”

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. It’s a new month, which means the rankings have reset and votes are worth more (relatively speaking). Click the banner below to vote daily!

Next Week: Did Helen take any actual notes? We find out! Read it early on Patreon!

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The Hell Blog

LIVE on Kickstarter – Rent-A-Thug – La Cosa Glasnostra

Exciting news, folks – I’ve been preparing my first comic in nearly two years for print, and it’s on Kickstarter RIGHT NOW!

Rent-A-Thug – La Cosa Glasnostra is a one-shot comic story for mature readers. It is the standalone story of arms dealers Rastovich and Red Ilsa trying to buy weapons looted from the former Eastern Bloc’s arsenal, and the ensuing bloodbath when that goes awry. Can their love survive betrayals and hails of gunfire, or will they drown in the sea of blood they’ve created?  Rent-A-Thug began in 2005 as a comic strip in the University of Alberta newspaper, The Gateway. It ran until 2010, with hundreds of strips and pages of blood-soaked mayhem. Now, nearly 20 years later, it returns with La Cosa Glasnostra. A Rent-A-Thug graphic novel is currently in the works, and La Cosa Glasnostra is the first work paving the way for that book, aiming to reinvent the visual style and reintroduce readers to the world.La Cosa Glasnostra draws inspiration from numerous sources, including Grand Theft Auto IV; movies like Lord of War, Robocop, Tokyo Gore Police, and Snatch; and comics like Black Lagoon and Gunsmith Cats.

Production on the book is already COMPLETE – it’s ready to send to the printer as soon as the Kickstarter campaign wraps and I know how many I need to print.

I hope you’ll check it out – it’s a big stylistic stretch, and I’m really excited for people to read it and see what they think. Click on the cover, or pages below, to check it out!

*the pages below are not in sequence, they’re taken from throughout the comic

Rent-A-Thug Coming to Kickstarter June 18th!

On June 18th, the first new Rent-A-Thug since 2010 is coming to print!

Rent-A-Thug – La Cosa Glasnostra is a one-shot comic story for mature readers. It is the standalone story of arms dealers Rastovich and Red Ilsa trying to buy weapons looted from the former Eastern Bloc’s arsenal, and the ensuing bloodbath when that goes awry. Can their love survive betrayals and hails of gunfire, or will they drown in the sea of blood they’ve created?

It will be launching on Kickstarter, and delivering in September. Options available to backers will include digital and print copies of La Cosa Glasnostra, art commissions from me, and digital (and some print) copies of many of my past projects! Please sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter launches, because having a lot of followers on it is helpful for algorithmic reasons I don’t understand.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffmartin/rent-a-thug-la-cosa-glasnostra-one-shot

Art Gallery of Alberta’s Comic & Zine Fair 2024

The Art Gallery of Alberta is doing their 3rd Annual Comic & Zine Fair on April 13-14, and I’m going to be there!

It’s free to attend, so drop by the AGA and check out myself and a whole bunch of other vendors with cool comics, zines, and art! I’ll have copies of the Hockeypocalypse series, , both Hell, Inc. books plus the RPG, both Redcoats-ish books, BURGERPunk, GWAR, and other stuff! No, I cannot remember which books in my catalogue are still in print off the top of my head anymore. Click the image below to check out the AGA’s site and get more info on the vent!

Last Chance to Vote!

Voting for the Sequential Magazine Awards closes at midnight Eastern time on March 31st, so if you haven’t voted yet, get to it! I’ve been nominated in the Favourite Cartoonist category! The Sequential awards are intended to recognize Canadian indie comics. Please go vote (for me, specifically), because I would very much like to win. Click on the image below to be taken to the landing page with the nominees and the link to the voting form (you can vote in as many or as few categories as you want).

Sequential Award Voting is Open!

I’ve been nominated for a Sequential Magazine Award in the Favourite Cartoonist category! The Sequential awards are intended to recognize Canadian indie comics. Please go vote (for me, specifically), because I would very much like to win. Click on the image below to be taken to the landing page with the nominees and the link to the voting form (you can vote in as many or as few categories as you want). Voting is done by comics fans, and is open until midnight Eastern on March 31.

Play Space Jerks on itch.io!

My first video game, Space Jerks, is now available to play on itch.io! You have the option of playing for free in your browser, or naming your own price (including free) to download a copy!

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Space Jerks is the result of me learning how to make video games, and deciding to make an arcade shooter in the vein of Space Invaders. It’s got entirely hand-drawn art, and I also did the foley on the sound effects myself! Play Space Jerks! Do it now!

SPACE JERKS, aka the Video Game I Made

That’s right, I made a video game! The TL:DR is that patrons can download it, and anyone who becomes a patron at $1/month or above can download it. Right now! Click on the image below to go to Patreon, where you can find the post with the file and a free post talking about how I ended up making a video game at all, and how I landed on making “cooler looking Space Invaders.”

Space Jerks is fully hand-drawn, features sound effects that I foley’d myself, and music by Not Jam. It supports keyboard and controller control schemes, and even saves your high score! I want to hear what folks’ high scores are, that stuff is fun. Also let me know if you find any bugs, because my quality assurance department is me, and me using my wife’s computer. It’s not a huge sample size.

PLAY SPACE JERKS

Gameplay still from Space Jerks!

itch.io Creator Day and Global Comix Black Friday Sale!

It’s Creator Day at itch.io, where several of my works are available! It’s also Global Comix’ Black Friday Sale, where all six volumes of Hell, Inc. are available! That’s a bunch of things, so let me break those down a bit.

Creator Day at itch is when 100% of the proceeds from each sale go to the creator, with itch.io forgoing their usual cut. My work on itch includes Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, Hell, Inc. the RPG, Fail Marines, and the first two Hell, Inc. volumes!

Over on Global Comix, you can read Hell, Inc. in app form, and also buy PDFs of all six volumes! They’re available individually or as a bundle, and 30-35% off for Black Friday weekend! The sale ends Monday, November 27 at 11:59 PM. Hell, Inc. was recently featured in their Popular Last Week roundup.

Edmonton Expo, Sept 15-17

I will once again be at Edmonton Expo, Edmonton’s largest comics/entertainment/general pop culture convention. If you’re there too, you should stop by table P09 on the Comic Creator guest wall and say hi, and pick up some books or prints while you’re there! Don’t worry about the actual table number, just go to the wall where all the comic creator guests are and keep going until you see a banner with my name on it in big letters.

Yar, tis a map to treasure, and by treasure I mean books I drew.