Character: Bridget

Pretend Rummaging

The last Hell, Inc. strip of 2019! I kind of want to make a “Property of Hell, Inc. Mandatory Athletics Department” t-shirt, which I now have the capability to do because I have a Teepublic store. Leave a comment or send me an email or whatever if that’s a thing you’d be interested in.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Brien Aronov is Employee of the Week, and so can you! If you think what I do here with Hell, Inc. is worth a buck, you can be shouted out as Employee of the Week upon joining the Hell, Inc. Patreon. At $2 or higher, you enter the regular rotation. Got a thing to promote? I’ll link to it in your shoutout.

If you’re broke, like your corporate overlords desire you to be, you can help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which helps bring in new readers. Votes are even more valuable early in the month, so vote early and often in 2020!

Next Week: Back in the office, where things will assuredly be better. Read it early on Patreon!

Nuclear Fishin’

It took me a really long time to decide what Steve was going to be talking about when he said “I know that (blank) exists. I don’t know how it works.” That was supposed to be the punchline at the end of the strip, but nothing I was thinking of was funny enough to justify that. Eventually I realized that I needed to have Steve follow up that line with something else, and that let everything fall into place. Adding that extra panel made the dialogue feel more authentic to Steve’s character AND made it more interesting. This has been “Jeff waxes about his creative process and also about how great he is.”

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Brien Aronov is this week’s Employee of the Week! If you park in his space, he’s legally allowed to replace one of your bones with a swarm of bees. If you want to be Employee of the Week and threaten your co-workers with osseous violence, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon. It’s how I make money on this thing so I can do more of it instead of spending all my time on freelance work.

Votes on Top Webcomics are worth EVEN MORE early in the month! Click on the link below to help Hell, Inc. be seen by more webcomic readers!

Next Week: A journey of learning. Go on it with Sara, and do it a week early by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon!

Hats, Crushers of Emotions

I think the hardest thing for me, as far as storytelling in Hell, Inc., is the way I handle Doug and Bridget’s… whatever their chemistry is. Trying to find the correct amount of subtlety when I know a whole bunch of information that the audience doesn’t, and how to convey that information mostly non-verbally, is very challenging. In general, the most difficult thing that an author does is figuring out what, of the information they have about a story, is necessary for the audience, and then how clearly that’s being presented without feeling like an info-dump.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Shout out to Employee of the Week Joe Amon! Thanks for reading, and extra thanks for helping finance this rickety operation/Satanic megacorporation. Which I think is a regular megacorporation, unless you’re using Satanic as a proper noun for the religion. If you want to be Employee of the Week, you too can help finance your favourite megacorporation. That’s me, by the way, not Amazon or Google or whatever. Patreon. Money. Me. Fuck sentences.

As always, if you can’t help out monetarily because capitalism has squeezed too much out of you, you can support Hell, Inc. by upvoting it on Top Webcomics. A large number of the new readers I get come from there, and more votes mean that more potential new readers see it. Click the banner to vote.

Next Week: Sara goes on a journey of knowledge. Find out what she learns right now by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon!

All Practice All The Time

ALL PRACTICE ALL THE TIME MAKES BEELZY A PRACTICED BOY. ALL PRACTICE ALL THE TIME MAKES BEELZY A PRACTICED BOY.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Long-term employee Damion is Employee of the Week! Make sure you don’t park in his space. If you want to be Employee of the Week, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon!

As always, if you want to support Hell, Inc. but can’t afford the Patreon, vote for the comic on Top Webcomics! It’s a great source of new readers, and more votes gives it more visibility. Click on the banner below to vote!

Next Week: Team spirit! Join the team of Hell, Inc. Patreon supporters to read it early!

Summoned

There tend to be gaps in drawing Hell, Inc. strips. Typically I’ll draw 3-5 strips in a week or 10 days, then have to take a break to work on something else – commissions, other comics, boring business stuff, etc. Sometimes those breaks are short. If I’m doing a commission, for example, it might only take a day or two. Other times, those breaks are pretty long, like the two months I spent drawing pages for the new GWAR: The Enormogantic Fail graphic novel. The first strip I draw when I come back from a break is always an interesting experience. Aside from reacquainting myself with storytelling in the horizontal format, how I draw the characters and how I approach the compositions is always a little different. That’s mostly due to art being a skill that evolves over time – when I do a different project, I learn new things and hone skills I already have, so when I come back to something that I’ve worked on over a long period of time, my technique is a bit different. This is all a more-detailed-than-necessary lead-up to saying that starting with a bird’s eye view of the office, where there are many characters and a whole bunch of background objects, was perhaps a more challenging choice than it needed to be.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

The Employee of the Week section is back to normal, post-Kickstarter. BUT, we do have a nice segue between the two, as I welcome new patron Barrie Deatcher, who is also a Kickstarter backer. Welcome, Barrie, and also welcome to the new readers that have discovered the comic as a result of the Kickstarter. If you want to be Employee of the Week, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon – it’s how I keep money coming in so I can cut down on the amount of freelance work I need to take on. Given the amount of freelance work I’ve done this year, it is not working haha.

Another great way to support Hell, Inc. is by upvoting it on Top Webcomics. It’s been the largest source of new readers by a pretty substantial margin, and higher rankings = more new readers. Click on the banner to vote, and make a habit of it – you can vote once a day!

Next Week: Everything that is fun is also mandatory, right? That makes sense. Read it early on Patreon!

Ghost Butts

Sometimes I get to do really stupid things in a comic, and those are almost always my favourite things. For example, using the phrase “ghost butts” in a dramatic context. I also sometimes forget to update the comic on Monday morning because I forget what day it is, which is what happened today. It turns out going to an outdoor concert for like 8 hours on a Friday really screws up my sense of what day it is. On the plus side, I got to see GWAR, Slayer, and Disturbed from the VIP section, so that ruled.

Speaking of music, I’m putting together a Spotify playlist for Hell, Inc. If you’ve got music suggestions for it that fit with the theme of the comic, leave a comment here or hit me up on Twitter.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

This week’s Employee of the Week is Brien Aronov! He, along with the other Patreon patrons, will be getting access to a cool piece of Hell, Inc. short fiction written by my partner Caitlin. I’m continuing my efforts to figure out how to overhaul the Patreon to make it more appealing and provide more content without taking away from time spent on the actual comic. You can support those efforts by chipping in a few bucks to the Hell, Inc. Patreon, which keeps the lights on over here (sort of literally, the Patreon money tends to go directly to bills).

As always, supporting Hell, Inc. for free is also appreciated – go upvote Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics to bring in new readers.

Next Week: How to make a riot riot-ier. That’s a word now, shut up. Check it out early on Patreon.

Satan Give Me Health Insurance

I feel like Satan Give Me Health Insurance merch might do really well. Thoughts? Is that something you’d be interested in? I’ve been kicking around a bunch of ideas for Hell, Inc. merch, but I haven’t been able to get a good handle on what I think people would actually want. In art-related news, the third panel was a nightmare to colour. There are at least three layers of different shades of green creating the miasma of horrors that is B.L. Zebub’s computer usage.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Joe Amon is Employee of the Week! Please make good use of the Employee of the Week parking spot. If you want to be Employee of the Week, or just help add some stability to my financial health, which allows me to do the comic, donate to the Hell, Inc. Patreon page.

As always, supporting Hell, Inc. for free is also appreciated – go upvote Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics. Readership has expanded substantially since the comic has been on Top Webcomics, and that all comes from your votes boosting it up the rankings for better visibility.

Next Week: Gas leak. Read it early by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon!

Nom Nom Nom

I write this after spending 10 of the last 11 days on the road doing the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and Auroracon up in High Level, AB, and HOLY SHIT I’M SO TIRED. Like, I’m the kind of tired that makes it seem like being this tired is a superpower. Charles Xavier is out there looking for me to join the X-Men as “guy who is so tired he feels like he’s astral projecting into a different reality.”

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Me, for still being awake to write this, and for being recruited to join the X-Men. The guinterns are complaining that they haven’t been chosen yet, but there’s still a lot of excess hay in the office that needs dealing with. If they can drive some subscriptions to the Hell, Inc. Patreon, maybe they’ll get that coveted Employee of the Week spot.

Not everyone has disposable income to help guinea pigs achieve their dreams, but you DO have the ability to click the banner below and vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which helps new readers find the comic. You should do that. Frequently.

Next Week: Steve’s got jokes. They’re not funny, but he’s got ’em. Find out what they are a week early by supporting the Hell, Inc. Patreon.

Are Glass Chips Not Food?

There’s a silly little callback in this strip that I love and nobody is going to notice, so I’m going to point it out. In the strip Never Stop Screaming, Bridget references Harry having left an entire goat head in the fridge. I don’t know why I remembered that when I went to draw the contents of the fridge, but I did. So now you know that. Also, if you caught that without me pointing it out, I kind of want to hear you point out all the little things you’ve noticed about the comic, because I rarely find out which things people catch and which ones they don’t.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Since his last appearance as Employee of the Week, Robbie Dorman has published a novel! Check out his novelatory debut, Conquest, available in ebook or paperback format from Amazon. The employees at Hell, Inc. are a creative bunch, I tell ya. If you want me to tell readers to buy your book, support the Hell, Inc. Patreon and finance things like “paying my mortgage” and “eating.”

If you want to support Hell, Inc. for free, vote for it on Top Webcomics. The comic has only been on there for a month or so, but the daily average readership has increased by like 10x. It’s ridiculous. So let’s see how high we can get that number.

Next Week: Don’t eat the glass. It’s glass. Read it early on Patreon!

Workin’ Hard or Hardly Workin’?

I think my favourite thing about Steve is that he gives me carte blanche to write dumb, hacky jokes and have them work within the context of the comic without seeming out of place.

Also, welcome to those of you who’ve checked out Hell, Inc. as a result of Emerald City Comic Con! I gave away a ton of bookmarks, and have seen the numbers spike pretty heavily over the course of the weekend.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Damion is Employee of the Week!  YOU could also be Employee of the Week, and if you’ve got something to plug, get your links shared with the webcomic-reading public for $2 over at the Hell, Inc. Patreon!

Next Week: Canadian standoff. Read it early on Patreon!