Character: Harry

Immediate Regret

It’s Victoria Day in Canada, which means a long weekend which always screws up my routines for remembering to update. Could I load a bunch of posts in advance and not have to worry about that? Probably. Am I going to? Probably not. Much like how watching the NHL playoffs has made me furiously angry, but will I keep watching the Oilers next season? Yes. Will I do so while wallowing in self-loathing? Probably. If you want to check out the product of the last time I was in this headspace, go read the Hockeypocalypse books. People aware of the origins of the series will not be shocked to learn I’ve been writing a new volume.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Sebastian is Employee of the Week, and will be one of the first to have access to Hell, Inc. Volume 5: Overtime later this week, as I’m in the process of finishing that up. You can get that AND access to over a thousand pages of other comics, including the aforementioned Hockeypocalypse series, for as little as $1 a month on Patreon and ALSO help support me, the creator of said comics, because apparently humans need money to live.

You can also vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which brings in more new readers than any other avenue thus far. Click the banner below to vote daily!

Next Week: Mistakes were made, and their consequences have become clear. Read it early on Patreon!

Worst Person in Hell

One thing I’ve learned while working on Hell, Inc. is that a handful of the characters are a huge pain in the ass to colour because they have way more colours than everyone else. Willis is one of those characters. I’m glad he’s not really a character who pops up in backgrounds.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Jillian Dolan, artist of Kyle the Nihilist Dinosaur, Misha, and other delightful comics, is Employee of the Week! She is one of the folks with exclusive early access to the digital edition of Hell, Inc. Volume 4: Mandatory and will be receiving a digital copy of Hell, Inc. Volume 5: Overtime when it’s done in two weeks or so. Support Hell, Inc. on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you, too, can have early access to every Hell, Inc. book and over a thousand pages of other comics!

You can also help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which boosts the comic’s visibility and helps bring in new readers. You can vote daily by clicking on the banner below!

Next Week: The party planning binder is… maybe a bit excessive. Read it early on Patreon!

Terrible Step-stool

It turns out that humans are not actually good step-stools, especially when they are much smaller than you are.

You’ve probably seen it on the site or on social media by now, but Hell, Inc. has been nominated for an award! It’s up for Best Webcomic in the Sequential Magazine Awards (which are for Canadian independent comics), which is very cool. The winner is voted for by you, the people, and you can vote by clicking the image below! I would really appreciate it if you did that, because winning things rules and I want an award to put in my office (the last one I won saw the company shut down before they sent me my plaque).

If you want to check out the nominees in the other categories, many of whom are friends and acquaintances of mine, check out the full nominee list by clicking here.

Employee of the Week returns next week when I have my shit together and remember to prep the update ahead of time like normal.

Next Week: Even the good news is bad news. Read it early on Patreon!

Champions of Unpaid Overtime

It was my birthday yesterday, which feels like more of an achievement in pandemic world than it has in the past. It was a pretty good birthday, all things considered – the Oilers and Raptors both won, I got an awesome piece of art as a gift (which you can see on my Twitter). While being a truly bizarre year of existence, 2020 was actually pretty good for my cartooning career, and you’ll be seeing some of the results of that later this year.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Ben Hamlin is Employee of the Week. You can find Ben’s podcasts/streams on the Infinity Break Network! He also has access to Hell, Inc. Volume 4: Mandatory, and you can too if you head over to the Hell, Inc. Patreon page and chip in as little as $1/month! Patrons have access to both the third and fourth Hell, Inc. print books in their digital form, including exclusive short stories in each, and over 1000 pages of other digital comics!

It’s the beginning of the month, which means votes on Top Webcomics are worth a lot more as the rankings reset monthly. It’s the primary source of new readers for Hell, Inc., so vote early and often! You can vote daily by clicking on the banner below.

Next Week: The most diabolical punishment revealed. Read it early on Patreon!

Emotional Growth?

B.L. Zebub having a temper tantrum is always a lot of fun to write and draw. Much more fun than actual bosses having temper tantrums.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Welcome Shane Lees, our new Employee of the Week! He’s one of the first to have access to Hell, Inc. Volume 4: Mandatory because he supports Hell, Inc. on Patreon, but YOU CAN, TOO! If you want access to digital copies of Hell, Inc. books 3 and 4, plus over a thousand pages of other comics, you can get that for as little as $1 while also helping keep the mortgage paid on the Hell, Inc. offices by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon.

You can also help out by voting for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which is a prime source of new readers! You can vote once per day to boost the comic’s visibility on the rankings. Vote by clicking on the banner below.

Next Week: Turning despair into despair-aie. You don’t want to meet the Despaire-Aid Man. Read it early on Patreon!

Champions

Welcome to the 666th (maybe? I dunno, we lost count) Annual Mandatory Intramural Slo-Pitch Tournament. Catchy name, right? I thought so.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Robbie Dorman, host of The Simpsons Show podcast, is Employee of the Week. He’s also one of the co-hosts of new podcast Cartoon Graveyard, on which I was the first guest! We talked about The Mighty Ducks animated series from 1996-7 and discussed whether it should be reincarnated or buried, and it was a lot of fun. If you like fun, you probably also want to be Employee of the Week and help Hell, Inc. continue existing by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon. All new patrons are receiving a digital copy of Hell, Inc. Volume 3: Team-building Exercise, as well as access to a Dropbox folder with over 1000 pages of digital comics!

You can also help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which brings in loads of new readers! Votes early in the month (like, say, now) are worth extra as the rankings reset.

Next Week: Stan is the Man. Or whatever you would call an incarnation of evil? Read it early on Patreon!

Forgot How to Chair

Remembering how to chair is a very important part of everyday life. I’m chair-ing right now as I type this update. I was chairing earlier as I was painting plastic Space Marines, which I have been doing quite frequently lately. I’ve also gotten a handful of Hell, Inc. strips drawn that I wasn’t expecting to have time for. I think I’ve been able to apply some of the stuff I’ve learned from the book project I’m contracted on to Hell, Inc., which has been kinda cool.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Sylvia Douglas is Employee of the Week. She has a whole bunch of projects on the go as a writer, film-maker, and waffle connoisseur, which you can check out from her website.  If you think what I do here with Hell, Inc. is worth a buck, head over to the Hell, Inc. Patreon. New patrons receive the third Hell, Inc. book, “Team-building Exercise,” which isn’t available anywhere else (and won’t be until whenever the next print book Kickstarter happens at some point in the future). There are also over a thousand pages of other comics available to patrons, so check those out. Patreon. Go there.

You can also help out Hell, Inc. by clicking on the banner below to vote on Top Webcomics, which is the number one source of new readers for the comic.

Next Week: Can you scheme somewhere else? It’s distracting. Read it early on Patreon!

The Bad Chair

Early in working on Hell, Inc. I solicited weird office stories from my friends who work in offices, and the bad chair comes from one of those. Caitlin had her chair swapped at some point while she was out of the office, and realized pretty quickly that the new one was broken and hurting her back. After a week or so of scouting the office for unused chairs, she found one that was unattended and swapped it with the bad chair. And thus I had a very silly subplot that would prove to be totally obnoxious to draw.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Azhar is Employee of the Week, and has come to us via some crossover from the Lions Led by Donkeys podcast, which I’ve done some art for this year. Do you want a drawing of Napoleon as a donkey riding backwards on a confused horse? Well because of LLbD, you can do that. Do you want to help support Hell, Inc.? You can do that, too! If you think what I’m doing here is worth a dollar, you can support Hell, Inc. on Patreon to get early access to each strip and a digital copy of Hell, Inc. Volume 3: “Team-building Exercise!”

You can also help me out by voting for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which is the largest source of new readers for the comic. It’s early in the month, so votes are worth more as the rankings reset and the playing field is leveled. Click the banner below to vote!

Next Week: The Saga of the Bad Chair continues. Read it early by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon!

Too Much? Too Much

“We need a six out of ten, and you’re giving us a fifteen, so maybe let’s dial it back a little?” Also I am not at all going to miss drawing the practice calendar in the background, because it always ends up making things take longer.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Jillian Dolan is Employee of the Week! You should check out the comics she’s drawn, Kyle the Nihilist Dinosaur and Misha. We also just took the same digital colouring class last weekend, although you won’t see any of the things I learned from it in Hell, Inc. in the near future, because I’m like 30 strips ahead right now. If you want to help out your favourite independent artist/fake megacorporation, be like Jillian and support Hell, Inc. on Patreon. New patrons will be receiving a digital copy of Hell, Inc. book 3, “Team-building Exercise,” as well as over a thousand pages of other comics.

You can also support Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, because that’s the largest source of new readers for the comic. You can vote daily by clicking on the banner below!

Next Week: Sara’s enthusiasm continues to be mismatched to the situation. Read it early on Patreon!

Drag Me to Hell (from Elsewhere in Hell)

Having just lettered a later page in the series (the as-yet-untitled strip #134) and completely botched the balloon spacing to the point that I had to change font sizes to make things fit, I have no idea how I managed to leave the exact right amount of space in the last panel of this strip. Spacing weird balloons like that is much harder than spacing the normal ones, and somehow I got that one right.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Welcome new Employee of the Week, Christine! Christine is the artist behind Purple Pony Art, and is among the folks to have access to Hell, Inc. Volume 3: Team-Building Excercise well before the general populace! As a special thanks to the Patrons who are supplying my only income during the COVID crisis, the third Hell, Inc. book will be available to all Patrons at every support level. It won’t be made available otherwise until the next Kickstarter (for books 3 and 4). If you want to help support Hell, Inc., head over to the Patreon. Every dollar helps (a lot), and during quarantine/social-distancing all patrons will receive a Dropbox link with over a thousand pages of comics to pass the quarantime.

You can also vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which is the largest source of new readers for the site. More votes = more readers, so please do that.

Next Week: The floor is lava! Kind of literally! Read it early on Patreon!