Character: Helen

Hard to Get

Deciding on Helen’s character being “drunk chaos gremlin” was the most important element to making the O’Hellihan’s half of this volume come together. Whenever I needed something to move scenes along or punch up a strip, I could rely on Helen. She really became the driver of the second half of the book. Also, I’m talking about the story as a book because I’m starting to plan the big Hell, Inc. print collection, which will include 300 strips. It’s probably going to have two strips stacked on each page (like newspaper strip collections often do), because a 3.5″x8″ format probably can’t handle being 3″ thick. Maybe in hardback, but it seems like that would be an unpleasant reading experience, ergonomically. More thought will go into that in the next few months.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Ben Hamlin, host of Syndicated with Lesley and Ben (among other casted pods), is Employee of the Week. I’ve been a guest on several episodes, most recently the strange and Hell, Inc.-esque animated comedy Ugly Americans – a short-lived series that never quite reached the potential of its premise. I’m also on the episodes about extremely well-crafted but under-remembered ’90s sitcom NewsRadio and 2010s stoner thing that loosely adheres to its premise, Workaholics. I’ll also be returning on their new season about crime shows, discussing the shockingly good Star Wars spinoff Andor.

Patreon! It’s a predictable source of income, so if you like things that I do, check it out.

Also check out the newsletter, which is how to hear about what I’m up to without needing to subject yourself to things like Twitter.

You can also support Hell, Inc. for free by telling your friends about it, because that is infinitely better than any promotion I can do. Also voting on Top Webcomics by clicking the banner below is very helpful!

Next Week: Does Drunk Santa reciprocate Helen’s feelings? Does Drunk Santa HAVE feelings? Read it early on Patreon!

Keep Dancing Until Santa Replaces Your Blood

If you stop dancing, Santa won’t replace your blood, and you… need that? Your blood? Or your blood replaced? Those are the only two states of blood, I think, but I’m not a doctor. I DO say “Bye, everybody!” like Dr. Nick on a pretty regular basis, though, which makes me an equivalent level of doctor.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Robbie Dorman is Employee of the Week. He is co-host of The Simpsons Show, the only podcast about The Simpsons, and also the only podcast about The Simpsons that I have done a guest spot on. You should also follow him on Twitter to learn about his new novel releases. He writes that good good scary shit. Indie artists need your support now more than ever, so check out his stuff!

Also check out my Patreon, because if everyone who reads Hell, Inc. on a monthly basis kicked in $1, I’d be able to cut my freelancing schedule to nearly nil, and focus on the things you already like (Hell, Inc., and presumably other comics I make without bothering to consider whether they suit the publishing zeitgeist).

You can also support Hell, Inc. for free by telling your friends about it, because that is infinitely better than any promotion I can do. Also voting on Top Webcomics by clicking the banner below is very helpful!

Next Week: Helen continues to be ON ONE, and it gets weird(er). Read it early on Patreon!

Sobering Sponge

Sponges – for when you need to absorb things in your stomach, and also are a demon and already eat garbage and poison.

Also, some of you read this on Sunday, because I don’t know what time is and scheduled it for the wrong date. I also texted a friend of mine to ask how his book signing went… the day before it happened. I’m SO GOOD at time. And yet, I have never missed a professional deadline? I don’t know why I am like this.

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!

You can also vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which is a helpful source of new readers! It’s early in the month, which means votes are more valuable as the rankings reset.

Next Week: Helen’s demands of Santa interrupt the party. Read it early on Patreon!

The Old Femur Harmonica Song and Dance

At some point there will be an actual femur harmonica in the comic, maybe? That seems like the next level of this recurring joke.

BURGERPunk The RPG is on Kickstarter now! It’s already funded and we’ve served up 5 of 7 stretch goals, but there are still stretch goals and nearly four weeks left, so become one with the Living Meat(TM). BURGERPunk is absolutely the weirdest thing I’ve worked on, and if you want to hear more about it, you can hear Cait talking about our process of writing tabletop RPGs and the origins of BURGERPunk on the Rite Gud podcast. You can also hear us talking BURGERPunk and the movie Hell Comes to Frogtown on Podside Picnic.

You can also click on the image below to back BURGERPunk. The digital tier with the book and all the stretch goals is only $5 CAD, with the print version (and all the digital stuff!) is $15 + shipping. Here’s a look at one of the 7 Flavour Profiles (character classes), the Cola Commando.

Click on the Cola Commando and back BURGERPunk on Kickstarter!

Bridget, Bar Fight Champion of Hell

Bridget, Bar Fight Champion of Hell could also be the name of a Hell, Inc. video game where Bridget beats up demons. Maybe if Guinea Pig Press RPGs continue to do well, I’ll become wealthy enough to be the dictator of a small video game studio that adapts my comics into games. For some reason I recently started thinking about Hell, Inc. as an action platformer (like how everything got adapted as an action platformer in the NES/Super NES era). Doug bouncing around Hell popping people in the schnozz with his Popeye arms and collecting souls or something.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Leonardo is Employee of the Week! They supported the creation of Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, and helped make that book ! You can do that with my next graphic novel, Rent-A-Thug, 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!

In other news, BURGERPunk the RPG launches on TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14th! Click the image below to sign up to be notified when the campaign launches! The main event is the BURGERPunk The RPG ‘zine, which is 32 pages of fast food action movie post-apocalypse chaos including the complete gameplay rules (using Powered by the Apocalypse) and 7 Flavour Profiles (character classes), available in print and digital formats.

Spirit-ual Journey

Wordless strips are always a weird thing to make, because they force me to confront the fact that they require just as much work, but a lot of readers will look at them for about 2 seconds. It’s similar to knowing that a 22 page comic takes about 200 hours to draw, plus another 50 or 60 for colouring and lettering, but there are a ton of readers who will take 5-10 minutes to read it. That ratio feels pretty grim! I can’t even fathom what it’s like to make a movie, where it takes tens of thousands of hours to create a two hour-ish film. That said, would I be hyped to make a movie or a TV show out of one of my comics? Yes. Yes I would.

Also, exciting news, everyone! BURGERPunk The RPG hits Kickstarter on February 14th! Click on the image below to visit the pre-launch page and be notified when the campaign starts!

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!

Next Week: Do not steal Sheila’s drink, and absolutely do not interrupt Sheila’s move-busting. Read it early on Patreon!

A Skeleton Lover or a Skeleton Fighter?

I have been suitably shamed by Cait for not making a “does the skeleton want to bone?” joke in the Patreon post about this strip, so I will re-present Skeleton Lover or Skeleton Fighter?, my game show concept where the player must decide if the skeleton wants to bone or battle.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Christmas, for making this Christmas party arc topical again. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you out there reading the ongoing adventures of a bunch of weirdos doing demon paperwork in Hell.

Spiritual Quest

This was a strip where what I was thinking it would look like while I was writing it and what it looked like as I started to lay it out did not match in difficulty AT ALL. I expected I’d do the one shot where Doug was visible, and that would be a bit tough, but everything else would be pretty straightforward. But then I was all like “but what if I made it more dynamic and grounded the characters in the setting more?” Because I’m an idiot, you see, and do a lot of things that make my job harder because I want things to be “good.” In this economy!? We don’t have room for good, we need art-stealing robots and entire animation departments getting slashed.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Robbie Dorman is Employee of the Week. He is co-host of The Simpsons Show, the only podcast about The Simpsons, and also the only podcast about The Simpsons that I have done a guest spot on. You should also follow him on Twitter to learn about his new novel releases. He writes that good good scary shit. Indie artists need your support now more than ever, so check out his stuff!

Speaking of which, over on Patreon I’m serializing a new comic, a Rent-A-Thug one-shot called La Cosa Glasnostra. When that wraps up (it’s looking like it’ll be 40ish pages), I’ll be moving on to the full Rent-A-Thug graphic novel, unless I miraculously pick up a book deal somehow. Patreon is my (currently only) predictable form of income, so if you like Hell, Inc., every dollar helps!

Christmas Party Benefits

“Christmas Party Benefits” sound like the kind of thing a company would include in a job posting that definitely doesn’t post the salary. Encouraging employees to view each other as having “stab here” signs on their backs also seems like the kind of thing a job that doesn’t post the salary would do.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Caitlin is Employee of the Week, and currently helping finish the Hell, Inc. The RPG Kickstarter fulfillment. Our kitchen table has been a packaging station for a while now, but the end of the shipping tunnel is in sight. Until there’s more shipping. I should just get my living room classified as a Canada Post depot.

A new book series has started for $5/up patrons! The first published Rent-A-Thug story in 12 years, La Cosa Glasnostra, is being published in print-page format for the first time on Patreon. The first 5 pages are free here. The rest will be going up on Patreon, and seems like it’ll end up being somewhere in the 40 page range. I don’t know if I’ll end up printing this one, we’ll see how I feel once I see the whole thing compiled as a PDF.

I haven’t plugged it in a while, so go sign up for the newsletter.