Character: Ray

Nope, Don’t Care

This is the last comic in my buffer, so I guess “drawing more Hell, Inc.” comics is what I’ll be doing for part of this week! The Patreon preview for this strip talks a bit about that, but mostly about how I use old strips as reference instead of a much more practical set of master designs.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Leonardo is Employee of the Week! They supported the creation of Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, and helped make that book possible! Which is good, because Hockeypocalypse continues to be my best seller at conventions. Supporters at the $5/up tiers get to read my graphic novels as I create them, and get a copy at the end! More backers = faster progress, because I currently spend a lot of time freelancing to make money, which is important for being alive. 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’s journey to the conference floor. Read it early on Patreon!

Get Into It

The Patreon preview for this strip is about the keys to writing Ray, and also how I keep wanting to make all the dumb computer games that pop up in Hell, Inc.

Welcome to those of you making your way here after Edmonton Expo! It was a very successful show for me, but now I am very tired and will go to sleep for roughly a week.

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: What’s going on in the break room? Is it stupid? Read it early on Patreon!

Games… on the Computer!

Like Steve, I, too, am always more interested in what’s going on with my computer if it’s not a spreadsheet. The Patreon preview for this strip is about how the kid in high school who could put games on your graphic calculator probably makes way more money than you, now.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Cindy Gauthier is Employee of the Week, and you can read her comic on Webtoon! It’s called Posthumous, and is a comic about two friends (who are cool, weird cyborg-things) exploring space and how the things that are in space are often terrifying. Season 2 is underway!

Patreon! It’s a predictable income that I would like to be bigger so I can do less freelance and more stuff that I want to do! You get early access to Hell, Inc. strips, new comics, my new ttrpg Big Robots, Big Feelings, and more!

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: Doug and Steve discuss whether there have, in fact, already been games on the computer. Read it early on Patreon!

Who Doesn’t Have to Take This?

Who doesn’t have to take this? Ray! That’s who! Except that he kind of does, because he needs his desk for desk stuff.

Also, this update is early because the thing that lets me schedule posts in WordPress is broken, and I have to go to bed at a normal time. As some sort of owl-man, this is an annoying turn of events.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Cindy Gauthier is Employee of the Week, and you can read her comic on Webtoon! It’s called Posthumous, and is a comic about two friends (who are cool, weird cyborg-things) exploring space and how the things that are in space are often terrifying. Season 2 is underway!

Patreon! It’s a predictable income that I would like to be bigger so I can do less freelance and more stuff that I want to do! You get early access to Hell, Inc. strips, new comics, my video game Space Jerks, and more!

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: We check in on Sara in Infernal Pacts. Read it early on Patreon!

Meanwhile, Madness

The Patreon preview for this strip is about my rules of thumb for making “a bunch of people at their desks talk to each other” strips interesting. Making talking scenes interesting is the most vital piece of a cartoonist’s arsenal.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Ben Hamlin, host of Syndicated with Lesley and Ben (among other casted pods), is Employee of the Week. In their most recent season, I made my fourth guest appearance on the show, this time discussing crime drama Better Call Saul! If you want to hear me talk about how artfully executed BCS is, then good news, you’ll have a great time listening to that podcast!

Patreon! It’s a predictable source of income, and ALSO Patrons can play Space Jerks, the video game I made!

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: Ray takes a stand. It involves literal standing, at points. Read it early

Vital Liquid Science?

The Patreon preview for this strip is about my process of drawing study, which involves drawing a lot of comics. Speaking of a lot of comics, I’m going to be at the Art Gallery of Alberta’s Comics & Zine Fair on April 13th and 14th, and if you’re in Edmonton, you should be, too. Click on the image below for more info:

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Barrie Deatcher is Employee of the Week, which means they are one of the folks helping support Hell, Inc. and my other non-freelance art endeavours! For example, I just had a graphic novel pitch about wrestlers in a fantasy world rejected by a bunch of agents, but I still think it’s very cool and want to draw it. Patreon can make that possible! Even $1 goes a long way, and adds up pretty fast when enough readers show their support.

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: A triumphant return! Read it early on Patreon!

Vital Science

The Patreon preview for this strip is about joke structures. It’s the kind of thing that I think is really interesting, and it’s my comic so I get to write about whatever I want. Regardless of whether it’s interesting to normal people.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Cindy Gauthier is Employee of the Week, and you can read her comic on Webtoon! It’s called Posthumous, and is a comic about two friends (who are cool, weird cyborg-things) exploring space and how the things that are in space are often terrifying. Season 2 is underway!

Patreon! It’s a predictable income that I would like to be bigger so I can do less freelance and more stuff that I want to do! You get early access to Hell, Inc. strips, new comics, my video game Space Jerks, and more!

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: Harry and Ray consider scientific collaboration. Read it early on Patreon!

 

Organ Liquefier

This episode’s Patreon preview is about the challenges of laying out a strip when the dialogue is concentrated into a smaller number of panels. It starts out with “oh no what have you done, past me?” and then I have to figure out what to do with what past me has given present me.

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: Sara dives into the instruction manuals. Read it early on Patreon!

Doris Noticed

As we’ve established previously, Sara is clearly very good at sneaking around and doing things clandestinely. This week’s Patreon preview post was about the ideas that need to germinate in the back of your mind before they’re ready, and how sometimes that means a poop joke is the catalyst for that.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Caitlin is Employee of the Week, and also author of our RPG BURGERPunk, which is now available digitally on DriveThru RPG.

Also available digitally are all of the Hell, Inc. volumes (1-6), on both Patreon and GlobalComix (the covers aren’t actually squashed and weird, it’s a display thing I don’t understand). Speaking of Patreon, you can subscribe to help me keep making art and also being alive, for as little as $1 a month!

You can help Hell, Inc. for free by telling people about it! Send links to your friends and co-workers, or vote on Top Webcomics! It’s the beginning of a new month, so the votes count for more as the rankings reset. Top Webcomics helps direct people looking for new webcomics to Hell, Inc. instead of whatever comic is using robots to have thousands of votes instantly!

Next Week: There are important shame plans. Read it early on Patreon!

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!