Character: Ray

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.

Solidarity

I wrote about it in more detail in the Patreon preview post for this strip, but this one is an example of writing a script that presented me with some visual problems. It’s also probably one of the better examples of those problems resulting in better visual storytelling than solving those problems in the script phase would have.

In other news, my kitchen table belongs to Hell, Inc. The RPG books now. The first batch of books has gone out, and many more will follow as we get packages put together.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

“Game Time” Art Middleton is Employee of the Week! Follow him on Twitter 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.

The next project to be serialized on Patreon (for $5/month and up patrons) is RENT-A-THUG. Some of you might remember that as my first published work, but I’m reimagining it as a graphic novel that utilizes all of my improvements as a creator. I’m aiming for it to see publication around the 20th anniversary of the strip’s first publication in 2005, but that’ll be dependent on a lot of factors outside of my control. Right now, I’m posting the print-formatted pages for La Cosa Glasnostra, the short story I created for Webtoon as practice for meshing the original art style with my current skillset. Like with Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, I’ll be posting the first 5 pages as a free preview, and then adding a few pages every month as they’re made.

 

One For Everybody

Oh yeah, that’s right, I’m bringing back a character we last saw about 140 strips ago. I’m an unstoppable juggernaut of (very) slowly turning Hell into Springfield. Wait until a few strips from now when I do it again! And probably more times later! I’m actually getting ahead again, so expect to hear about some other projects as well as Hell, Inc. in the near future. One of which is still Hell, Inc. related, I suppose, since it’s Hell, Inc. The RPG, which a lot of my recent efforts have been dedicated to.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Leonardo is Employee of the Week! They’ve got a copy of Hockeypocalypse: Slashers coming in the mail because they supported its creation! You can do that with my next graphic novel, 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!

You can also sign up for my newsletter, where I’ll be announcing a new Hell, Inc.-related projected later this week!

Next Week: Enter the Drunknasium! Which I guess is just a bar? Read it early on Patreon!

Santa Sez

It is very appropriate to be posting a Hell, Inc. comic on Halloween. And also to be posting one about Christmas in Hell, because that’s just retail stores now that Christmas has started encroaching past Halloween. I propose that be countered by incorporating the leering, fanged Santa from this strip, who can caper about the store terrifying children while getting schlompered on antifreeze. I don’t know what that would achieve, exactly, but as long as I get my beak wet on the licensing, it seems like a great idea.

When I sat down to draw this one, I was like “awesome, this one’s three panels, should be an easy night. I might get the whole thing done in one sitting!” Then two hours of penciling the first panel later, I realized I had maybe chosen an overly ambitious first shot if I wanted an easy night. I do think it serves to set up O’Hellihan’s nicely, though, as we haven’t seen it for about 130 strips.

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. 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 pretty cool.

Also, since Twitter may or may not become a (more) nightmarish hellscape in the near future, sign up for my monthly-ish email newsletter to keep up with the kinds of stuff I post on social media, but without me talking about sports as I watch them.

Cheers!

This is the 250th Hell, Inc. strip! That’s so many strips! No wonder I’m so tired. Is that why I thought it was a great idea to dedicate the 250th strip to a joke based on a 40+ year old sitcom that I haven’t even seen that much of? No, I definitely still think that’s genuinely a fun thing to do in the comic that is the closet I’ll ever get to making a sitcom. My original conception of this involved drawing in the style of the Cheers opening, until I rewatched it and realized the things I remembered as drawings were photos.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Barrie Deatcher is Employee of the Week, and he’s already got a copy of Hockeypocalypse: Slashers coming to him from supporting the creation of the book on Patreon! I’m gonna do that again with my next book, but work keeps piling on me before I can get my shit together to a level where I’m comfortable announcing what it is. Patreon is also how I make predictable money, so if you can kick in a buck, you should, because I can use it.

Also there’s a newsletter now, so subscribe and check that out.

The Angel of Face Melting

The Angel of Face Melting is like the Angel of Death, except you only die if face melting is fatal. So I guess what I’m saying is they’re basically the same thing? Who knows what I’m saying, I don’t. I just tabled at a convention for the first time in 3 years, and have spent 3 days straight talking to an almost unending tide of other humans. My brain is soup.

Hell, Inc. The RPG is only on Kickstarter until September 22nd, so get on board before the clock runs out! THREE stretch goals have been unlocked, and the fourth and final stretch goal is less than $700 away. The 200 backer mark is also within sight, and I would very much like to hit that. I won’t belabour all of the free additional content that every pledge is getting, but suffice to say it is an increasingly great deal with each stretch goal unlocked.

Click on the images, back the Kickstarter, play the RPG! Like the intramural slo-pitch tournament, it’s mandatory.

The Boot-lickening

One of my favourite ways for people to signal that I should not respect them is when they are shitty to anyone “below” them in whatever hierarchy they are part of, but a sniveling toad to anyone “above” them. I have seen this at comics industry parties and the secondhand embarrassment is STRONG.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

“Game Time” Art Middleton is Employee of the Week! Follow him on Twitter 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. It turns out that humans, like demons, need money to live! Me, specifically.

You can also sign up for my newsletter, where I just announced that Hell, Inc. The RPG will be part of Kickstarter ZineQuest, launching on August 23rd!

Next Week: Stan and B.L. Zebub have a stirring intellectual debate about the finer points of motor oil. Read it early on Patreon!

Butt-based Stealth

Butt-based stealth usually means “not farting,” so this is a new, dynamic approach to the topic.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Leonardo is Employee of the Week, and you can, too, by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon at the $2/month or higher levels!

You can also sign up for my newsletter, where I’ll be announcing a new Hell, Inc.-related projected later this week!

Next Week: Stan is back, and Satan-y-er than ever! I don’t know what that means, either. Read it early on Patreon!

Exhausted

I, too, am exhausted, although it’s the Sara kind and not the B.L. Zebub kind. Running a crowdfunding campaign is a strange thing, as it feels simultaneously like there’s no time and it will never end. It also feels kind of like a sports season, where the long view of the entire thing is what’s important, but it’s impossible to see that and avoid getting caught up in moment. Sometimes you feel unbeatable, and sometimes it feels like you shouldn’t even be in the league.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Azhar Baig is Employee of the Week, and has a podcast called The Wisdom of Love that you should check out. It’s a comedic recounting of the Great Western Philosophers.

Hockeypocalypse: Slashers ends on Thursday AND it has passed its funding goal. so head over to Zoop and preorder a copy. It is my favourite comic I’ve ever written/drawn, and I think you’ll agree. Preorder your copy to help fund the book’s existence! Get it for yourself, get it for a friend or family member, or do all of the above! Not interested in Hockeypocalypse (you should be, are you okay?)? Donate your copy to your local library when you get it!

The Secret Technique

Last week was obnoxiously busy, with Hockeypocalypse: Slashers launching on Zoop (go preorder a copy, by the way, and greatly reduce my stress levels), two podcast recordings, launching the quickplay rules for the RPG Cait and I have been making, Fail Marines. I’m very tired.

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 exploring space and how the things that are in space are often terrifying. Season 2 is underway!

I like a good Patreon plug as much as anyone, but the real business here is Hockeypocalypse: Slashers on Zoop. It is my favourite comic I’ve ever written/drawn, and I think you’ll agree. Preorder your copy to help fund the book’s existence! Get it for yourself, get it for a friend or family member, or do all of the above! Not interested in Hockeypocalypse (you should be, are you okay?)? Donate your copy to your local library when you get it!