The Patreon preview for this strip features talk about the process differences between physical and digital drawing, and how this page would have probably been significantly easier if I drew Hell, Inc. digitally.
Character: Sara
Universal Job Badness
The Patreon preview for this strip includes talk about an unfortunately common phenomenon, which is forgetting what’s coming up in the script and accidentally causing myself a visual problem because I did something for visual interest that gets in the way of a later part of the script.
I’ve also had a week full of live events, having attended All Elite Wrestling’s Dynamite/Rampage shows in Edmonton as well as an Edmonton Stingers basketball game (did you know Canada has a basketball league? It does). Is this motivating me to work on a project I’m pitching that involves sports? Yes.
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, such as the aforementioned project I want to pitch).
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: What even is time, maaaaaan? Read it early on Patreon!
Next Bus?
This strip’s Patreon preview included some discussion about my approach to learning via making comics, and how that can also happen even if you’re kind of actively resisting it. Just because you think you’re the smartest one in the room doesn’t mean you can’t learn something!
In “Twitter continues to spiral down the toilet” news, I have gotten on Bluesky, which is basically Twitter from 10 years ago. If you’re on there already, or are able to get on there, give a follow to jeffmartinart.
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, 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!
Running for the Beelzebus
This week’s Patreon preview was mostly about how Adobe Illustrator is the most ironically named art program I’ve ever used, and as a result I had some adventures while trying to do Helen’s dialogue balloon in the fourth panel.
I’m writing this before it’s happened, but presumably running Fail Marines for Free RPG Day at Red Claw Gaming was a ton of fun and involved some sort of catastrophic space failures.
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, 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: The bus driver is a huge fan of Helen puking ghosts, I’m sure. Read it early on Patreon!
Spiralling Wildly
I’m trying to keep up the habit of writing about process in the Patreon early looks, and this time it’s about what goes into deciding where to place the “camera” for panels and an unusual factor that can influence that.
I’m typing this in the wee hours of the morning, having returned home from Calgary Horror Con. I’m always a bit nervous about first time shows, but thankfully it was a rousing success!
Cait is Employee of the Week AGAIN, because she helped sell a bunch of books at Calgary Horror Con. If YOU want to be Employee of the Week, you don’t have to sell any books at Horror Con, you can just toss a dollar into the tip jar that is the Hell, Inc. Patreon! It is a much more predictable way to support my art, because conventions are like a very tiring form of gambling.
You can also help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which helps bring in new readers. Click on the banner below to vote daily!
Next Week: The spiral, it keeps spiralling. Because it’s a spiral, and that’s really the only thing they do. Read it early on Patreon.
Time Keeps on Ticking
I wrote another Patreon piece about the process of making the strip, in this case focusing on different ways that the same scene can be broken into panels and why those different choices might be made. It’s been fun to get back into the headspace of creation and think about what other versions of the strip might have looked like.
This weekend, I’ll be at the Calgary Horror Con with Hell, Inc. (in RPG and comic form), Hockeypocalypse, GWAR, and probably some other stuff that has interest overlap.
Cait is Employee of the Week, and will ALSO be at Calgary Horror Con. If YOU want to be Employee of the Week, and also help me keep making art you like instead of continuing to flail about in the chaos that is freelancing. Patreon is the most convenient way to do that, and you also get to see a bunch of cool art way before other people!
You can also help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which helps bring in new readers. Click on the banner below to vote daily!
Next Week: Doug is in control of his life, right? Right? Read it early on Patreon.
The Bill
I’m currently in the midst of a particularly notable streak of having no idea what day it is, so I’m glad some neurons fired to remind me that it was Monday and I needed to post the new comic.
Over on Patreon, my usual early reader post ended up being a much more detailed than usual look into the process of breaking a script into panels for the strip. If you’re interested in the process of the comic, chip in a buck and check that out.
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!
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: We’re kicked out of the bar, now what? Read it early on Patreon!
The Most Christmas Party
It occurs to me that I’ve never actually been to a company Christmas party as an adult. I remember being dragged to some of my dad’s work events that were intended for the employees to bring their families, but my experiences at those were largely of being bored because I was, like, 8 or something. As an adult, I’ve either worked alone in my studio, which does not involve staff parties unless I put little party hats on my pets. Prior to that, I’ve either worked retail or in education, and the one Christmas party I was involved in at a school was a meal at a restaurant at a giant table seating 20 or 30 people, where everyone just talked to the 6-8 people near them, who were almost always the same people you talked to all the time at school. It certainly lacked Helen’s… bigness.
I’m going to be at Calgary Horror Con for the first time, selling the horror and horror-adjacent books from my catalogue, and maybe dipping out to watch movies if I get tired of talking.
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 preeeeetty cool.
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: The bar staff are less enthusiastic about how things have gone than one might hope. Read it early on Patreon!
Drunk Santa vs. Ceiling Skeleton
Drunk Santa vs. Ceiling Skeleton, the fight of the century! If this was HEAT, you’d get about three months of that. I miss drawing beefy wrasslers doing violence to each other, but I do NOT miss trying to pace wrestling as a webcomic. The fact that anyone kept reading that comic while the Super Max Challenge Final took up a YEAR of posts might qualify them for sainthood. I’m currently developing another wrestling comic as a graphic novel pitch, so maybe drawing a lot of wrasslin’ again will be in my future.
Barrie Deatcher is Employee of the Week, and will get to read my new Rent-A-Thug graphic novel as I draw it! Subscribers to my newsletter have already seen the first page, which I think is several orders of magnitude cooler than any previous Rent-A-Thug stuff. Patreon is my predictable source of income, and I would very much like it to grow to the point where I can get into a workflow of webcomic + graphic novel.
Remember Top Webcomics? That’s still a thing, so if you want to boost Hell, Inc. in the rankings and funnel some new readers in, click on the banner below. You can vote daily.
Next Week: Sara has very strong opinions about having gone to O’Hellihan’s instead of the Christmas party. Read it early on Patreon!
Cartoon Brawling Dust Cloud
Despite it seeming like the obvious visual choice, I avoided drawing an actual cartoon brawling dust cloud. I don’t have a high-minded formal reason for it, it just looked squashed and weird once I accounted for the space the balloon would take up. It was easier to communicate the same idea with a tangle of bodies that used the space better. Thinking about those kinds of decisions that go into making a comic is always interesting to me, as there’s rarely a definitive correct answer, but rather many viable options depending on what the artist intends to communicate to the reader.
In other news, Calgary Expo and FCBD are in the rearview mirror, which gives me a little over a month until I next appear amongst the living. I’ll be back in Calgary, this time for the Horror Con, on June 17th and 18th! It’s themed around Killer Klowns from Outer Space this year, which kicks ass, because that movie rules.
Barrie Deatcher is Employee of the Week, and will get to read my new Rent-A-Thug graphic novel as I draw it! Subscribers to my newsletter have already seen the first page, which I think is several orders of magnitude cooler than any previous Rent-A-Thug stuff. Patreon is my predictable source of income, and I would very much like it to grow to the point where I can get into a workflow of webcomic + graphic novel.
Remember Top Webcomics? That’s still a thing, so if you want to boost Hell, Inc. in the rankings and funnel some new readers in, click on the banner below. You can vote daily.
Next Week: Helen’s romantic past! Read it early on Patreon!