Character: Sara

Chaotic Helen Noises

Speaking of chaos, I have returned from the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. For my part, most of the chaos was the result of construction on the Stampede Grounds ensuring I rarely knew I where to go if I needed to go anywhere. Otherwise, things went pretty smoothly for me – a pleasant drive down, leisurely set-up, I remembered what all of my books were about to pitch them. And I went home with A LOT fewer books than I arrived with, which is always the goal. Thanks to everyone who bought books or prints, and hello to those of you discovering Hell, Inc. as a result of the con!

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Me, because I am too tired to look up whose turn it is. If you would like to help support Hell, Inc. as well as my other comic-making, and the all-important “continuing to feed and house myself,” consider chipping in $1 a month or more over on Patreon. Patrons get bonuses such as early access to Hell, Inc. strips, tons of art from my other projects, and even custom digital art!

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: The Ballad of Flailing Helen. It’s not a ballad, it’s more of screeching sound. Read it early on Patreon!

Even and Sticky

I’m bouncing between projects like a superball right now, which is kind of counter to how I prefer to work. Any given day I have about 5 things I could be working on, and another 2 or 3 that I should probably be thinking ahead toward. That is too many things, and largely why I wish I was the kind of creator who kills it on Patreon. That way I could pick one or two things and focus on those, and then do new things when those are done. That would be pretty great, and less stressful!

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Caitlin is Employee of the Week, and is currently in her writing cave working on the large amounts of BURGERPunk RPG material that are the result of the improbably overachievement of the Kickstarter. Speaking of crowdfunding, Patreon! It lets me have predictable income and focus on making the comics I want to make! If every Hell, Inc. reader kicked in just a dollar a month, I’d be able to cut my freelancing down to just “I have been offered a lucrative book deal” stuff! That would be very cool.

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: Sobering up in Hell is not better than sobering up on Earth. Read it early on Patreon!

A More Interesting Topic

This strip was the end of my buffer, which activated about two weeks of furious drawing to rebuild said buffer. That was in the midst of the BURGERPunk Kickstarter wrapping up, although by the end of that I wasn’t having to do all that much. For whatever reason, RPG Kickstarters go much smoother than comic ones for me – they start off hot, and then I just kinda ride it along until there’s a slow patch in the middle, then I do some stuff that doesn’t actually help, and then things pick up and get hot at the end. Compared to comic Kickstarters, where I feel like I need to grind my ass off for a month straight, it’s downright relaxing.

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.

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: Sara learns that getting up is overrated. Read it early on Patreon!

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.

Anti-Gravity Spiders

I’ve been playing a lot of Hollow Knight lately, and was somewhat delighted to realize that it was about bugs. They’re so stylized that I didn’t read the characters that way until I saw them in the game’s environment. As someone who really likes the idea of army ants being taken literally, Hollow Knight feels like if those old Army Ants toys were in the supernatural fantasy genre. Also, Hollow Knight is really fun.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Speaking of fun, it’s my birthday tomorrow (unless you read this on a day other than January 30th). If you feel the urge to celebrate with me, feel free to drop a buck or two on my Patreon, which supports projects like Hell, Inc. and the upcoming Rent-A-Thug graphic novel. I will likely be spending my birthday either drawing more pages for said Rent-A-Thug graphic novel, or working on BURGERPunk, the RPG that nobody knew they needed.

If you want to hear more about BURGERPunk, sign up for my newsletter, which will be debuting some never-before-seen BURGERPunk art prior to the February 14th Kickstarter.

Topics of Conversation

Conversations with my parents during the pandemic made me realize how much “things we have done recently” form the core of most casual conversation. When the answer to “what have you been up to” is “nothing, same as you,” it’s a lot harder to carry on a chat. That was indirectly how I arrived at writing this strip. I wasn’t consciously comparing the gang not having anything to talk about because they’ve all been together for a month straight to not having anything interesting to tell my parents because I’ve been at home for a month straight, but upon reflection it’s pretty clear how I ended up at this week’s joke.

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. Speaking of graphic novels, currently Rent-A-Thug: La Cosa Glasnostra is being reformatted as traditional comic pages and posted. Following that, the Rent-A-Thug graphic novel will be starting up (unless some publisher gives me a lot of money before that happens).

Also, the next RPG in my burgeoning empire is going to be launching in February, so sign up for my monthly-ish email newsletter to learn about BURGERPunk.

Evolution of Dance?

Yes, I DID have to Google what the name of that dance video that was big on YouTube and got referenced on The Office was called. That was probably an unnecessary effort, but that is what we do here at Hell, Inc. It’s very clear that the comic, the corporation in the comic, and sometimes my studio area are all named the same thing.

I’m starting 2023 with a lot more concrete plans than normal, art-wise. The staggering artistic achievement that will be BURGERPUNK, the RPG, will be launching on Kickstarter in February. If you reacted to that with “that title rules,” then congratulations, you’re gonna like it a lot.

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! Go there. Do that. It is my most reliable source of income, and that is very helpful when living that freelance life. If everyone who read the comic last week chipped in $1/month, that would be enough to almost completely eliminate the need for freelancing. That would be rad!

Also check out the Newsletter, where I’ll be dropping some art from the Rent-A-Thug graphic novel for the first time!

Next Week: Diane lives a funk-based existence. Read it early on Patreon!

Iterative Toasts

Happy New Year! It’s 2023 now, which is… I dunno. It changes my signature and not a ton else. As far as what’s on the horizon for 2023, there will be plenty more Hell, Inc. including the omnibus of what were originally intended to be the first six volumes. I’ll also be working on the Rent-A-Thug graphic novel, which I’ll be posting on Patreon unless I can convince a publisher to give me a bunch of money for it. In the near future, the newest addition to my RPG empire, BURGERPUNK.

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.

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.

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!