Character: Steve

No Plan

Happy Canada Day! Living in Canada is actually a pretty significant factor in me being able to make comics, so it’s nice to take a moment to reflect on that.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

CANADA! If YOU want to be Employee of the Week, and help me focus on Hell, Inc. instead of freelance work, you can support Hell, Inc. on Patreon! I really love drawing Hell, Inc., but will be spending most of the rest of the year putting most of my time into a pair of work-for-hire books. I’d like to flip that work schedule around, and Patreon is a reliable way for me to do that while also giving you some neat rewards.

If you want to support Hell, Inc. for free, vote for it on Top Webcomics. More readers = more potential patrons, which = more Hell, Inc.

Next Week: I love it when a plan comes together. Patreon. Do that.

Problem Solving

Well THIS page took a long time to draw. Specifically, the first three panels. I’m sure you’re shocked to learn that the ones packed with characters took a long time to draw. It even, somehow, took a long time to colour, despite just being shades of red. Making them all different enough that they didn’t just blend together into one big blob turned out to be a bit of an effort.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Ben Hamlin is Employee of the Week, and you can check out his podcast, Cursed. It’s a Pathfinder actual-play podcast about pirates. You should listen to it. IT HAS BEEN DECREED. Also, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon, because being a freelancer blows, but drawing comics rules.

If you want to support Hell, Inc. for free, vote for it on Top Webcomics. The comic has only been on there for a month or so, but the daily average readership has increased by like 10x. It’s ridiculous. So let’s see how high we can get that number.

Next Week: Solutions? Maybe? Find out early on Patreon.

The Annual Candied Sheep Riot

This is the 75th Hell, Inc. strip, which I only know because of how I name the files. Strip 100 will be dropping in December, assuming the current weekly schedule remains and isn’t ramped up.

In other news, I’m trying to figure out ways to make the Hell, Inc. Patreon more attractive to new Patrons. What kind of stuff would you want to see out of the Patreon that would make you kick in a few bucks? Hit up the comments or one of the myriad ways to contact me (Twitter, FB page, my email, whatever).

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Robbie Dorman has published a novel, and is Employee of the Week! Check out his novelatory debut, Conquest, available in ebook or paperback format from Amazon. The employees at Hell, Inc. are a creative bunch, I tell ya. If you want me to tell readers to buy your book, support the Hell, Inc. Patreon and finance things like “paying my mortgage” and “eating.”

If you want to support Hell, Inc. for free, vote for it on Top Webcomics. The comic has only been on there for a month or so, but the daily average readership has increased by like 10x. It’s ridiculous. So let’s see how high we can get that number.

Next Week: RIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOT! Riot early on Patreon.

After-Afterlife

I’d like to pretend that I do a ton of preparatory design work for when I need to fill out crowd scenes, but all of the background characters are made up as I go along. The little gremlin sitting on the back of the camel-centaur lady, for example, is only there because her body shape left a dead space in the composition. It also wasn’t intended to be a gremlin from Gremlins; that just sort of happened.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Joe Amon is Employee of the Week! Do you like Hell, Inc.? Are you at a computer right now (of course you are, one lives in your pocket)? YOU can become a Patron and be next week’s Employee of the Week! It’s a way to shout out readers that help support the comic, and every bit of support means less having to interact with the absurdity that is the comic book publishing industry, which is ideal. It’s a nightmare of predatory business practices. Kinda like Hell, Inc., but not a fictional satire.

And of course, if you can’t chip in a few bucks, you CAN chip in a few votes on Top Webcomics, which helps bring in new readers. Just click the banner below. You can vote once per machine per 24 hours, so feel free to artificially juice those numbers. Performance-enhancing votes are legal in webcomics.

Next Week: The line becomes… unruly. Read it a week early on Patreon!

Honourable, Horrible Monster

It always seems like a way better idea to set a scene in an elevator when I’m writing than it does when I have to draw it. Like, WAY better. Most of what will become Hell, Inc. book 2 (yes, I’m planning those things already) involves scenes that didn’t need to take as long to draw as they did, but Writer Jeff doesn’t care about Artist Jeff’s sanity AT ALL.

In other news, Hell, Inc. has been getting a lot of new readers coming in through Comic Rocket, which is pretty cool. I don’t know what resulted in Hell, Inc. getting enough traffic to get onto the front page as a Rising Star, but since that happened, it’s been a rich-get-richer scenario as more and more readers discover the comic. And you know what? That’s fucking awesome. If you’re one of those readers who has arrived via Comic Rocket, welcome!

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Damian is Employee of the Week! If you want to get a shoutout and help the other employees on the march to free copies of the old Hell, Inc. comic books, toss a couple of bucks into the coffers of the Hell, Inc. Patreon. It’s how I pay for the web hosting and other things like “eating” and “buying art supplies.”

If you want to help support Hell, Inc. without spending any money, you can vote for the comic on Top Webcomics. Like Comic Rocket, it’s been a growing source of new readers for the comic, and more readers is pretty ideal for everyone involved. Click the banner below to vote!

Next Week: The elevator gets to the lobby. EXCITING TIMES AHEAD. Read it early on Patreon!

Comedy

Writing Steve’s dialogue is the best. THE BEST, JERRY, THE BEST.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

We’re back at the top of the cycle with Cait, and the hope that more of you spend your corporate slave bucks over at the Hell, Inc. Patreon, where there will be free comics mailed out when we hit the 20 Patron mark. Also, it increases my amount of predictable income, which is kind of useful for the whole “continuing to survive” thing. Do it.

Or vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which has been pretty huge in terms of site traffic. It’s free, and you can do it every 24 hours. More votes = more new readers = good for everyone!

Next Week: You’re a horrible monster. Patrons aren’t, so they get to find out what that means a week early.

Nom Nom Nom

I write this after spending 10 of the last 11 days on the road doing the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and Auroracon up in High Level, AB, and HOLY SHIT I’M SO TIRED. Like, I’m the kind of tired that makes it seem like being this tired is a superpower. Charles Xavier is out there looking for me to join the X-Men as “guy who is so tired he feels like he’s astral projecting into a different reality.”

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Me, for still being awake to write this, and for being recruited to join the X-Men. The guinterns are complaining that they haven’t been chosen yet, but there’s still a lot of excess hay in the office that needs dealing with. If they can drive some subscriptions to the Hell, Inc. Patreon, maybe they’ll get that coveted Employee of the Week spot.

Not everyone has disposable income to help guinea pigs achieve their dreams, but you DO have the ability to click the banner below and vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics, which helps new readers find the comic. You should do that. Frequently.

Next Week: Steve’s got jokes. They’re not funny, but he’s got ’em. Find out what they are a week early by supporting the Hell, Inc. Patreon.

Are Glass Chips Not Food?

There’s a silly little callback in this strip that I love and nobody is going to notice, so I’m going to point it out. In the strip Never Stop Screaming, Bridget references Harry having left an entire goat head in the fridge. I don’t know why I remembered that when I went to draw the contents of the fridge, but I did. So now you know that. Also, if you caught that without me pointing it out, I kind of want to hear you point out all the little things you’ve noticed about the comic, because I rarely find out which things people catch and which ones they don’t.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Since his last appearance as Employee of the Week, Robbie Dorman has published a novel! Check out his novelatory debut, Conquest, available in ebook or paperback format from Amazon. The employees at Hell, Inc. are a creative bunch, I tell ya. If you want me to tell readers to buy your book, support the Hell, Inc. Patreon and finance things like “paying my mortgage” and “eating.”

If you want to support Hell, Inc. for free, vote for it on Top Webcomics. The comic has only been on there for a month or so, but the daily average readership has increased by like 10x. It’s ridiculous. So let’s see how high we can get that number.

Next Week: Don’t eat the glass. It’s glass. Read it early on Patreon!

Workin’ Hard or Hardly Workin’?

I think my favourite thing about Steve is that he gives me carte blanche to write dumb, hacky jokes and have them work within the context of the comic without seeming out of place.

Also, welcome to those of you who’ve checked out Hell, Inc. as a result of Emerald City Comic Con! I gave away a ton of bookmarks, and have seen the numbers spike pretty heavily over the course of the weekend.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Damion is Employee of the Week!  YOU could also be Employee of the Week, and if you’ve got something to plug, get your links shared with the webcomic-reading public for $2 over at the Hell, Inc. Patreon!

Next Week: Canadian standoff. Read it early on Patreon!

Shredder Sans Mutagen

Looking through the uploaded files to attach the right one made me realize that I’ve got the next month’s worth of comics done already. I haven’t had a buffer that hefty in a few months, especially during the Hockeypocalypse Kickstarter. It’s nice.

This page got a re-write while I was doing the thumbnail, because I had written a placeholder joke into the last panel and then forgot to go back and write a better punchline. I hadn’t decided how Doug was going to imagine himself killing Steve, but once I decided on an oversized shredder it let me replace the placeholder punchline with something that actually made sense. The placeholder was pretty non-sequitur, which, while I often enjoy those kinds of jokes, I don’t think work particularly well in comics. Semi-relatedly, I just saw a film at a local horror convention (shoutout to Dead By Con) that really beat non-sequiturs to death as a way to skirt issues that came up during production, which has likely lowered my opinion of non-sequiturs for the moment.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Robbie Dorman is Employee of the Week! He’s the host of the Simpsons Show and Serial Fanatacist podcasts, which you should go listen to. Being deeply influenced by the Simpsons as well, I support his taste in podcast topics. He also has a Patreon, perhaps consider throwing him a few bucks as well, yes? CORPORATE SYNERGY. If you want to get in on the corporate synergy, support the Hell, Inc. Patreon so I can keep using the corporate gold card.

Next Week: A real meeting of the minds. Read it early by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon!