Character: Steve

Nuclear Fishin’

It took me a really long time to decide what Steve was going to be talking about when he said “I know that (blank) exists. I don’t know how it works.” That was supposed to be the punchline at the end of the strip, but nothing I was thinking of was funny enough to justify that. Eventually I realized that I needed to have Steve follow up that line with something else, and that let everything fall into place. Adding that extra panel made the dialogue feel more authentic to Steve’s character AND made it more interesting. This has been “Jeff waxes about his creative process and also about how great he is.”

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Brien Aronov is this week’s Employee of the Week! If you park in his space, he’s legally allowed to replace one of your bones with a swarm of bees. If you want to be Employee of the Week and threaten your co-workers with osseous violence, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon. It’s how I make money on this thing so I can do more of it instead of spending all my time on freelance work.

Votes on Top Webcomics are worth EVEN MORE early in the month! Click on the link below to help Hell, Inc. be seen by more webcomic readers!

Next Week: A journey of learning. Go on it with Sara, and do it a week early by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon!

Hats, Crushers of Emotions

I think the hardest thing for me, as far as storytelling in Hell, Inc., is the way I handle Doug and Bridget’s… whatever their chemistry is. Trying to find the correct amount of subtlety when I know a whole bunch of information that the audience doesn’t, and how to convey that information mostly non-verbally, is very challenging. In general, the most difficult thing that an author does is figuring out what, of the information they have about a story, is necessary for the audience, and then how clearly that’s being presented without feeling like an info-dump.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Shout out to Employee of the Week Joe Amon! Thanks for reading, and extra thanks for helping finance this rickety operation/Satanic megacorporation. Which I think is a regular megacorporation, unless you’re using Satanic as a proper noun for the religion. If you want to be Employee of the Week, you too can help finance your favourite megacorporation. That’s me, by the way, not Amazon or Google or whatever. Patreon. Money. Me. Fuck sentences.

As always, if you can’t help out monetarily because capitalism has squeezed too much out of you, you can support Hell, Inc. by upvoting it on Top Webcomics. A large number of the new readers I get come from there, and more votes mean that more potential new readers see it. Click the banner to vote.

Next Week: Sara goes on a journey of knowledge. Find out what she learns right now by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon!

All Practice All The Time

ALL PRACTICE ALL THE TIME MAKES BEELZY A PRACTICED BOY. ALL PRACTICE ALL THE TIME MAKES BEELZY A PRACTICED BOY.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Long-term employee Damion is Employee of the Week! Make sure you don’t park in his space. If you want to be Employee of the Week, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon!

As always, if you want to support Hell, Inc. but can’t afford the Patreon, vote for the comic on Top Webcomics! It’s a great source of new readers, and more votes gives it more visibility. Click on the banner below to vote!

Next Week: Team spirit! Join the team of Hell, Inc. Patreon supporters to read it early!

Summoned

There tend to be gaps in drawing Hell, Inc. strips. Typically I’ll draw 3-5 strips in a week or 10 days, then have to take a break to work on something else – commissions, other comics, boring business stuff, etc. Sometimes those breaks are short. If I’m doing a commission, for example, it might only take a day or two. Other times, those breaks are pretty long, like the two months I spent drawing pages for the new GWAR: The Enormogantic Fail graphic novel. The first strip I draw when I come back from a break is always an interesting experience. Aside from reacquainting myself with storytelling in the horizontal format, how I draw the characters and how I approach the compositions is always a little different. That’s mostly due to art being a skill that evolves over time – when I do a different project, I learn new things and hone skills I already have, so when I come back to something that I’ve worked on over a long period of time, my technique is a bit different. This is all a more-detailed-than-necessary lead-up to saying that starting with a bird’s eye view of the office, where there are many characters and a whole bunch of background objects, was perhaps a more challenging choice than it needed to be.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

The Employee of the Week section is back to normal, post-Kickstarter. BUT, we do have a nice segue between the two, as I welcome new patron Barrie Deatcher, who is also a Kickstarter backer. Welcome, Barrie, and also welcome to the new readers that have discovered the comic as a result of the Kickstarter. If you want to be Employee of the Week, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon – it’s how I keep money coming in so I can cut down on the amount of freelance work I need to take on. Given the amount of freelance work I’ve done this year, it is not working haha.

Another great way to support Hell, Inc. is by upvoting it on Top Webcomics. It’s been the largest source of new readers by a pretty substantial margin, and higher rankings = more new readers. Click on the banner to vote, and make a habit of it – you can vote once a day!

Next Week: Everything that is fun is also mandatory, right? That makes sense. Read it early on Patreon!

Muster Point Massacre

I didn’t realize my office comedy was going to have vehicle stunts in it, but here we are.

You know what else is here? The Hell, Inc. Kickstarter! It’s going live at 3 PM today (Monday, August 19th). It’s your first chance to get your hands on the Hell, Inc. print books, and also to help them exist.

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.

Like always, you can support Hell, Inc. for free by upvoting it on Top Webcomics. Click the banner below!

Next Week: Roommates! Read it early on Patreon!

Operation: Flee In Terror

I don’t know about you, but I find loudspeaker announcements of impending doom and possible trampling death VERY reassuring. Very reassuring.

In other news, here’s a big announcement:

The first two print collections of Hell, Inc. will be crowdfunding on Kickstarter starting next Monday, August 19th! Book 1, Welcome to Hell… Inc. is a 60 page collection containing strips 1-42 of the webcomic and a short story called “Sara’s Morning.” Book 2, Candied Sheep Day, is also 60 pages and collects strips 43-84 and “The Missing Ingredient,” another short that will be exclusive to the book. You can get them both for $20 CAD, or pick up a sketch of you as a Hell, Inc. demon or even original art for one of the strips!

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Robbie Dorman is Employee of the Week! Check out his novelatory debut, Conquest, available in ebook or paperback format from Amazon. He’s also got many podcasts, including the Simpsons Show and Serial Fanatacist, which you should go listen to. Being deeply influenced by the Simpsons as well, I support his taste in podcast topics. If you want me to tell readers to buy your book or listen to your podcast, support the Hell, Inc. Patreon and finance things like “paying my mortgage” and “eating.”

As always, supporting Hell, Inc. for free is also appreciated – go upvote Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics to bring in new readers.

Next Week: Traffic safety in Hell is… well, the term exists, so that’s a start. Read it early on Patreon!

Panic Rules

The panic rules are very clear. And they say that I love drawing Adventure Time/Kermit arms when someone is panicking. Or excited. Or I otherwise have an excuse to draw someone flailing. In other news, Hockeypocalypse Season 4: Cult of Hockey was nominated for the Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing. I think it’s the best book I’ve ever made, so I’m pretty excited about that.

I’m also back to work teaching another Drawn To Write Camp this week, so I, like you, will be working 8-4, and not PM to AM.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

We’ve got a new Employee of the Week! Cindy Gauthier is joining us, and there will be cake in the break room. It may or may not be made out of toenails. She also draws the arts, so you should check out her work, including her debut comic Posthumous. If you want to be Employee of the Week and get a shout-out in an upcoming comic post, Check out the Hell, Inc. Patreon. It helps keep me drawing Hell, Inc. strips instead of being buried in freelance work, which is a win-win for everybody.

As always, supporting Hell, Inc. for free is also appreciated – go upvote Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics to bring in new readers.

Next Week: For whom do the arms Kermit? The arms Kermit for thee. Patreon. Do that.

Doug Flutie

Go deep! Go sheep? Go upvote Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics?

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Cait is back at the top of the list, and is the creator of the Guintern Newsletter, which documents the adventures of my guinea pig office interns. The Patreon has become a bit of a struggle, lately. Efforts to increase the number of patrons haven’t been met with nearly the success as growing readership has, and I’m a bit stumped as to what people want to see from the Patreon. It’s stuck in a cycle where it doesn’t do well enough to merit more investment of effort, which takes away from effort on the actual comic, but maybe more effort would make it do better if it was put in the right place. I don’t know. Thoughts?

As always, supporting Hell, Inc. for free is also appreciated – go upvote Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics to bring in new readers.

Next Week: PANIC!!! Panic early on Patreon.

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.