Location: Infernal Pacts

Fun Vampire

This week’s Patreon post is mostly about the Colin Robinson (What We Do in the Shadows) cameo in the last panel.

Psst, reminder, Rent-A-Thug – La Cosa Glasnostra is on Kickstarter! It’s a 36 page full colour comic about bad decisions and ultraviolence!

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 because we live in capitalist hell-world. 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. Especially now, because I am brooooke.

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: Where have you been!? Read it early on Patreon!

The Filing Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Patreon preview for this strip involved veering off from process stuff to talking about the one film studies class I took in university, and why I hated it. It DID mean I could make Dr. Caligari references in my workplace comedy comic, so that’s… something.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Barrie Deatcher is Employee of the Week, which means they are one of the folks helping support Hell, Inc. and my other non-freelance art endeavours! For example, I just had an idea for Hell, Inc. video game, inspired by how every NES adaptation of a movie turned into a platformer, no matter how much sense that made.  Patreon can make that possible! Even $1 goes a long way, and adds up pretty fast when enough readers show their support.

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: Hell is other paperwork. Read it early on Patreon!

Chains of Bureaucracy

Ah, yes, the chained pens. designed to keep all of us thieving loons from costing companies tens of dollars a year in replacement pens. I’m sure in Hell they will also measure the ink levels to make sure you didn’t use too much (I’m sure there are also real, insane managers who wish they could do that). This week’s Patreon preview is about writing visual jokes, and how that differs from my normal process.

Caitlin is Employee of the Week, and also author of our RPG BURGERPunk, which is now available digitally on DriveThru RPG.

Also available digitally are all of the Hell, Inc. volumes (1-6), on both Patreon and GlobalComix (the covers aren’t actually squashed and weird, it’s a display thing I don’t understand). Speaking of Patreon, you can subscribe to help me keep making art and also being alive, for as little as $1 a month!

You can help Hell, Inc. for free by telling people about it! Send links to your friends and co-workers, or vote on Top Webcomics! It’s the beginning of a new month, so the votes count for more as the rankings reset. Top Webcomics helps direct people looking for new webcomics to Hell, Inc. instead of whatever comic is using robots to have thousands of votes instantly!

Next Week: Arrivals gets weird. Read it early on Patreon!

Regrettable Pluck

The “I can do it” to “I’ve made a huge mistake” pipeline runs fast at Hell, Inc. And also in making Hell, Inc., where I insist on drawing a library stack of personnel documents that the reader will look at for somewhere between 3 and 10 seconds. This week’s Patreon preview involves thoughts about organizing my own reference material for Hell, Inc., which is not a library stack. It is a stack of folders, about six inches tall, and many many digital folders on a hard drive. This system does not make it nearly as easy to find reference material as I would like. But actually changing that is a lot of effort, so…

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

New hire Trash the Stampede brings a fantastic Patreon username to the company, and can be found on the internet at The Word Eater. Now all I can think about is that old computer game Number Munchers, but with words. Maybe I should make that? I have made a video game, Space Jerks, and Patreon patrons got to download it well before anyone else! Patreon is also a predictable source of income, which helps calm the increasingly rough waters of freelancing.

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 vs. The Paperwork. Read it early, and with author commentary, on Patreon!

Candied Sheep Day

“Candied Sheep Day” was the title of the second issue of the original black and white Hell, Inc. print comics. It started to build on the events of the first issue to turn things into an over-arching story, but ended up being the last issue. The first issue wasn’t really intended to be the catalyst of a larger story, and was fairly self-contained. This time I knew going in that I had a longer-term game plan, so a lot of the things set up in issue 2 of the print series are already in motion. This time also has the benefit of colour, and being able to really go ham on the candy look.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Damion is Employee of the Week! I’ve already used up everything I know about him in these blurbs, so more of you need to jump into the Employee of the Week pool so I can space these things out. If you want to do that, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon and you’ll get a shout-out and a plug for whatever pluggables you may have.

Next Week: Why is Slava in the elevator? Where’s he headed? Find out early on Patreon.

Nobody Reads the Fine Print

I really like getting to draw different areas of the Hell, Inc. building, because it lets me think about how to represent those areas. One of the more interesting (to me) elements of Hell, Inc.’s aesthetics is that everything needs to both look incredibly mundane but also weird and off-putting. In this case, the Infernal Pacts department features a huge, impenetrable stacks area for storage, capped off with little demons flitting around to add that sense of the impossible to it.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Despite her constant losses as Roommate of the Month to Very Good Dog(TM) Trina, Sylvia Douglas was able to score herself Employee of the Week. And how could she not, as proprietor of the Waffle Log Blog, the height of culinary culture. She’s also a filmmaker and does a bunch of other creative stuff that I won’t write down because I can’t remember all of it off the top of my head. What’s that? You also want to be Employee of the Month because you keep losing Roommate of the Month to the dog? Support Hell, Inc. on Patreon, because if you’re going to give your money to somebody, why not me instead of a billionaire that doesn’t think you’re a person?

Next Week: Could it be… could it be CANDIED SHEEP DAY!? Find out by supporting Hell, Inc. on Patreon.