Location: Streets of Hell

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.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

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.

Ladies Man Doug

After my impromptu dissertation on translating a script into panels in last week’s Patron preview, this one didn’t have any formal element of comics that I got hung up on talking about. Incidentally, the Hell, Inc. Patreon is going through a lovely* period of losing patrons instead of holding steady or (rarely) gaining, so maybe head over there and kick in a buck to support your favourite eternal wage slaves.

*It is not lovely, it is bad.

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! You can also help me out for as little as $1 a month, because that really adds up when enough people get involved.

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: Harry and the Arbitrary Nature of Time. Read it early on Patreon!

Cheers!

This is the 250th Hell, Inc. strip! That’s so many strips! No wonder I’m so tired. Is that why I thought it was a great idea to dedicate the 250th strip to a joke based on a 40+ year old sitcom that I haven’t even seen that much of? No, I definitely still think that’s genuinely a fun thing to do in the comic that is the closet I’ll ever get to making a sitcom. My original conception of this involved drawing in the style of the Cheers opening, until I rewatched it and realized the things I remembered as drawings were photos.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Barrie Deatcher is Employee of the Week, and he’s already got a copy of Hockeypocalypse: Slashers coming to him from supporting the creation of the book on Patreon! I’m gonna do that again with my next book, but work keeps piling on me before I can get my shit together to a level where I’m comfortable announcing what it is. Patreon is also how I make predictable money, so if you can kick in a buck, you should, because I can use it.

Also there’s a newsletter now, so subscribe and check that out.

Happy?

Doug is extremely good at “having emotions” and “understanding those emotions.” That is not autobiographical at all, nope, that is a fully made up thing with no basis in experience at all.

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 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.

Next Week: A strip based on a reference that I have no idea how many people will actually get, despite it seeming saturated within the culture to me, an old. Oh, also, it’s episode 250! That’s pretty cool, and originally would have been just two weeks shy of the end of volume 6. Then the pandemic changed how the books were going to come out, and keeping a uniform length didn’t matter anymore. Anyway patrons will be able to see it early.

The Only One Allowed to Puke

Aaaaaand that’s the end of the buffer (again), so I need to get back on that. I’m currently in the RPG mines doing editing, layout, and (inevitably) additional art for the book. I’m spending my spare time buried in packaging materials as I ship out Hockeypocalypse: Slashers and prepare to ship out Hell, Inc. The RPG. The post office is going to put up a poster with my face on it that says “do not serve this man.”

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.

The Running of the Skeletons

It has been an extremely strange week over there at the ol’ corporate headquarters. Despite making it COVID-free through a wedding with numerous out-of-country guests and a convention attended by tens of thousands of people, Cait got the COVID. Being the medically knowledgeable and also insistent on doing things correctly person that she is, this has resulted in her living in her home office for the better part of a week. Is it weird to be communicating via text message with somebody who is literally in the next room? Yes. Yes it is. Her strategy to not get anyone else sick seems to have worked, though, as I continue to test negative. I also now frequently ponder how anyone who lives alone and has a job manages to have a place that isn’t a dumpster, because suddenly being in charge of all of the chores has been a real Too Many Things experience.

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. And of course I like a scary hockey story, given that it was just a few months ago I wouldn’t shut up about my own scary hockey story. Speaking of which, I serialized that on Patreon, and will be doing that again with another book TBA. Patreon is my predictable form of income, so if you like Hell, Inc., every dollar helps!

I’ll be talking more about that in the relatively near future, and that will probably happen on my newsletter! But really, the main event is the pet photos. So go on, sign up for my monthly(ish) newsletter!

Next Week: Let’s make distract the intern from the skeleton trauma with different trauma. Read it early on Patreon!

Don’t Look at the Sun… er, Angels

The Kickstarter for Hell, Inc. The RPG is over, and it, quite frankly, staggeringly overperformed expectations. In an extremely funny turn of events, the Kickstarter for the RPG sold more copies of the Hell, Inc. Volume 1 and 2 comics than their own Kickstarter did. By A LOT.

The good news for you, the newspost reader, is that I don’t have any more campaigns to promote this year, so you’re back to the usual content of “stream-of-consciousness nonsense, Employee of the Week, Next Week on Hell, Inc.”

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

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 (more on that in the near future!) 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!

Next Week: What, you thought I’d talk about face melting and there would be no face melting? Read it early on Patreon!

Not A Good Time

I look forward to having a Hell, Inc. buffer again, which is creeping toward being a reality. Granted, I still have to write and draw said buffer, but I have less urgent demands from elsewhere to get in the way of that.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Barrie Deatcher is Employee of the Week, and he’s already got a copy of Hockeypocalypse: Slashers coming to him from supporting the creation of the book on Patreon! If you don’t, you need to head over to Zoop and preorder a copy, which will ALSO help fund the creation of the book. It is my favourite comic I’ve ever written/drawn, and I think you’ll agree. Preorder your copy to help fund the book’s existence! Get it for yourself, get it for a friend or family member, or do all of the above! Not interested in Hockeypocalypse (you should be, are you okay?)? Donate your copy to your local library when you get it!

Object Permanence

I’m bouncing between projects like I’m a superball right now. I’m currently alternating between working on Hell, Inc., Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, Reforged, and writing the graphic novel that I’ll be working on after Slashers. Oh, and some stuff to send to literary agents. If effort and income were directly correlated, I would be much less horrified at how much my new glasses prescription costs.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Brien Aronov is Employee of the Week, and you can too! Get Employee of the Week shoutouts, read Hockeypocalypse: Slashers 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.

You can also help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which helps push it up the rankings and make it more visible to new readers! It’s a new month (tomorrow), so be sure to get your votes in as the rankings reset. Click the banner below to vote daily.

Next Week: B.L. Zebub is extremely good at his job and keeping track of his underlings. Stop laughing. Read it early on Patreon!

Drinkable Plans

So last week I had a tweet become extremely popular, which was not an experience I had previously had. As a result, Hell, Inc. had some truly absurd (by my standards) readership stats, and some of you reading this right now have found your way here from that. Welcome! This is Hell, Inc., it is very good, you should keep reading it.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Jillian Dolan, artist of Kyle the Nihilist Dinosaur, Misha, and other delightful comics, is Employee of the Week! She has access to Hockeypocalypse: Slashers, my new graphic novel, which is being serialized on Patreon as I draw it! We’re in the second half of the book as of this post, and they’re some of the best pages I’ve ever drawn. The first 5 pages are available on Patreon for free, and the rest are unlocked by donating at the $5 and up tiers. So go do that.

You can also help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which is not nearly as effective as having a popular tweet, but has been a more easily enacted strategy for gaining new readers. Click the banner below to vote daily!

Next Week: B.L. Zebub must enact extreme measures, which might be some sort of nuclear overtime? Hard to say, but you can find out by reading it early on Patreon!