Location: The Hellevator

Helpful Directions

The Patreon preview for this strip is about the process of choosing the faces to draw in the Hellevator. It’s also briefly about how I spent a while agonizing about what to name the long-necked guy and then didn’t have anyone in the comic say it out loud, so you still don’t know what it is unless you read the Patreon post.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Trash the Stampede  can be found on the internet at The Word Eater. Patreon is also a predictable source of income, which helps calm the increasingly rough waters of freelancing, so I very much appreciate the people who support me on it!

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: Wrong meeting. Read it early, and with author commentary, on Patreon!

 

Fried Tires and Nuclear Fish

Is this a weirder callback than Steve eating the bees? Yes. Yes it is. In other news, I’ve just finished drawing episode 210, which is the end of book 5! Once the book short story and the cover are done, that’ll be a wrap on that volume, then on to book 6!

Speaking of books, I’ve put together a survey about how people want the print books to be released. Click here to give your feedback!

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Cindy Gauthier is Employee of the Week, and you can read her comic Posthumous on Webtoon (where you can also read Hell, Inc., if that’s a format you prefer). If you want to get your comics needs handled, support Hell, Inc. on Patreon, where you’ll get a digital copy of Hell, Inc. Volume 4: “Mandatory” (which includes a book-exclusive short story) as well as over 1000 pages of other comics! Patrons should keep an eye out for volume 5, which is currently being wrapped up. I’ve probably got about two weeks left on that.

You can also help Hell, Inc. by voting for it on Top Webcomics, which is responsible for lots of new readers. Click on the banner below to vote daily and help boost Hell, Inc.’s visibility!

Next Week: You know what everyone loves? Meetings. Read it early on Patreon!

Scrumptiosity

Every time I write a scene in the elevator I think it’s going to be so easy to draw, because it’s just a handful of characters talking to deliver plot and jokes. Then I remember all the faces I have to draw and the cameos I have to put too much effort into (there’s only one that some of you might recognize in this one).

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Ben Hamlin is Employee of the Week! You can find Ben’s podcasts/streams on the Infinity Break Network! You should do that, they’re a lot of fun. He also has access to Hell, Inc. Volume 4: Mandatory, and you can too if you head over to the Hell, Inc. Patreon page and chip in as little as $1/month! Patrons have access to both the third and fourth Hell, Inc. print books in their digital form, including exclusive short stories in each, and over 1000 pages of other digital comics!

It’s early in the month, which means votes on Top Webcomics are a lot more valuable than usual as the rankings reset! Please continue voting and keeping Hell, Inc. highly ranked, because you folks are great. Click the banner below to vote daily.

Next Week: Remember that conference room from, like, a hundred and twenty or thirty pages ago? Remember Willis? No? Reacquaint yourselves 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!

Suffer In Silence

This is the 65th Hell, Inc. strip, and it’s dropping on my mom’s 65th birthday! Happy Birthday, mom! She’s not reading this, but I’ll say it here anyway.

This is one of those cases where I designed a thing without thinking about the fact that I would have to draw it more than once. When I had the idea of the faces of damned souls swirling around in the elevator walls, I only had to draw the elevator in one panel. I, uh, should probably re-think having whole strips set in the elevator, because drawing those faces in the wall took foreeeeeever. This one features a few fun cameos – two of them should be easy to spot for the majority of you, while one is pretty specific to my friend group and one is a very bad drawing of one of my other friends.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Sylvia Douglas, who also makes a cameo as a damned soul in this week’s strip! That timing wasn’t on purpose, because I never know who the Employee of the Week is until sit down and look up the chart, but worked out quite nicely. Check out the Waffle Log Blog, because if you’re anything like me, you’re delighted that it exists. If you want me to be delighted that your blog or other project exists, support the Hell, Inc. Patreon, which is how we pay for this corporate juggernaut to continue… jugging? It’s also how we pay for better sales pitches than that.

Want to support the comic, but can’t afford the Patreon? Click the banner below to vote for Hell, Inc. on Top Webcomics – it’s a ranking site that drives a ton of traffic to the comic, and the higher the vote total ends up being, the more readers see the comic.

Next Week: What do interns eat? Let’s do some science and find out! Patrons can read it early!

The Chase

And now, this week’s REAL comic, after yesterday’s April Fools post. You can see the stylistic changes pretty clearly. Aside from the obvious addition of colour, the shapes are a lot more defined and polished.

I also had to be a lot more inventive with the panel layout, since the traditional nine panel grid doesn’t really translate to a strip. The nine panel grid is really ideal for this kind of moment, though, because it has such a strong feeling of moment-to-moment continuity. It’s like a film camera cutting from shot to shot rapidly.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:
Brien Aronov is Employee of the Week! Things over at the Hell, Inc. Patreon are getting a revamp over the next month or so, partly because I learned that post scheduling was an option. Check out the page to see the first Guintern Newsletter and learn about my office guinea pigs and their perspectives on the business of cartooning. Patreon helps me take less freelance work, which means more time spent focusing on the comics you’re already interested in – it’s pretty much a win-win situation. If everyone who read the comic yesterday threw in a buck, it would cover my mortgage payment. That’s how big of a difference it can make.

Want to help out, but can’t afford to contribute to the Patreon? I get it, late capitalism sucks. So here’s a new, FREE way to help boost Hell, Inc.’s readership and help it stay viable! Click on the banner below to vote for Hell, Inc. on the Top Webcomics list. The farther up the rankings Hell, Inc. gets, the more traffic gets driven to the comic. You can vote once per day, so check it out!

Next Week: We return to the normal Monday update, and Doug returns to the loving embrace of the Hellevator. Patrons can read it early!

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.

Hell-Slave-Money

So it turns out I made some kind of error and this comic and the next one didn’t make it over to the new webhost in the migration. Not really sure what happened with that. I guess I posted them on the old host after the new one had migrated the site.

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Happy Harbor Comics is the Employee of the Week, which is weird because they’re a business but also an employee? I don’t know how that works either. But they’ve been very supportive of my work, and support Hell, Inc. If you want to support Hell, Inc., you can donate to the Patreon. Once we hit 20 patrons, you’re all getting some free comics on the mail, so let’s make that happen and get you your free stuff.

Next Week (or, y’know, right now, because I’m fixing posting errors here): Just hit the “next” button.

Nobody Calls You

I use the second panel from this comic a lot in social media marketing posts. Also, those last four words feel kinda gross. Like the kind of thing a dude named Trip with an expensive suit and unearned self-confidence would say in a meeting to sound smart. “Social media” is a term that makes me cringe when I hear it said aloud. I don’t know what it is… maybe how artificial it sounds? I think my point is that I really like that second panel, and really hate that marketing is part of my job?

EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK:

Brien Aronov is the Employee of the Week! He doesn’t have a link to plug, but if you do, or just want to help support the corporate juggernaut that is Hell, Inc. (my corporate office is my living room, it’s very Fortune 500), you can donate to the Patreon at the $2 level or above. At the $5 level you can get digital copies of damn near my entire comics catalogue.

Next Week: Doug is not a great therapist. Find out why early by supporting Hell, Inc. (and also me) on Patreon.