Dirty Healings

Chapter 1: Dirty Healings is an official prequel comic to the pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel. The first seven pages were released on October 27, 2019, while the remaining fifteen were released on July 7, 2020, for a total of twenty two pages.

The comic is focused around Angel Dust and the specific events that led to him becoming the Happy Hotel's first patron.

Personnel

 * Drawn by Umbree & Riplae
 * Inked by Faustisse
 * Backgrounds by Magpie V Raven
 * Color by Jane Walker and Maritza Medrano
 * Revised/Detailed by Vivienne Medrano

Synopsis

 * How did Angel Dust get started at the Happy Hotel? Find out in the first prequel comic!

Plot
The comic begins with Angel finalizing a drug deal with a group of shark demons on behalf of Valentino. When the leader questions the deal since Valentino hasn't shown up to complete it in person, he quickly turns the tables and threatens Angel at gunpoint. The spider demon is unimpressed and suddenly takes out every other demon present with a plethora of weapons after the leader insults him. Unfortunately, the exchange leaves the gang incapacitated and Angel is forced to walk away from the deal empty handed.

Shortly afterwards, Valentino arrives in person to collect Angel and questions him on why he was meddling in his affairs. Angel insists he thought it was a simple gig and wanted to help out, but Valentino berates him instead for not staying inside the Studio as he's supposed to. As punishment for missing a day's worth of a filming, the pimp forces Angel to offer himself on the street until he has enough money to make up for it. Left with little choice, a downtrodden Angel agrees and leaves.

Many demons pass by, uninterested in his services, when Angel is suddenly approached by a limousine with Charlie and Vaggie in the back. He insists that he'll have to charge extra for women, but Charlie insists they're only interested in talking. When she agrees to pay him for his time, Angel gets in the car.

Inside, Vaggie explains the concept of the Happy Hotel as a testing ground to prove whether it's possible to redeem a damned soul and gain them entry to Heaven. They offer him free meals, housing and protection from Hell's dangers in exchange for agreeing to the program, but Angel simply makes fun of the idea and doesn't appear to take it seriously. However, after Vaggie suggests to Charlie that Angel is no good to them, Angel changes his mind and insists that he's the best choice they could get; using the excuse of being behind on rent as the primary motivation, he formally agrees to their offer.

As Angel is about to leave to continue his evening's work since he's still short on money, Charlie suddenly gives him a wad of cash. He assumes it's merely a trick, but Charlie simply explains that it's an investment in him because she believes that there is more to Angel than how he or others may see him. She thanks him for his time and says they'll be in touch, leaving a stunned Angel on the sidewalk outside.

With his debt money sorted out, Angel returns to his rundown apartment to contemplate what he's agreed to. He embraces Fat Nuggets and remarks how the idea of redemption is silly.

Trivia

 * On June 30, 2020, Faustisse announced on their Twitter that the Prequel comic was in the inking stage, with flat colors and light revisions sprinkled in the mix.
 * The website and access to the comic was password protected. To access the site it was needed to type "Magne", which is Charlie's pilot surname, and to access the comic, "Angel Dust", the name of the comic's main character.
 * Almost all the names of the comic pages refer to phrases from the page with the same name.
 * The early design of Fat Nuggets seen in the comics is shown on a poster in Angel Dust's room during the end credits scene of ADDICT music video.
 * The shark gangsters are a visual play on, which are people that offer loans at extremely high interest rates that usually work outside of the law.
 * This would imply that the drug deal was actually a meeting to pay for goods already acquired but never finalized monetarily by Valentino's organization.
 * All of the shark boss' speech bubbles are shaped to resemble fishing hooks.