When it comes to Chris Allison’s successful comic series, we can appreciate his distinct art style and dark, humorous gags. He started “ToonHole ” with 3 other cartoonists, a web page where he posts his comic strips in 2010. His Instagram following of almost 94k adore the way he delivers his jokes and punchlines. He also has a story on DreamWorks Feature Animation on the works and does other animations in his spare time.
ToonHole is a great way to catch a break in the middle of work. Take five minutes to scroll down their feed on Instagram and have a few laughs before going back to work. Keep reading to learn more!
Influences
First, we inquired as to whether he had any key influences in his life that may have aided in the development and refinement of his style. He told us, “Tom and Jerry were my initial source of inspiration.
Looney Tunes, Goofy shorts, and Fleischer cartoons were among my favorites. I will most likely spend the rest of my life attempting to sketch and paint in the manner of many of those artists from the 1940s.”
Teacher Support
Chris had a lot of support from his teachers in high school who introduced him to the arts. He had an animation class run by Paul Messerle, who went on to receive a prize for the San Diego County Teacher of the Year in 2016.
Chris also credits his life drawing teacher, Jacqueline Nicolini, as a great inspiration. After graduating, he attended California State University where he continued to study and perfect his drawing skills.
It Takes Time To Produce A Comic Strip
Because art takes a long time to practice as well as produce, we asked Chris how long it takes him to complete one of his comics.
He says, “in general, I think about 6 hours for most of my comics but it’s hard to gauge. I’ll pencil 3 or 4 comics on watercolor paper in a couple nights, then ink them all in one night, then try to color a couple comics at a time.”
The Process
Chris continues to explain that it is easier with watercolor because you can move onto the next panel while the last panel dries, and you can use the colors you just mixed to keep the panel colors uniform.
He also uses Photoshop and other computer programs to produce comics. In that case, he tries to get it done in one sitting. The complexities are different in each format, and also the time invested may vary.
Writer’s Block
Being an artist is difficult; one can easily experience a lack of inspiration, exhaustion, and other issues. We asked Chris about his comics ideas and what happens when inspiration is difficult to come about.
“Really classic artist problem: the blank page stares back at you, blankly. My remedy has been embracing limitations. It’s a hard task to just “be funny” with no footing to hold onto. I pick on observable things from my everyday life.”
Carry A Sketchbook At All Times
Chris carries a small sketchbook in his back pocket, with all the topics written in the back, and a pen. This way he can write or sketch down ideas wherever he is and not risk forgetting them when he gets home.
He does most of his writing to avoid boredom when he does chores or menial tasks such as changing the oil, waiting for his accountant to do his taxes, or even while eating lunch.
Burnout
As we all know, creative work may occasionally lead to burnout, so we inquired if he has dealt with this as well. Chris goes on to explain that while this is a struggle common to artists, he doesn’t have time to be burned out.
Since he works in animation for his day job, has a small record label “King Volume Records” and recently jumped to work on feature films, he doesn’t have much time left.
Simultaneous Different Projects
In his own words, Chris says: “We regularly put out ToonHole comics and have been working on animated shorts and pitching TV shows/movies of our own. Frankly, I don’t have time to be burnt out and I think that’s the thing that’s been keeping me going all these years. ”
It seems as if diversifying the type of work he does keeps the stress levels at bay. He never gets bored with all those projects.
The Creative Process
Although the creative process isn’t easy, it does have some enjoyable aspects. “I honestly like the whole process. Comics are fun because I get complete control, but they’re also stressful because of it.
Writing is fun, to watch comics emerge out of nothing. Inking and coloring comics is phenomenal because I can put on music and get into a flow state.” Flow is a state of mind where you become fully immersed in an activity.
Collaboration With Other Artists
Working in animation allows Chris to collaborate with other artists and benefit from their experiences (and steal their secrets). Working with voice actors, putting drawings on a timeline to watch how they move, adding music and sound design, are all part of the process.
When reflecting about this, Chris says “Making things is simply fun, and it adds a lot of significance to my life.” The exchange of ideas between artists keeps them inspired and motivated.
Social Media
We asked him about the inspiration behind his Instagram account. He explains the beginnings, “Instagram was the dominant platform when I started. It’s been a tough go recently, as the algorithms seem to be changing and demanding a volume of content that I personally find a challenge to meet with any sort of quality threshold.”
There is pressure to keep up with other accounts and a constant struggle to produce and upload new content.
Platforms
Good work takes time to make and artists are known perfectionists, their art goes through various processes to achieve their minimum standard. Chris followed up, “A comic will be languishing in my sketchbook for a while, broken. Weeks later I will figure out a way to reword or rephrase something that makes it work.
So the next platform that really wants to showcase images will motivate me to start a new account on it too.”
Digital Artist
Digital art takes a lot of patience, time, resources, and money. As a result, we were curious as to how Chris got his start in the digital art world.
“I started my digital art journey in the art community that Tom Fulp started at Newgrounds.com when I was in middle school. It was a Flash community at the time, hosting a Flash portal that people could submit to and audiences got to rate them.”
Advice To Young Artists
It was good for him to have a place where he could get immediate feedback on his work and connect with and learn from other fellow artists. To this day Newgrounds is still going strong, to which Chris strongly advises young artists and filmmakers to visit it and contribute their work.
It is good training and practice for future endeavours without spending much money. Young aspiring digital artists can take good advantage of this opportunity.
Stay Motivated
Artists tend to get motivated by many things such as curiosity and the search for beauty. Chris says, “Most people around me had my passion for making artwork when we were young, excited to draw with markers and crayons and sculpt things with PlayDoh.
But they seem to have grown out of it, whereas I haven’t. It is still something that keeps me excited. I’m going to keep chasing it while the passion keeps burning.”
How ToonHole Started
ToonHole is a project that started back in 2010 by a group of 4 cartoonist friends: Ryan Kramer, Mike Nassar, John Martinez and Chris Allison. The comic strips are intended for adults, due to the subject matter and the level of sarcasm and irony.
It has become very popular in the community, people find some comic relief during their stressful days at work. The comic strips are perfect; short, with few words and killer punchlines.
Chris Allison
Christopher “Chris” Allison was born January 16, 1986, in California, USA. He is a storyboard director/artist and writer who has worked for 11 years on television shows such as Looney Tunes Cartoons, Spongebob, among others.
He was credited as a storyboard artist on two Spongebob episodes: “Food Con Castaways” and “Krabby Patty Creature Feature.” Chris has also worked in various other TV series: The Blubburbs (2018), SMBC Theater (2009) and Tito Yayo (2010).
Binge On ToonHole Comics
The ToonHole official Facebook page has 77k followers and comic strips are published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can go check out the comics there and binge through the older stuff.
Their Twitter account has over 2.2k followers where you can comfortably share the comics with your friends. You can also follow each cartoonist from the project individually on Instagram. ToonHole is a fun little getaway from when you are commuting to work.
About Ambiguity And Literal Meaning
This comic strip plays with the ambiguity and the literal meaning of the words we use everyday on our scripts. When we see a dog, we usually ask if it is a rescue or a specific breed.
But In this case, the little girl will never know that it was the dog who rescued the human from a dangerous situation!
About Paying Attention To Detail
In this comic strip we see a man who comes back from work and is greeted by his dog. He is happy to see his best friend, although he remarks it’s “man’s best friend”.
This is a common general assumption when it comes to dogs. But, what about his “human” best friend who was listening by the window all along?
About Making Assumptions
ToonHole likes to play with people’s assumptions about others and turn them around to generate comic relief. We associate Santa and his reindeer with Christmas and the Christian religion, but assumptions are nothing more than hints that we may get wrong.
The surprise is finding Rudoplh lighting a Menorah. It shows us that not everyone has our same religious background.
About Hypocrisy
Adults face criticism and hypocrisy every day. It’s funny seeing how accurate this comic strip is. Many people want to save face and they never give you their honest opinion, though they will express their true feelings behind your back.
Here, the two guys quickly try to save the situation after the other guy tells them the drawing was his.
About Personal Interpretations
Once again, ToonHole plays with different interpretations of the scripts we use everyday. We all know the tattooed guy meant the removal of the ugly tattoo, but the doctor interpreted it in a more personal way.
To him, wretched was his face, not the tattoo, and he went ahead and erased it! This joke is actually very well thought out.
About Common Decency
This one talks about the newly acquired common decency of always wearing a mask in public. It doesn’t matter what you are doing outside, but if you’re going to engage in conversation with a stranger, you better be wearing a mask!
The monster is looking very apologetic and embarrassed, which is incredibly funny since he probably doesn’t even need it.
About Global Events
Another strategy used by ToonHole is to make use of common global events in its stories, such as the pandemic and global warming. This is a good way to educate people about it in a way that they will remember it.
The snowman tragically melts away in front of the children due to the high temperatures and traumatizes them deeply.
About Courtesy and Chivalry
Gentlemen are everywhere! This wrestler stopped in the middle of the match to offer a pregnant spectator a chair to sit down on. Courtesy and chivalry are not dead, are they?
We guess the other fighter never saw her as he hit his competitor with another folded chair. Shouldn’t the lady be sitting further behind to avoid dangers like this?
About Staying On The Diet
The full moon is going on a diet for a month! We see her reduce in shape every day and we think, “Oh, good for her! She’s accomplishing her goals!”
A few weeks later we see a full moon again, and looking closer, we spot a packet of sugary sour candy! We can’t be mad at her, they’re truly delicious!
About Loud Neighbors
Ah, yes, loud neighbors! We have all experienced having neighbors put music to full volume and interrupt our rest. The worst part is when the music they listen to is bad.
This guy grew tired and annoyed of the loud music and complained that it was garbage. Next thing we see is a sophisticated orchestra. We doubt it was garbage!
About Shock Value
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what matters is what’s inside. This girl took this saying literally and showed the guy the inside of her chest cavity.
That would freak anyone out, but ToonHole surprised us once again with the guy’s reaction. The heart looks swollen and according to his face, it is not that pretty at all.
About Customer Service
Customer service was not left out by ToonHole. Back in the day, when robbers came to the bank and you knew it was going to be a bad day. Today, a guy with a check to cash means it’s going to be a difficult situation as well.
Customer service people know how hard it is to deal with angry people.