ToomaHUEba!

My good friend Travis Eck just moved to Houston with his wife and kiddos, so the 4AFTER5 boys had a little get-together to say our goodbyes before he left. Trav's signature creation is Hue Snodgrass, a character he's been making comics about since his high school days. The dude even put out a hilarious full-color comic last year starring Hue and friends....you should buy it now, he does good work.

Anyway, I worked up a TOOMASOOBA version of Hue ("ToomaHUEba", that is) as a parting gift for Trav and I think he was pleased with the results. Take a look below.

We'll miss our buddy...but no worries, he will remain an official part of the 4AFTER5 gang. Plenty of jam comics and collaborations still to come, we promise!

"ToomaHUEba" alongside Trav's character design!

Christmas in Roseland 2011

Last year around this time, Brad Campbell and I exhibited some artwork at The American Rose Center's "Christmas in Roseland"...this year, the whole 4AFTER5 gang is along for the ride! Below are several photos of our holiday-themed pieces on display through December 19th — head out to Greenwood this month to get the full holiday experience!

Official artwork for the "Deck These Halls" show.

Byron & friends representing for TOOMASOOBA.

Trav's "Portraits of Christmas" Series.

A look at some of Jeff's illustration.

Brad's Roofus art.

Zoom! Bang! Kapow!

Back in August, 4AFTER5 was asked to speak at the downtown Shreveport Public Library event "Zoom! Bang! Kapow!" to help celebrate the arrival of their massive new graphic novel collection. Even though only three of us were available to speak, we still had a great time. We got to talk about our work and draw some cartoons with those in attendance and even got to judge a costume contest...totally picked an 8-year-old Captain America as the winner. Enjoy a few pics below!

Show and tell.

I do believe I was drawing a monkey wearing a spacesuit in this photo.

Me, Travis, awesome librarian LeVette Fuller and Brad.

Yuletide Preview

I know it's a bit early to bust out the seasons greetings (though I admit I am currently rocking out a Christmas playlist in iTunes), but I couldn't resist! The 4AFTER5 boys and I are already preparing for a holiday-themed show that will go up after Thanksgiving, so below is a little sneak peak of one of my pieces — "Santa's Little (Big) Helper".

Last year, Brad and I showed some work at the American Rose Center and we're happy to have the whole gang involved for 2011. To see all of our art, swing by "Christmas in Roseland" in Greenwood, LA, this November 25 through December 18...it's a fun time with lights and carols and the whole holiday thing! Hope to see you little elves there.

Journal Comics

Several months ago, the 4AFTER5 crew decided to try our hands at drawing some journal strips. In the tradition of James Kochalka and other online illustrators, we each recorded (in comic form) a moment or experience from our day...it could be funny or run-of-the-mill or, well, whatever. And we gave it a shot for one week -- not too long, really, but a fun experience nonetheless.

Click here to read the seven comics created by yours truly!

One of the strips "starring" myself and my good buddy Jonathan.

4AFTER5 Jam Comics

I've mentioned 4AFTER5 in previous posts, but for the uninitiated we’re a group of four local graphic designers who “pursue our passion for illustration after hours”. Typically we get together monthly-ish to talk shop, nerd out and draw a jam comic or two.

What is a jam comic? It’s the creative process where a group of artists work together to create one complete comic strip. Sometimes a comic will begin with a random panel, which is then passed along to the next artist to expand upon…and so on, until the circle is complete. Other times, we’ll each put our own spin on a random topic and combine them into one strip after the fact.

Over time, the stack of completed comics grew. We thought it would be a great idea to put them in comic book form to make available at our show opening in November 2010...so we did just that.

If you want to see some of our handiwork, you can check out a selection of the comics on fellow 4AFTER5-er Brad Campbell’s blog.

It’s always a blast drawing with these fellas and getting down on some comic makin’...I don’t break out the pencil and paper as much as I should these days, so working like this helps keep me sharp! We enjoyed creating these comics and we hope that you enjoy reading them, too.

A jam comic by Brad Campbell, Jeff Welborn, Travis Eck
and myself. Click above for larger version!

More 4 (AFTER 5)

Well, the 4AFTER5 show is officially over and we're marking this one down in the "success" column. Sold some pieces, met some new folks, and got to share our art with Shreveport. On the exhibit's last official day, our friend (and film whiz) Matt Weeks got some footage of our pieces and interviews with us 4A5 dudes.

It was a long (but exciting and rewarding) day, and we're glad to have gotten a video record of the exhibit. When the piece is all edited and whatnot, we'll be sure to share!

Travis in the hot seat.

ToomaBot

Fellow 4AFTER5-er Travis and his wife recently had a baby boy named Jonas, and he asked myself and some other dudes to help decorate the room, robot-style! Trav gave us cool little blank figures to customize, and we had a lot of fun with it.

To the right you'll see my contribution -- I think I did a good job putting a TOOMASOOBA spin on the little fella. I also chose the color as a nod to "My Name is Jonas" on Weezer's Blue Album. And he has a fancy little hat. You can never go wrong with fancy little hats.

You can see some other figurine awesomeness here and here. Thanks for the chance to snazz up the space, Trav!

4AFTER5 on the News

The 4AFTER5 crew was featured on KTBS-3's November 29th broadcast. See some art! Learn about our methods! Listen to us stumble over our words!

The show runs through January 7, 2011 at Artspace in Downtown Shreveport and features the work of Jeff Welborn, Travis Eck, Brad Campbell and myself. More info can be found here.