HARDWICK – Dan Bandit, also known as Ghostshrimp, is an illustrator most known for his work on “Adventure Time” for Cartoon Network, “The Midnight Gospel” on Netflix, as well as his Grammy-nominated album artwork for “Gravity Falls.”
Last Wednesday, the Galaxy Bookshop hosted a Q&A to celebrate the publication of his second coloring book, “Hollow Earth.” Bandit signed copies of the book and answered fan questions.
“Hollow Earth” consists of fifty-five individual drawings, for which Bandit detailed parts of his creative process. “I work on them all at once, so I don’t do one at a time. I actually literally get fifty-five drawings going at the same time, and I’m a very ADHD person. . . I love and thrive bouncing between the different pages and letting the excitement of one fill over to another, or if I’m stuck on one page, and I can just jump in another one and just keep the momentum going,” he said.
Bandit says it took him about four months of drawing to make the 55 pieces that comprise the coloring book, while balancing other projects as well. He recently began a project for Fortnite, designing a loading screen and just concluded six months of visual development, world design and designing vehicles for a Microsoft video game.
One fan asked what medium he prefers, tablet or paper, “So I’ve been doing this since 2003, which is 22 years now, which is insane. The first, probably 18 years of my career, I just drew on paper. And I would pencil it on a watercolor paper, and then I would ink over that, and then I would scan that in, and I would color it. So I would do my digital coloring. And then, for the first, like, decade of my career, I had a little MacBook laptop and a mouse, and I would just fill in my illustrations.”
He said, in comparison to his peers, he was very slow to pick up digital drawing in spite of its widespread use. He says his favorite part of the digital process is the ability to draw, color and ink simultaneously.
Reflecting on his profession as a whole, Bandit said,“My favorite thing about being an artist is I get to wake up every day and sit down on my desk and just draw the weirdest, wildest stuff that comes out of my brain. And that’s what I’ve been doing since I was all y’all’s age. So yeah, that’s definitely my favorite part. I’ve never worked on a job that I wasn’t very excited about, that I wasn’t inspired by, and that I wouldn’t do for free. So I’m very lucky that every single thing I’ve done for the last 20 plus years has been like, really fun for me.”
Bandit says “Adventure Time,” which ran from 2010 to 2018, is likely his best-known work. He shared his reaction to the show’s explosion in popularity, “It was an absolute dream come true. I am from a town actually smaller than this. I grew up in western Massachusetts in a town of about 2,000 people, you know, just growing up in the woods, drawing for fun, having fun. When I got the opportunity to design the world for “Adventure Time,” I really didn’t have any experience doing that, didn’t know what a background was or anything like that.”
He continued, “But of course, I grew up in the woods, and of course, I grew up loving great cartoons. So I just put that all together and designed my dream world and that became the world for adventure time. And that was, in itself, such a fun thing, but then to have it be so beloved by so many people all over the world. I mean, that is really the thing that I’ve done that I can mention to, you know, anybody around the world and about half the people have heard of it and they love it and they react to it.”
Bandit revealed he actually just designed the logo for a recent “Adventure Time” show, and hopes to continue to work with their creative teams in the near future, “So, yeah, “Adventure Time” has a very, very special place in my heart and in my life,” he concluded.
Bandit says he was first inspired by the classic Disney shorts, as well as the old fashioned Pink Panther cartoons, Looney Tunes, as well as a number of children’s books and other media. He named surrealist artist Salvatore Dali as a big inspiration, citing his dream centered subjects, “Everything was very personal to him and based on his dreams and his nightmares. That’s really the way I make my work. I make my work all based on the things that I like, love the most or I’m scared of the most or just that I react to the most.
think that’s where all the power is.”
Bandit said he never really considered he would get into animation specifically. He thought he would do album covers and comics, which he described as his wildest dream at the time, before “the animation stuff kind of came and found me.”
Of all the shows he’s worked on, he deems “Adventure Time” his favorite, “I just really got to put the kind of dream version of growing up in the woods of New England, and share it with the world, which is a very fun and personal thing.”
For aspiring artists, Bandit had some advice. “Draw a lot, draw as much as you can. You know, if you want to be professional, your goal is to definitely get up to a minimum of 40 hours a week drawing. At that point you’re going to need a minimum of that. So obviously, as a kid that’s a pretty high bar, but just having fun with it, drawing as much as you can, drawing with your friends, getting a sketchbook, and just sitting there, jamming, throwing on some music, and just letting the ideas flow, and just always keep it about the fun.”
He continued,”I think everybody can just have fun with that at that point, before you even think about being a professional, just just doing it for fun. I mean, it didn’t even cross my mind till I was in high school that this could be something that I did for a job. I just did it all the time for fun. So I think that’s a really key component, just really having fun. I would just draw with my friends growing up. In high school, I would just hang out after school and draw with my friends.
o that’s the great basis, just the love of it, and then as you start to seek professional jobs, don’t forget that it’s just about fun skills. It doesn’t change. Right?
ou don’t change because you’re earning money, you don’t change because you’re working for people. You’re always working for yourself. You’re always working for what I think of as the art gods, who inspire all the art in the world. I think everything in the world is art.”
Dan Bandit, best known as Ghostshrimp, offers professional classes called the Ghostshrimp Classic Workshop. A ten week program, people sign up for weekly illustration assignments, meeting as a group to share their work before Bandit offers feedback. The classes are for adults, however.
Bandit says he hopes he can free up some time to host classes at the Civic in the future or art jams, when he is less busy with ongoing projects, “I’m suffering from being too busy. Hopefully we’ll fall on some bad luck and some hard times and we’ll just have to go there,” he joked.
For more information about the Galaxy Bookshop, call (802) 472-5533 or visit galaxybookshop.com for a full schedule of events and online shopping. The Galaxy Bookshop, at 41 South Main St., is a locally owned and independent bookstore celebrating its 37th year in business.
Raymonda Parchment is a Hardwick Gazette reporter. She recently graduated from Vermont State University - Castleton with a Bachelor’s Degree in English. She is a strong supporter of freedom of speech, and the right to publish information, opinions, and ideas without censorship or restraint. She is a lifelong lover of the written word, and is excited to join the team as a staff member.
