Ghostshrimp
Daniel James Bandit (born Daniel Rogers James; August 14, 1980), better known as Ghostshrimp, is an American graphic artist, animator and illustrator. His illustration work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and on many album covers, including the MF Doom and Bishop Nehru collaboration NehruvianDoom. He is the former lead background designer for the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time.
Also recorded as Daniel "Ghostshrimp" James · Daniel Rogers James · Daniel James Bandit
Ghostshrimp
- Name
- Ghostshrimp
- Birth Name
- Daniel Rogers James
- Born
- 14 August 1980
- Birthplace
- Shutesbury, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Field
- Illustration, animation
- Education
- Pratt Institute
- Full name
- Daniel Rogers James.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- illustrator and animator.
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Daniel James Bandit (born Daniel Rogers James; August 14, 1980), better known as Ghostshrimp, is an American graphic artist, animator and illustrator. His illustration work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and on many album covers, including the MF Doom and Bishop Nehru collaboration NehruvianDoom. He is the former lead background designer for the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time.
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Ghostshrimp (born 1980) is an American animator and illustrator. The animator was born Daniel Rogers James in Shutesbury. Ghostshrimp studied at Pratt Institute.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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wikidata · Q21285059 · wikipedia · Ghostshrimp
In this article
Biography
Biography
He left midway through production of the fourth season to return to his freelance career, although he later temporarily returned to design backgrounds for the seventh season miniseries Stakes and several subsequent ninth and tenth-season episodes. Finally, for the same channel he created in 2013 the pilot Mars Safari!, which was released online as part of Cartoon Network Studios' shorts development program.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Ghostshrimp • Birth Name — Daniel Rogers James • Born — 14 August 1980 • Birthplace — Shutesbury, Massachusetts, U.S. • Field — Illustration, animation • Education — Pratt Institute
Biography
Biography
Ghostshrimp lived a self-proclaimed "Mark Twain childhood", and he spent most of his time in the forests around his home in rural western Massachusetts. When his family eventually moved to seacoast New Hampshire, the memories of the forests that he played in as a kid stayed with him and became hugely influential when he became an artist. Prior to moving to California, Ghostshrimp graduated from the Pratt Institute, where he had studied art. After that, lived in a cabin that he had constructed himself on Mystery Mountain in New Hampshire. This influenced his later ideas for the Land of Ooo, as in how he envisioned Finn and Jake's tree fort. In 2008, Ghostshrimp freelanced for Cartoon Network, working with John Infantino to storyboard three episodes for the first season of Thurop Van Orman's series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He eventually moved out to California to work full-time on the show's second season, but after completing only one episode was fired by Van Orman from the series due to disagreements with his storyboard partner, Mike Roth. Around this time, Adventure Time was in development and its producers had been long fretting about the series' background art. Creator Pendleton Ward wanted his series to be "fully realized", with a greater emphasis on the series' environment and setting. The crew had tried a whole variety of art styles for the background art, but nothing seemed to gel with Ward's vision. Eventually, after considering Ghostshrimp's designs, the crew believed that they had found their designer; in fact, former creative director Patrick McHale noted that he "was pretty much perfect". Ward and McHale approached Ghostshrimp the day after he was let go from Flapjack and offered him a job on the show. Ghostshrimp was given free rein to design the world, and Ward told the artist to make the series look like it took "place in a 'Ghostshrimp World'". Ghostshrimp had taken the job at Cartoon Network in order to save up enough money to buy a tract of land in Northern New England to build the Bandit family homestead and start a training camp for aspiring visual artists. His plan eventually worked, and he left Adventure Time during production of the show's fourth season and moved into the forest of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The inaugural session of Ghostscout Training Camp lasted from August 1 to September 1, 2012, and Ghostshrimp continues to host the 30-day training camp every August. In 2014, Ghostshrimp created his own pilot for Disney Television Animation entitled Pinchy and Ponchy. Ghostshrimp also helped on visual development for another Disney TVA pilot, Douglas Furs, created by Jesse LeDoux and Matt Olsen. Both pilots were picked up for a full series order by Disney XD, but executive changes at Disney Branded Television in 2016 ended their production. Ghostshrimp has returned to Adventure Time several times. The first was in March 2015, when he agreed to design backgrounds for the seventh-season miniseries "Stakes". According to his official Facebook profile, he designed around 70 new pieces for the show. In later 2016 and early 2017, Ghostshrimp also revealed that he was working on new background pieces for several ninth- and tenth-season episodes, including several that comprise the show's finale.
Art style
Art style
Ghostshrimp's art style is highly idiosyncratic. Fellow background artist Chris Tsirgiotis has described Ghostshrimp's art as "simple at first glance, but it's actually very sophisticated and nuanced". Tsirgiotis has also said that Ghostshrimp "is a master at his use of pattern. He puts it in just about everything he does."
Filmography
Filmography
• Title — Channel — Year(s) — Role(s) • The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack — Cartoon Network — 2009 — Writer and storyboard artist (4 episodes) • Adventure Time — 2010–2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 — Background designer, and guest voice actor (as "Phil", "Wizard", and "Head #2") • Uncle Grandpa — 2010 — Character clean-up ("Pilot") • Transmission — Short only — 2012 — Special thanks • Cartoon Network Shorts Department — Cartoon Network — 2013 — Creator, writer, storyboard artist, character designer, and background designer for the short, “Mars Safari” • Douglas Furs — Disney XD — 2014 — Background designer; pilot only • Pinchy and Ponchy — Creator, writer, storyboard artist, character designer, and background designer; pilot only • Cartoon Cartoons — Youtube — 2026 — Background designer for the short “Hungy Ghost”
Identity
Identity
Ghostshrimp is recorded with the occupation illustrator. Recorded as a citizen of United States. Recorded with the occupation animator. Recorded at birth as Daniel Rogers James.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1980
Ghostshrimp was born on 14 August 1980.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Ghostshrimp”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q21285059: Ghostshrimp
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Ghostshrimp. Episode 010: I Am A Total Fuck Up. SoundCloud.
- 2.Kahn, Ilana. Interview with Ghostshrimp. Lost At E Minor. October 29, 2008.
- 3.Ghostshrimp. Mars Safari (2013). Dailymotion. March 14, 2015.
- 4.Strange Kids Club. Early Preview of Ghostshrimp's New Project "Mars Safari" for Cartoon Network.
- 5.McDonnell, 2014, p=208 .
- 6.DeMott, Rick. Time for Some Adventure with Pendleton Ward. Animation World Network. April 25, 2010.
- 7.McDonnell, 2014, pp=202 7 .
- 8.McDonnell, 2014, p=207 .
- 9.Ghostshrimp. As Seen On Television. Ghostshrimp.net.
- 10.McDonnell, 2014, pp=208 9 .
- 11.James, Dan. Ghostscouts. GhostshrimpGlobal.com.
- 12.Pinchy And Ponchy Pilot - Alien Test I Disney TVA Pilots. February 28, 2022.
- 13.Instagram. www.instagram.com.
- 14.Douglas Furs. LeDouxville.
- 15.James, Dan. New Adventure Time 8-Parter!. GhostshrimpGlobal.com. March 15, 2015.
- 16.Ghostshrimp. [Ghostshrimp discusses the new backgrounds for the Adventure Time miniseries]. Facebook. May 16, 2015.
- 17.Ghostshrimp. [Adventure Time backgrounds]. Instagram.
- 18.Ghostshrimp. Rumor has it that I will be doing some new backgrounds for the final story arc of Adventure Time!. Facebook. January 31, 2017.
- 19.Tsirgiotis, Chris. A Few Designs I Did for Adventure Time. Tumblr. November 20, 2014.
- 20.Thomas, Paul; Tsirgiotis, Chris. Chris Tsirgiotis Interview. Tumblr. September 25, 2015.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Cite web
- Cite magazine
- McDonnell, Chris. Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo. Harry N. Abrams. 2014. 9781419704505.
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Studied at
1- Pratt InstituteOrganisation
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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