Comic strip segment from 'Shaun The Sheep: The Beast of Soggy Moor' (2014).
Andy Janes is a British storyboard artist, illustrator and comic artist, with a long association with Aardman Animations. He had worked on several of their shows and also served as illustrator for print productions with popular characters like 'Wallace & Gromit' and 'Shaun The Sheep'. Since 2012, he is also a regular artist for The Beano and the Digital Dandy.
Animation
Based in the Bristol region, Andy Janes began his career between 1993 and 2001 as a storyboard artist with animation studios like Cosgrove Hall Films. Among the early productions he was involved with were 'Rubbish, King of the Jumble' (1993), 'Hurricanes' (1993-1997), 'Romuald the Reindeer' (1996), 'Bob the Builder' (1999-2000), 'Fireman Sam' (2004-2005) and other children's TV series. Since 2006, he has been working as a storyboarder, illustrator and production designer for Aardman Animations, the company behind popular clay animation series like 'Wallace & Gromit' and 'Shaun the Sheep'. His notable contributions were on Richard Webber's superhero parody series 'DC World's Funnest' (2011), spoofing the universe of DC Comics, and the TV series 'Chop Socky Chooks' (2007-2008) and 'Timmy Time' (2009-2011).
Print media
With writer Martin Howard, Janes has also made six children's books starring Aardman's 'Shaun the Sheep' (Walker Books, 2014-2017), for which he provided the illustrations and comic strip segments. In 2020, Janes drew a comic strip for The Bristol Post based on the new animated feature film 'Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up'.
Since 2012, Andy Janes has appeared in DC Thomson's comic magazine The Beano and its annuals with strips based on 'Wallace & Gromit' and 'Shaun the Sheep'. For the digital edition of The Dandy (the magazine's final print issue appeared in December 2012), he drew episodes with DC Thomson's classic superhero parody character 'Bananaman' (2013), originally created in 1980 by writer Steve Bright and artist John Geering. Simultaneously to the digital strip by Janes, 'Bananaman' appeared in The Beano with artwork by Wayne Thompson. For the Beano Annual of 2014, he drew a new story with the 'Lord Snooty' character, created by Dudley D. Watkins.
'Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up' (2020).