ABOUT

Hi there ! I'm Jangojim, born in 1985, a self-taught artist from Antwerp, Belgium
( the Land of Chocolate ). Enjoying life and trying to make my stay on earth worth it.

I LIKE
Comics, coffee & tea, comedy, cookies, photography, I devour movies and books, toy robots, arcade games, 20's jazz music, machines & old cities, freak shows, fairgrounds, old museums, wooden things, full-time daydreaming, the sound of crisps when you eat them and a lot more. I forgot to include traveling. And food. Oh, delicious FOOD !











NAME HISTORY
My real name is DIMITRI SAKELAROPOLUS. My great grandfather was a Greek sailor from Athens who met my great grandmother, of Norwegian descent, in Wales. They ended up in vibrant port city Antwerp in Belgium. My family still lives and loves it there. My surname ( oh the painful hours of trying to write it when I was a kid ) apparently means: protector of the church treasure. I like how mysterious that sounds. Was one of my ancestors a dude with an axe on a mountain of gold or a boring church office clerk ? I thought up a moniker in 2005, because people had trouble remembering my name or spelling it right. One of my favorite jazz musicians is Django Reinhardt. His music was and still is always a great inspiration, although I listen to a lot of different stuff. I've always liked the name Django, which means "I awaken". That same year I was in Athens, Greece and for some reason people started calling me "Jim" after I said my name was Dimitri. I found Jango and Jim going very well together audibly and there it was. My name : JANGOJIM. Without "d" and in one word with the rhythmic repetition of the "j". Sometimes people write it in two parts, and that's ok too.

HOW I BECAME AN ARTIST
I've always been drawing in sketchbooks or on anything that I could find as long as I can remember. My parents always had paper and pencils with them wherever we went to keep me busy. Everyone around me told me to not become a professional artist. Too difficult, too uncertain. I ended up studying literature and linguistics at the University of Antwerp because of my love for stories and languages. But over the years the irresistible urge to create, to draw, became bigger than me. I realized I had to follow my dreams or I would become an unhappy man ( partly also because I sucked at English grammar ). It's a cliché, but don't let anyone stop you from becoming who you want to be. A symbiotic couch potato or a tap dancing unicorn? Go for it !














SHORT CAREER SUMMARY
My work has already been shown in Antwerp, Leuven, Amsterdam, Berlin, Porto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo. I've met and worked with amazing talented people. I have made comics and illustrations for Vice Magazine, The University of Antwerp, Glitch Magazine, various Newspapers in Belgium. I did a lot of murals for Converse, have done numerous live drawing performances, storyboards for movies and ads, have worked as Art Director at BBDO and Mortierbrigade, did workshops for the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp and TedX just to name a few. I recently co-wrote and did animation for a multicultural comedy tv show ( Bergica ) that appeared on Belgian channel Acht, together with my 2 best friends and promising movie directors Adil el Arbi and Bilall Fallah.

KLAXON
9 May 2015 was the first edition of KLAXON Comic Strip Festival. It is a new annual festival in Antwerp that I co-organized with Publisher of fine quality comics Bries ( Brecht Vandenbroucke, Olivier Schrauwen,.. ). It focuses on quality alternative comics and (graphic) art from Belgium and abroad.

AT THE MOMENT
I'm part of the hot Belgian Live Drawing Collective SKETCH, I'm working on an own animated short series called Elvis & Benny for commercial broadcast channel VTM, a book featuring my Jango Comix and since last year I'm a screenwriter for various upcoming animation and comedy series on tv ( co-writer on VRT and Woestijnvis projects ).














SKILLS
Coming up with creative ideas, silliness & humor, brainstorming. It's always number one in the creation process. Concerning drawing I mostly make quirky naive happy colorful things with a love for detail. Always with a love for handmade things that I finish digitally. In animation I mostly work digital, but always 2D with a preference for things that look non-digital. Good and fun ideas are most important.

I do:

illustrations - comics and cartoons - animation - storyboarding - character design - art direction - murals - screenwriting - I'm also a creative idea-machine.

I've been trying to juggle with chain saws on a trampoline but that hasn't worked out just yet.

PHILOSOPHY
I have an unstoppable hunger for creating, drawing, learning new skills and entertaining. I strongly believe in honesty, creativity, playing around, original ideas, the power of humor, doing what you love and learning by doing. If you need my creative input or like what I do, I'd love to hear about it. I'm available for freelance jobs, nonsensical fun and creative consulting.

jangojim@gmail.com

DOCUMENTARY
Find included a little portrait film student Kris van den Bulck made about me. Mind you it's a bit romanticized. Usually I'm in my pajamas all day building marble machines and watching cartoons to then transform by midnight into a crazy creative professor.

Jangojim from K21 on Vimeo.