I'm hoping that fans will enjoy finally having a 'SpongeBob' comic book from me. All the stories will be original and always true to the humor, characters, and universe of the 'SpongeBob SquarePants' series.
A sponge is a funny animal to center a show on. At first, I drew a few natural sponges - amorphous shapes, blobs - which was the correct thing to do biologically as a marine science teacher. Then I drew a square sponge, and it looked so funny.
I see SpongeBob on ice-cream trucks a lot, and I've got bootleg SpongeBob merchandise from Mexico.
For some reason, not many women go into cartooning.
I think it's amusing to watch a naive, well-meaning character kind of undo more cynical characters - kind of like watching Laurel and Hardy or Charlie Chaplin.
You have to imagine you write a show about a sponge and you think that maybe a few people will think it is funny, some college students, but it takes off. It is truly shocking - to the point where it is bizarre.
I pitched the idea that SpongeBob and Patrick learn a swearword. Everyone said no. I couldn't even use a bleep. So I used a dolphin sound instead.
In the show, the whole point of the fast food - the fact that SpongeBob loves being part of the fast-food chain and that being a manager is his ultimate dream - it's ironic. It's something that most people don't think is a great thing to try to achieve.
SpongeBob is a kid living an adult life. He has a job. Kids think being a fry cook is a great job.
Twentysomethings thank me for their childhood... SpongeBob lives at the bottom of the sea, but he brings a lot of great stuff to the surface.
When I pitched the show, I made this special seashell. You could pick it up and hear me singing, 'Spongeboy, Spongeboy!' I also made an aquarium with Patrick planted on the side, SpongeBob sitting on a barrel, and Squidward inside. I wore a Hawaiian shirt. I don't know what they thought of it.
SpongeBob represents idiocy. He is dumb. Patrick is dumb. Mr. Krabs is greedy. Squidward is a snob and vain.
I was into Jacques Cousteau as a kid and started scuba-diving around 14, which blew my mind. It was all colour, another world.
The essence of the show is that SpongeBob is an innocent in a world of jaded characters. The rest is absurd packaging.
To do a 75-minute movie about SpongeBob wanting to make some jellyfish jelly would be a mistake, I think.
Most sponges in the ocean are sedentary: They attach themselves to a rock and sit and filter-feed the rest of their lives and reproduce, and that's about it. Not that they are not interesting, but they are not that kinetic. They are not mobile. They don't cook Krabbie Patties!
Laurel and Hardy are among my strongest influences, and I think they're perfect examples of two naive, kid-like characters that are still funny today. In fact, they're a lot like SpongeBob and Patrick, walking around in their own little world and causing a fine mess.
In the spring of 1996, I was working for Nickelodeon on a show called 'Rocko's Modern Life,' and I was interested at the time in doing a show about the ocean, an undersea show.
I do think that the attitude of the show is about tolerance. Everybody is different, and the show embraces that. The character SpongeBob is an oddball. He's kind of weird, but he's kind of special.
I was just looking at a packet that had SpongeBob thong underwear, so it goes farther than I would imagine.
