Tuesday 4 December 2018

pelagic zone

Not having grown up with the characters, it’s a little outside of my particular shibboleth but I think we can all nonetheless appreciate the artistry and world-building that went into one of the longest running animated series in history and can definitely share in the sentiment of this tribute from Dangerous Minds on the recent passing of Stephen Hillenburg.
Before becoming a cartoon artist, Hillenburg taught marine biology and set a cast of characters in The Intertidal Zone as an educational comic to better reach his students. These classroom mascots would eventually move to Bikini Bottoms but Hillenburg honed his drawing talents on other projects in the interim. Watch Hillenburg’s first short at the link above.