STEPHEN HILLENBURG

The characters are likable. Even the villainous Plankton - he's still flawed, and you still root for him, in a way, and the style of humor is simple, and it's about human behavior, and everybody can identify with that.

One night, I was really beat; we worked really late and went to get food at some takeout place. And I leaned over against this gumball machine, just exhausted, and there was a SpongeBob looking back at me. And it's just, like, 'Oh, brother.'

A natural sponge is not as funny. A square sponge also fit that squeaky-clean idea I was going for.

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.

I never imagined that I'd end up in animation, but marine biology and art collided, and here we are!

It's not like the computer magically does it for you. Animation just takes forever.

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.

I was just looking at a packet that had SpongeBob thong underwear, so it goes farther than I would imagine.

I was thinking about what would it be, what would the characters be like, and it just suddenly dawned on me that, hey, nobody is doing an underseas show. So I started drawing these weird invertebrate animals, various characters like crawfish and starfish and squids and sponge.

When SpongeBob's perseverance shines through, and you root for him - that's when the show is working.

I just kind of figured that the marine biology would be a career, and the art would be something I did for my own self-expression.

Obviously, we're never going to say what the Krabby Patty secret formula is.

I was always interested in the ocean and also in art. I had to figure out how to put the two together, but painting fish sounded boring.

I was into Jacques Cousteau as a kid and started scuba-diving around 14, which blew my mind. It was all colour, another world.

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!

On TV, it is more efficient to use voice-over people because it is really hard to get celebrity voices to recur in a series.

Everybody's got some fascination with undersea life, don't you think?

I thought, well, what about a show that stars undersea creatures, and some of the ones you rarely see animated. So, from there, I just started drawing different animals in a kind of a setting that was this nautical world. It's not realistic but sort of a fantastic environment.

We're always aiming for storytelling that feels a bit surreal.

I think the source of SpongeBob's humour is classic, and that's always appealing.

I studied marine biology, even taught marine science before I got into animation, so I had an interest in that field and those animals.

Anyone who knows me knows that I will continue to work on 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and my other passions for as long as I am able.

In the '70s, as a kid, someone took me to a Tournee of Animation festival at the L.A. County Museum of Art.

I studied natural resources planning and thought I could get a job at some marine park. But I was great at art and so-so at marine biology. It's funny how the two eventually came together.

When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you can't anticipate this kind of craze. We just try to make ourselves laugh, then ask ourselves if it's appropriate for children.