You may have noticed that SpongeBob has been popping up even more than usual over the past few weeks. It's because the show recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Say what you will of the yellow sponge, but you can't deny his popularity. People (kids especially) LOVE SpongeBob. VH1 recently debuted a documentary special "Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob Squarepants", Nickelodeon aired a 50-hour marathon last weekend, and
Nick Mag currently has an "Ultimate SpongeBob Issue" on news stands.
The Atlantic also recently published a great article called
SpongeBob's Golden Dream which I think does a unique job of putting everything in perspective.
I posted some
spongy thoughts on my blog as well. And I wanted to take this post to highlight some great SpongeBob art.
Sherm Cohen is an amazingly talented cartoonist who worked on the show in the early days as a writer, storyboard artist, and director. His artwork frequents the covers of
Nick Mag, and he's one of the best SpongeBob artists around in my opinion. He just posted a bunch of illustrations he did for the Village Voice (posts
1 and
2) a few years back that are some of the best SpongeBob imagery I've seen outside of the show. Here are a few favorites:
And then there are the often sick and twisted drawings of Robertryan Cory. About a month ago he started posting production art from the show on his
Flickr account and he keeps adding to it. He seems to be tasked with the more elaborate, exaggerated, grotesque, and cartoony drawings needed in the show. They are some of my favorite drawings PERIOD as of late, and definitely worth your attention.
You may be annoyed by his laugh, you may be tempted to label the shows overly hyper-active, and you may be sick of all the merchandising (I love
this camera), but now that the show has been on for over a decade, I think it's a good time to reflect on the phenomenon that is SpongeBob. A character like this only comes around once a generation (once a century, even—I would easily qualify SpongeBob as the new Mickey Mouse).
From The Atlantic article:
...the SquarePants writers are interested in stories, even in lessons. Again and again, a kind of innocence triumphs—over fear, over snobbery, and over skepticism.
Trotting along bright-hearted, laughing his spray-on headache of a laugh, he will not succumb to complication. His corner of the world is all levity. Embrace him, drained adult. Where you see his little yellow flag, salute it; it’s a sign of life.
Here's to that!
SpongeBob © 2009 Viacom International Inc. All rights reserved. NICKELODEON, SpongeBob SquarePants, and all related titles, logos, and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. SpongeBob Created by Stephen Hillenburg.
