Squilliam's Yacht

People seem to think because I worked on SpongeBob, I'm rolling in cash. Sometimes they think I have something to do with the merchandising. It's not the case unless answering yes will benefit me.

I do some writing occasionally for the comic, though. It's one of the only non-superhero periodical comics still being published, and one of the many projects my former Nickelodeon editor Chris Duffy in the wake of the magazine's demise.

One of the stories I wrote was written in comics form rather than script form. It looked like this:

Rather than use the symmetrical Kurtzman/Stanley format I usually use, the layouts were changed, and this was the eventual result. The name of the story has also been changed to Squilliam's Yacht

The layouts are by co-creator Derek Drymon, art by Stephen DeStefano, coloring by Scott Roberts, the lettering will eventually be done by Comicraft. My former writing partner Jay Lender saw this without the dialogue and said “I don't ever want to know why SpongeBob is in Patrick's mouth. The explanation could only be a letdown.”

Viacom is strict about enforcing Spongebob's copyright on YouTube, so it's interesting what gets by. Here are the search results for the episode Rock-a-Bye Bivalve I worked on ten years ago.




And I didn't know this, but another episode, Just One Bite, has a scene which was deleted from reruns, presumably because of “imitative behavior”

SPONGEBOB COMICS #4

I've said before I hate it when one thing you do is at the expense of everything else, but I had to give a plug for one of my paying gigs, even though it's work-for-hire.

Editor Chris Duffy, formerly of Nickelodeon magazine that was my bread and butter for so many years, has brought the people he's worked with along with him for this when he can. This cover, for example, was conceived by Graham Annable and colored by Mark Martin.

Besides them, there are also Spongebob comics by James Kochalka, Corey Barba, and former co-editor Dave Roman. Future issues will have Tony Millionaire and Hilary Barta. I've heard Jules Feiffer and S.Clay Wilson will be doing pages.(*)

R. Sikoryak, best known for his chameleonic skills, gets to do the contents page in his own style, in addition to conforming to the “house style”. He's imitated me many times before, but it's weird now to see him imitating me imitating someone else. Did I just blow your mind?

I drew the back cover for this issue. I originally did it like this.

Chris and creator Stephen Hillenburg said they didn't want every page to look the same and wanted me to use the flat style I usually use. Union rules forbade me from doing my own lettering.

Even in my own style, I had to be on model somewhat. My first draft had Spongebob with no eyelashes or stripes on his socks, and Patrick didn't have spots.


I have stories in future issues. I did a six-page story to be drawn by Stephen DeStefano. The title has been changed to something like Squilliam's Yacht.


I'm not sure when this other story, in which the characters go bungee jumping, will be printed, since the stories are stockpiled months in advance, and approval and editing has to be coordinated between New York and LA and then between Hillenburg's people and Nickelodeon's. I've done a few more stories I don't expect to be approved for another few months. It's because they're so overbooked I haven't pitched stories in a while.

Ironically, even though I was one of the writers on the show for a year, that was ten years ago and I haven't watched it as much since then. As a result, I have no idea what's been done with the characters since then. Luckily a Wiki has been made so I can check. I also decided to stop thinking along the lines of “What would they do?” and just do strips I would normally do when I pitch them. Almost every Scene But Not Heard strip I did for Nickelodeon could have been done for this.

Any show that outrages the right is okay in my book. Especially one they're too stupid to understand.

For some reason, people seem to think I created Spongebob despite any publicity material only making a passing reference to having worked on the show. Maybe it's because I have the same initials. My stock answer, if they have a sense of humor, is usually, "If I were, would you be talking to me?"

And it would be remiss of me not to mention that Spongebob Squarepants was created by Stephen Hillenburg and is TM and ©Viacom International, Inc. Any look at this blog shows I almost always hide behind fair use and squatters' rights when it comes to posting other peoples' material, but I know how vigilant lawyers for both parties are in this case, and as a penniless cartoonist I'd rather not face the possibility of going against a billion-dollar juggernaut.

(*)Not really. I just want to spread a rumor that it was going to happen.

odds and ends

I did say Saturday would be a wild card and I'm sticking to it. Today I have various things to post.

First up is roughs for some comics I wrote. Since it was work for hire for a property owned by a large corporation, I can't reveal the characters or their names. Both of these when finished had different endings so I'll show these.


Next month from Fantagraphics is the debut of NEWAVE!: THE UNDERGROUND MINI-COMICS OF THE 1980S,an 890+ tome edited by Michael Dowers. The contents are chronological from 1972-1993 and 8 of those pages are a comic I did in 1992, one of the last things in there. I'm surprised to be included, since I wasn't part of the 'newave' network and a bit younger than everyone else, but I won't complain. The contributors and interviewees are too numerous to mention, but it seems like a must-have for anyone interested in xeroxed comics of the time.

I've been finding lots of fillers by Mort Drucker. They had a few artists draw like him but you can tell which are his because he signed them. This one's from SHOWCASE #61 in April 1966.