You'll never guess what he'll become...
Before SpongeBob SquarePants came to be the sponge we know today, he started out as a prototype in this edutainment comic.
The Intertidal Zone
is a comic book drawn by Stephen Hillenburg in the late '80s during his time as a marine biology educator at the Orange County Marine Institute in California. Hosted by Rocky the Shrimp and an early version of SpongeBob known as Bob the Sponge, it teaches about sea life in Southern California, and became the basis of the Nickelodeon Cash-Cow Franchise we know today. Although it was never published, the comic can be view online here.
This comic book provides examples of:
- Cool Shades: Bob the Sponge sports a pair of sunglasses to emphasize the comic's setting in a tidepool by the beach.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Unlike today's SpongeBob, who looks like a kitchen sponge with limbs, Bob is round, has no limbs, and looks more like a real sea sponge.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: This comic book is an edutainment comic, which SpongeBob SquarePants abandoned in favor of slapstick comedy.
- Edutainment Show: The comic book teaches readers about sea life in a tidepool.
- Fur Is Clothing: One panel shows Rocky molting his shell in his dressing room, feeling embarrassed that the reader is watching him molt.
- This Is a Drill: One illustration shows a snail eagerly drilling into a clam's shell to show how some snails can drill into the shells of prey.
