Teaching With Comics

Stephen did.

Stephen grew up squarely loving two things: making art and marine biology. After earning a science degree, he spent three years teaching kids all about sea life at a California Institute … and leveraged his passion for art by creating his own comic book called the Intertidal Zone to help his students better understand it all … Stephen enjoyed doing the comic so much he decided to give up teaching and go back to school to get an animation art degree.

Fast forward a few years, and a producer for Nickelodeon’s first in-house cartoon series called Rocko’s Modern Life saw two short cartoons Stephen was showing at the Ottawa Animation Film Festival and offered him a job as a director on the spot. A while later, as Rocko’s Modern Life was winding down one of the other writers happened to read Stephen’s original Intertidal Zone comic and said maybe it would make a good new series. So that’s what Stephen pursued next … and it became a huge hit not only on Nickelodeon.. but around the world .. with kids and adults of all ages.

Today, the animation franchise initially inspired by a comic book Stephen Hillenburg created to help teach kids about marine biology … has over 200 episodes and has generated more than $12 billion in merchandise sales … SpongeBob Squarepants

Spongebob Squarepants is a great idea because combining two of your passions together can have you beat the pants off of others.