I started buying the original artwork from Spongebob 2 years ago for these reasons:

1) It was only hand painted in 1999 for 1 season (the 1st)
-Only about 200 backgrounds per episode and 40 episodes. With many being lost, tossed and boring (sand, sky etc) very few great ones were left.

2) It is my childhood and my generations childhood (Born in 2000). But it hasn’t gone away, it’s still the most used and referenced show on the internet especially through memes! I don’t think that will change.

3) The iconic scenes and background art are recognizable by billions of people and are 1/1’s. I can’t think of much other non Da Vinci or Picasso art that can do that. Maybe Simpsons or Old Disney pre computer animation.

4) As often with collectibles- the generation that grew up with it needs to hit financial maturity and have kids to want to tap back into their youth. That will be in approx 15-20 years so still have a ways to go.

5) Every background below is hand photomatched to the exact matching background/cel and scene in the show. It is impossible to replicate or fake due to their random paint splatter technique in spongebob art. Impossible.

Here are 16 of my favorites. I will be answering ALL questions. This post is exclusively for Mantel.