Was able to snag these back in October 2024 from a Tiktok Live event for NYC Comic Con.

There’s a ”myth” that Walt Disney had his head frozen after death to be revived when the tech exists.

What’s special about this piece though is it’s authorship.

Co created (and signed) by Stephen Hillenburg who would go on to create SpongeBob a few years later.

“the original (Black Tie edition) in 1989 and the Red Tie (edition) in 1991 of which 100 of each were made, helped finance their education at CalArts, the prestigious art school founded by Walt Disney.”

Then the Green tie was the last made in 96 with 1000. And was the last one made.

If anyone see’s a black or red tie let me know!

Total of 1200 exist across all editions. I bought one.

BUSTER where you at bro? 😂 I made my first SpongeBob production drawing purchase and I'm not sure if I overpaid or got a good deal. I got this for $53.50. Be honest, am I gonna be looking at this piece of paper like Squidward did his bubble gum wrapper? 🤣

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.