Aaron Springer

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Aaron Springer is an American cartoonist, animator, artist, writer, director, and voice actor. He is the creator of the Disney XD original series Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer, in which he voiced the main character, Billy Dilley. He is also known for his work on the Nickelodeon animated series SpongeBob SquarePants.

A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Springer began his career in animation working for Spümcø, later departing the company for Cartoon Network Studios. He was best known for creating pilots that were never picked up as full series, but have developed cult followings. Outside of his own work, Springer worked on a good amount of Cartoon Network series including Samurai Jack (2002–2003), Dexter's Laboratory (2003) and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (2005–2007). Springer would intermittently work at for Nickelodeon Animation Studio; he exclusively worked on SpongeBob SquarePants as a writer, storyboard artist and storyboard director for the first eight seasons, as well as co-writing and storyboarding its 2004 film adaptation.

His most recognizable pilot is Korgoth of Barbaria for Adult Swim in 2006, which was originally picked up for a full series (because of its critical and commercial success with garnering high ratings), however the decision was eventually passed up as the production costs would've been too expensive, so says later events, including a formal petition to revive the show.^[1]

Springer also created Periwinkle Around the World back in 2004 for Cartoon Network, that was divided into five separate two-minute shorts, produced and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. This series of shorts followed an anthropomorphic platypus as he travels around a few places in the world, such as China and Italy. Tom Kenny voiced a majority of the characters. Refusing to pick it up as a full series, Cartoon Network instead planned to release five shorts from the pilot as mobile phone content, but ended up putting them in their Sunday Pants anthology series in 2005. Springer's last pilot for Cartoon Network was Baloobaloob's Fun Park in 2009, which was produced as part of The Cartoonstitute.

More recently, he had worked closely with Disney Television Animation, working on Gravity Falls (2012–2013), Wander Over Yonder (2014) and the Mickey Mouse (2013–2015) television series. At the studio, Springer created Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer for Disney XD, where he voiced the main character, Billy Dilley. The show was first announced in 2014 as a potential pilot, alongside another potential pilot Very Important House. In March 2016, it was confirmed that Disney XD has greenlit Springer's show for a full series. It officially premiered on June 3rd, 2017, and ended 12 days later. In 2019, Pete Browngardt mentioned that Springer was at Warner Bros. Animation developing a new adult animated project under the name Snail Riders of Zongdar, however the project was passed up some time after the initial trailer pitch. In 2024, Springer returned to Paramount Animation to be a storyboard artist for The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.

Aaron Springer's cartoons are notable for their inclusion of extended gags, anthropomorphism and off-model poses. Springer has cited Richard Scarry, Sergio Aragonés, Frank Frazetta, Vaughn Bodē, Akira Toriyama, Hideshi Hino, Shigeru Mizuki and Hugo Pratt amongst his influences.

• Aaron Springer at IMDb
• FunTowne: Aaron Springer's website
• Interview with Aaron Springer