 Hillenburg used some character designs from his comic book . He designed " SpongeBob 's grumpy next door neighbor " as an octopus because the species ' large head ; octopi , he said , " have such a large bulbous head and Squidward thinks he 's an intellectual so of course , he 's gonna have a large bulbous head . " Hillenburg drew Squidward with six tentacles because " it was really just simpler for animation to draw him with six legs instead of eight " . Show writer and storyboard artist Vincent Waller said : 
