PROJECT OVERVIEW

Like everyone in 2020, Simon was bored. The college Simon had been moved virtually for an almost indefinite period of time, and he felt like there nothing better to do. With all this extra time on his hands, he turned to comics. With the world on total lockdown, he wasn't able to go out and buy his own comics, so he decided it was best to write his own.

SPLOTCH started as an idea for a simple scene—a man turns himself in at the police station, claiming that he has moving tattoos that tell him what to do. With the help of his younger brother, a high school junior at the time, Simon was able to narrow in the plot to what you see currently.

PLOT

Calvin, a young student about to graduate law school, finds a tattoo parlor hidden underneath a local pizzeria. Not only is this tattoo parlor hidden from the rest of the city—and almost impossible to enter—the artists inside it are able to make their tattoos move. Join Calvin as he explores Clement Park and studies to graduate!

OUR STORY

ILLUSTRATION INSPIRATION

As a kid, Simon grew up reading comics such as Captain Underpants and Big Nate. These inspired him to draw every day, and the simple style highly influenced how he draw to this day. The love for these books, as well as the support of amazing elementary school teachers, helped him become the artist I am today.

Photo credit: Dav Pilkey

OUR STORY

ILLUSTRATION INSPIRATION

While books like Captain Underpants influenced his art style, the media Simon watched during the Pandemic also influenced me. Spiderman 2 (yes, the Tobey Maguire film) influenced how I planned and executed the action scenes throughout the book, and how he thought about storytelling.

Photo credit: Sam Raimi

FORMATTING

SPLOTCH is the first large scale comic I had made, and with that came its own challenges. One of those was formatting it! Everything had to be lined up exactly right, and measured out so the printer I sent it to could make the best version of what I had spent so much time working on.

OUR STORY

PROMOTION

After the pandemic died down and schools were back in session, Simon was able to visit classrooms to teach kids how to draw comics. When he visited my old second grade classroom, Simon guided them through a drawing exercise that was showcased on the last page of the book.

Photo credit: Eldina Sales

RELEASE DATE

Simon printed and self published SPLOTCH to prepare for its release on June 1, 2022. He began selling it on his website, where it sold 40 copies in the first week alone. It's also been sold at all three Vault of Midnight locations, a Michigan-based comic shop. It sold 70 copies in its first year.