User:ColorMe Bold/sandbox

C. "Spike" Trotman
C. Spike Trotman (born on November 18, 1978) is best known for her web comic, Templar, Arizona and is the founder and owner of Iron Circus Comics. Charlie Spike Trotman is an American writer, artist, cartoonist, and publisher.

Early life
Growing up in her hometown Potomac, Maryland, Trotman was a fan of "Bloom County," "Calvin and Hobbes," "The Far Side," “Power Pack,” and “Excalibur” comic strips in the Sunday Washington Post newspaper. She attended Spelman College (1996-2000) where she got a Bachelor's degree in Fine and Studio Arts. Trotman then attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2000-2001) to prepare for her master’s degree. During her time there, she clashed with her teachers because they discouraged her more realistic drawing style and attempted to move her from comics to abstract art which led to Trotman only finishing her qualifying year. Rather than creating comics for the superhero audience, she wanted to discuss relationships and culture, and work in neglected genres like erotica and the tried self-publishing online. She married Matt Sherridan the author she collaborated with on  Sparkneedle in 2004.

Career
Her first major online publications were Sparkneedle and Lucas and Odessa, which she began serializing on Girlamatic in 2003. Trotman started posting Templar, Arizona in 2005. After its release, it was then published in four volumes via Iron Circus Comics. She is the owner and founder of Iron Circus Comics, Chicago's largest alternative comics press which started in 2007 and brings in fantasy, sci-fi, porn and queer-friendly books to market and has raised over $1 million over its first 14 Kickstarter campaigns. She has since used Iron Circus Comics to also publish works by other creators, including print editions of The Less Than Epic Adventures of T.J. and Amal by E.K. Weaver, and Shadoweyes by Sophie Campbell.Trotman wants to use her publisher, Iron Circus as a platform for works by creators who have been underrepresented or ignored by mainstream comics. Iron Circus Comics publish graphic works by other creator in genres like fantasy, science fiction, horror, and erotica. Trotman is passionate about paying fair wages to her creators for their work.

Trotman has then created comics such as The Sleep of Reason (a horror anthology), New World, The Smut Peddler series, Poorcraft: The Funnybook Fundamentals of Living Well on Less, etc. She ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2009, the year Kickstarter started to fund a print edition of the book, Poorcraft: The Funnybook Fundamentals of Living Well on Less, an instructional books illustrated by Diana Nock.

In 2012, she revived the title Smut Peddler, first published by Johanna D. Carlson and Trisha L. Sebastian in 2003, created by women, primarily for a female readership.

Selected Works
Templar, Arizona (2005) – The comic is an alternative history webcomic set in a fictional Arizona town focusing on a number of subcultures. Stories focused on groups like ancient religions and survival cults and featured a diverse cast of characters. It told stories about relationships, culture, and romance.

Smut Pleddler (2014 and 2016) – An anthology featuring erotic comics. The stories featured a wide range of characters, from traditional straight relationships to gay, bisexual, polyamorous ones as well as science-fiction or fantasy themes. To be featured in Smut Peddler, three basic premises are to be met; there must be consent and mutual willingness, there should be a variety of participant (male cartoonists may work on stories submitted for the books, but only as part of a creative team involving at least one woman.) She published two volumes in 2014 and 2016.

Recognition and Awards
In April 2018, Kickstarted named Trotman as one of the seven Kickstarter Thought Leaders worldwide charged with leading talks and hosting community events.

She won the Rising Star Award for Templar Arizona in the 2007 Glyph Comics Awards. She was an emcee of the Small Press Expo's Ignatz Awards back in 2016.