The Godfather of Storyboarding, Mark Simon, was bullied and assaulted in high school, like many kids. But his bullies followed him home and attacked his family in his front yard.
Simon’s memoir, Attacked! chronicles the events that lead him to become the first person in the country to hold parents responsible for the actions of their kids in a court of law. This fall marks 40 years since his ground-breaking court battle.
Simon suffered both physically and mentally from the assaults by his bullies, which usually numbered from 4-30 people at a time. The final attack by 8 members of the gang left him with a nervous breakdown. “There were always too many to fight one-on-one, so I made them fight me on my terms…in court,” said Simon.
“The one good thing that came out of the attacks, was that it lead directly to my career in Hollywood,” says Simon, who has storyboarded on projects such as The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Woody Woodpecker and Barbie.
Simon normally juggles 2-5 film and TV productions at a time, but with the Covid shutdown, he had some extra time. That extra time allowed him to finish his long-gestating memoir about the attacks.
“I hope others can gain some strength from my story,” said Simon. Indeed, some of the epilogues in his book are meant to help people deal with bullying and how get over PTSD.
“The initial response has been amazing. I’ve even had people reach out to me who had been attacked by the same gang, but never felt safe enough to speak about it. My book is giving them some long-deserved relief,” said Simon.
Attacked! can be found on Amazon in both print and on Kindle. The first chapter, and descriptive videos, are available online at www.MarkSimonBooks.com/Attacked
