Jock (cartoonist)


Mark Simpson, known by the pen name Jock, is a British cartoonist, best known for his work in 2000 AD, The Losers, and more recently Batman and Wolverine. He is also known for Wytches by Image Comics.

Career

Comics

Jock began his professional career at British comics magazine 2000 AD, on series including Judge Dredd and Lenny Zero, the latter with writer Andy Diggle.
It was with Diggle that he got his big break in the American comic book market at DC Comics and their Vertigo imprint, working on The Losers and '. Also at Vertigo and with Mike Carey, another former 2000 AD writer, Jock worked on an issue of Hellblazer and the Faker limited series, returning the character John Constantine in the graphic novel ' with Jamie Delano. Following his run on Green Arrow he got more work on main DC universe titles, in particular two storylines on Detective Comics, the first featuring Batwoman and the second Batman.
Jock is also a prolific cover artist with a distinctive style – he has produced covers for several titles across all major publishers.
On 9 April 2011 Jock was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set two Guinness World Records, the Fastest Production of a Comic Book, and Most Contributors to a Comic Book. With Guinness officials on hand to monitor their progress, writer Mark Millar began work at 9am scripting a 20-page black and white Superior comic book, with Jock and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, including Dave Gibbons, Frank Quitely, John Romita Jr., Adi Granov, Doug Braithwaite, Ian Churchill, Olivier Coipel, Duncan Fegredo, Simon Furman, David Lafuente, John McCrea, Sean Phillips and Liam Sharp, who all drew a panel each, with regular Superior artist Leinil Yu creating the book's front cover. The book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and 38 seconds, and was published through Icon on 23 November 2011, with all royalties being donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation.

Movie work

Jock has contributed concept paintings and key art to a number of film productions and promotional campaigns, including Hancock, Battleship, Children of Men, Dredd, Batman Begins and . He was the principal Concept Designer on Dredd. He continued his work with Dredd scriptwriter Alex Garland on Garland's next film, Ex Machina, working on the AI robot Ava.

Poster art

Jock has produced a number of silk screen prints and poster art for Mondo, including The Divide, Zombie, The Last House on the Left, West of Memphis, The Dark Knight Rises, , Dredd, Zero Dark Thirty, The Thing, Halloween, and Iron Man 3.

Awards

Nominations

''2000 AD''