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The Jock was a small-press comic I self-published back in the 90’s. Running to 27 issues plus assorted specials, it chronicled the adventures of Dean ‘ Jay’ James and his friends (including Johnny, Suzy, Walkman, Pepper’s Ghost and Mike Van Zandt – the Shock Jock), fighting against the evil corporation Yourent who were controlling the world through the use of mind-numbing, emotion-deadening muzak.

A variety of artists contributed to the comic – including Tim Chapman, John Woolley, Adrian Bamforth, Steven Roberts, Chris Askham, Stephen Prestwood, David Metcalfe and Garen Ewing – but the regular artist was the excellent Nigel Lowrey, whose work gave the book a distinctive look that made it stand out from the majority of small press comics at the time. I was extremely fortunate to work with them all, but especially Nigel who contributed to every issue and helped keep the book on an almost-monthly schedule for the majority of its run - a feat many professional comic book artists can’t achieve these days… and those guys are getting paid!

The comic was well-reviewed and counted among its loyal, supportive readership the writers Warren Ellis (since famous for work on best-selling comics such as Transmetropolitan, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Hellblazer), Tony Lee (another UK comics pro, now working on Doctor Who, The DFC, Starship Troopers, and others) and Dr. Will Brooker (author of ‘Batman Unmasked: Analysing a Cultural Icon’ and ‘Using The Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans’, among others).

A couple of years back, Nigel and I began plans to revive the character for the new millennium… Work continues on getting that together, and one day we aim to publish it as a complete 4-part graphic novel. In the meantime, you can read an early draft (Nige has updated some of the artwork since drawing this) of issue #1 by clicking on the link below.

The Jock.