Jason Thompson (writer)

Jason Thompson (born October 13, 1974) is an American writer, journalist, comics artist, and editor. He has edited for Viz Media and is the author of Manga: The Complete Guide.

Life and career

Jason Thompson was born in San Francisco, California, on October 13, 1974, and lived in Healdsburg, California, for most of his childhood and adolescence. He began drawing and writing in the 1980s. He first became an anime and manga fan in 1991, joining his college's anime club at University of California, San Diego while studying English and creative writing. Thompson graduated in 1995 at the age of 20. In 1996, he became an editor at Viz Media and was briefly the editor for their Game On! USA magazine. In the late 1990s, Thompson self-published some comics, including 1997's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, which he regards as his 'first real comic'. After Game On! USA concluded, Thompson edited individual series before becoming the first editor of Viz's U.S. edition of Shonen Jump magazine.

He creates his own webcomic, The Stiff (2001 onwards), which he describes as a "manga-influenced romantic comedy" and "a horrendous, gruesome horror story", influenced by indie American comics and Japanese horror manga. It is planned to be 1000 pages long, and was published on Girlamatic between 2003 and 2006 as one of their launch titles.

In 2003, Thompson's comic adaptation of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath was adapted into a feature-length film that used artwork from Jason Thompson's comic series, as well as original artwork by Thompson. It premiered on October 11, 2003 at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and was later released on DVD.

As of 2007, Thompson wrote for Otaku USA.

Thompson is the author of Manga: The Complete Guide (Del Rey, 2007), which he conceived in 2000. As an appendix to Manga: The Complete Guide, he posts daily reviews of manga on Suvudu.com, beginning in November 2009.

He made a cameo appearance in Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail.

Thompson is the creator of the graphic novel, King of RPGs with Victor Hao, which he describes as a fusion between shōnen manga and tabletop roleplaying games. It was released in January 2010. He had previously submitted a pilot of the series to Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga competition, but later decided that he "didn't like the Tokyopop contract" and took the concept to Del Rey, who matched him with artist Victor Hao. Volume Two was released on May 24, 2011.

In 2009, Thompson was the artist of The Legend of Bold Riley: The Serpent in the Belly, part of a series written by Leia Weathington. It is available online, and was also published in print in 2012.

In November 2011, Thompson successfully raised money on Kickstarter for the graphic novel The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and Other Stories, featuring his 122-page Kadath story (made from 1997-1999), as well as three other stories from the Dreamlands series: The Strange High House in the Mist (a comic adaptation of the eponymous story, made from June 2009 to January 2011), The White Ship, and Celephais (made from March–September 2011). This project had been planned since at least 2003. Books began shipping to supporters in March 2012, and can be currently bought through Thompson's website and other locations.

Thompson also ran the "House of 1000 Manga" column on Anime News Network alongside Shaenon K. Garrity, which he initially started to write about lesser-known manga that he discovered around his home.