Jason Bradley Thompson (born October 13, 1974) is an American artist, author, comics creator, critic, and editor. He is best known for his Eisner-nominated book '' Manga: The Complete Guide'', his graphic novel interpretation of H. P. Lovecraft's ''DreamQuest of Unknown Kadath and Other Stories'', and his Dungeons and Dragons adventure walkthrough maps published by Wizards of the Coast on their website as well in books such as Waterdeep Dragon Heist.

Life and career

Jason Thompson was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, on October 13, 1974, and lived in

Healdsburg, California Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 11,254. Owing to its three most important wine-producing regions (the Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Val ...

, 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 The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

while studying English and creative writing and art. Thompson graduated in 1995 at the age of 20. 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'. In 1996, Thompson began a career as an editor at

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

. Thompson worked there for 14 years (10 as senior editor, 4 freelance) editing the English-language edition of over 30 manga series including ''

Naruto ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. ...

'' (the bestselling manga in the US), '' Dragon Ball'', '' Yu-Gi-Oh!'', ''

Fullmetal Alchemist is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. It was serialized in Square Enix's ''shōnen'' manga anthology magazine ''Monthly Shōnen Gangan'' between July 2001 and June 2010; the publisher later collected the ...

'', '' Shaman King'', '' One Piece'', '' JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'', '' Hana-Kimi'', '' Uzumaki'', '' Street Fighter'', and others. He also launched two national magazines, '' Shonen Jump and Game On! USA''. Thompson created 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 was 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 posted daily reviews of manga on Suvudu.com, beginning in November 2009 for a year. He made a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

Hiro Mashima is a Japanese manga artist. He gained success with his first serial ''Rave Master'', published in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from 1999 to 2005. His best-selling work, ''Fairy Tail'', published in the same magazine from 2006 to 2017, ...

's '' Fairy Tail''. Thompson is the creator of the

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

, ''

King of RPGs ''King of RPGs'' is an American graphic novel about roleplaying written by Jason Thompson and drawn by Victor Hao. Development Thompson first submitted the idea to Tokyopop's '' Rising Stars of Manga'' contest in 2004, and was inspired by '' Hi ...

'' with Victor Hao, which he describes as a fusion between

shōnen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent boys. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent girls and young women), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adult women), ...

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 ''Rising Stars of Manga'' (RSoM) was an English-language comic anthology published by TOKYOPOP from 2002 to 2008, and a contest held by the same company. It was originally semi-annual, but switched to annual beginning with the 6th volume. Each vol ...

'' competition, but later decided to take the concept to Del Rey, who matched him with artist Victor Hao. Volume Two was released on May 24, 2011, and made it to ''The New York Times'' best seller list. 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 by Northwest Press. In November 2011, Thompson successfully raised money on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

for a hardcover release of 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). 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.

Bibliography

*'' Manga: The Complete Guide'' ( Del Rey,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Jason 1974 births Living people Anime and manga critics American webcomic creators Writers from San Francisco People from Healdsburg, California