Jason Thompson (writer)

Jason Thompson is a manga critic, journalist, writer and comics artist.

Thompson was born in San Francisco on October 13, 1974 and lived in Healdsburg 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, while studying English and creative writing. Thompson graduated in 1995. 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 a 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 shonen 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.

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 is also planned to be published in print in 2010.

Thompson is currently working on The Strange High House in the Mist, a comic adaptation of the eponymous story by H.P. Lovecraft. Once it is done, Thompson plans to include it along with his earlier Kadath adaptation in a graphic novel.

Thompson also runs the "House of 1000 Manga" section on Anime News Network, where he talks about lesser-known manga that he's discovered around his home.