An Interview with Minions Artist Jason Thompson
Jason Thompson’s career is filled with many unique turns that led him to where he is today, and it’s always fun to hear about artists switching gears from comic books to film or vice versa. I spoke with Thompson about his career and how he got into comic books and film. It’s a multi-pathed journey that should be of interest to any artist.
Thompson, as he’s affectionately known among our friends, recently crossed over to animation as a story artist, to work on the upcoming, Minions: The Rise of Gru, from Illumination Entertainment.
Originally from Northern California, Thompson graduated in 1995 from UC San Diego with a degree in English. After college, he quickly found a job as an editor. In 1996, he landed his second editorial job, at Viz media, the American manga publishing house.
While Thompson minored in art at UC San Diego, he didn’t pursue it as a career until this point.
Living in San Francisco with roommates and working at Viz gave him the financial opportunity to make his own art and furthered a growing interest in comic books. He started dedicating three hours a day on weekdays and eight hours a day on weekends to making his own comics. He saved up money and, with the knowledge he gained from working at Viz, found a reputable printer for his first book.
One of the things that really stood out to me while interviewing Thompson was his dedication to the craft.
We all sacrifice for our art, but it was interesting to hear that, after all these years, Thompson still remembers his rigid drawing schedule, something we preach here, daily.
Dream-Quest featured Thompson’s signature “mock men” characters, inspired by the Mock Turtle from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and his insecurities in drawing the human figure. As you can see in the example below, he has nothing to be insecure about with his art. While the figures are simple, the overall art is rich in design and detail.
Thompson continued working at Viz, moving up in the editorial department and helping to usher in Shonen Jump Magazine. His next big personal project was the unfinished webcomic The Stiff, published weekly on the now-defunct Girlamatic website, which was a premier site for upcoming female (and a few guys!) indie comic artists.
While working on Shonen Jump, Thompson was burning out at Viz and wanted to do more of his own work. While in a meeting for Shonen Jump, one of the Japanese editors asked him:
“Tell me… did you ever want to draw comics when you were a boy?”
Rethinking things and realizing he still wanted to make comic books, Thompson eventually quit Viz.
When Random House was looking for someone to author, Manga: The Complete Guide, he took the opportunity. Manga: The Complete Guide was a success, garnering a 2008 Eisner nomination for “Best Comics-Related Book.”
Networking was a huge part of how Thompson gained traction in his career. When Random House was looking for someone to author Manga: The Complete Guide, an old Viz co-worker, Dallas Middaugh, remembered Thompson had pitched a similar idea when they were both still working there.
After the success of Manga: The Complete Guide, Random House published Thompson’s next 2 books, King of RPGs 1 and 2 in 2010 and 2011.
He wrote and drew layouts for Victor Hao, the artist on King of RPGs, which helped hone his diligent work ethic even more.
Thompson moved to Seattle in 2010 to be with his then-fiancée and later wife, Jumana Al Hashal. There, he continued to make indie comics and work as a freelancer, not letting the move distract him from his work in the least.
He applied for a cartoonist job at Wizards of the Coast and got the job based on the fact that his work was different from everything else that was turned in. He drew an online comic for the Dungeons & Dragons company, called The Keep on 16th and Valencia.
He also started making large “map” illustrations, partially inspired by the newspaper comic strip The Family Circus, where in some strips little Billy would wander about his neighborhood or house, leaving a dotted path of mischief behind him.
Thompson’s love for gaming led him to successfully Kickstart his first board game, Mangaka, which he co-created with the help of his wife around 2011 and finally released in 2017.
His commitment is another thing that should be noted and emulated. It took him six years to carry out his vision and produce Mangaka. Even though he was already successful in several other venues of art, he didn’t let how busy he was stop him from trying something completely new. In fact, having that audience he’d built over years helped his Kickstarter succeed.
Thompson described the board-game market as even harder to break into than the comic-book market, because it’s is so glutted with games.
That didn’t stop Thompson and Al Hashal from doing it all over again with their current game, Cartooner. Mangaka and it’s follow-up are a storyteller’s dream board game, described as “Pictionary for comics.”
Thompson’s D&D work eventually got the attention of Minions director Kyle Balda, who also happened to be a D&D fan. Balda contacted and hired Thompson as a story artist in 2017. Balda was impressed with the art style and wit Thompson brought to his work.
As a story artist, he did early concept work and beat boards, which were then handed off to other story artists to flesh out.
He describes his work on Minions: The Rise of Gru as “visual brainstorming” or “spitballing ideas.” It’s also some of the more mentally challenging art he’s created to date, finding coming up with story ideas, jokes, and gags far more difficult than inking comics, where he can allow his mind drift or just listen to podcasts. This type of creating required his full attention.
The best part of working on Minions was that Thompson worked from his home studio in San Francisco, where he’d moved back to a few years ago. Working remotely, he would meet online with the director and other Illumination staff like Brad Ableson, co-director; Liz Malpelli, story production supervisor; and Jed Diffenderfer, story artist and director of shorts to go over what had been done and receive new assignments for the week.
Thompson worked on Minions from September 2017 to April 2019 and reflects back on it as a very fun challenge and opportunity.
Today, he continues to make comics, still works for D&D on their online magazine, Dragon+, and continues to create new games, like his upcoming role playing game, Dreamland, while promoting Cartooner.
Thompson’s always pushed himself to do more– something we should all strive for in our art, no matter what level we’re at.
Some key takeaways:
- Commit to your craft like Thompson did with his long journey to produce board games or when he making time on the side to work on comics.
- Keep your options open. Whether it’s comics, board games, storyboarding or anything else, don’t limit yourself!
- Build that network of like-minded individuals. Thompson’s good reputation helped him land jobs. Always keep that positive attitude, you never know when it’ll save you.
- Follow your interests. Looking at Thompson’s work, you can quickly tell he likes Manga, Cthulhu stuff, and D&D. Make your interests work for you. There’s an audience out there!
You can check out more of his work at http://mockman.com/
Keep drawing and Board on!
Wahab
PS. That’s a long art journey to go over! Let us know if you have anymore questions about Jason Thompson’s career or questions about how he did what he did or if you have any questions about your own journey. We are here to help!