Thompson attended The American Academy of Art in Chicago, graduating in 1987 with a degree in Illustration and Watercolor.[2]
Career
Thompson illustrating in her sketchbook
Jill Thompson began her comics career working for such publishers as First Comics and Now Comics in the 1980s.[3] She became the artist of DC Comics' Wonder Woman series in 1990.[4] Her work on the "Chalk Drawings" story in Wonder Woman #46 (Sept. 1990) drew praise from writer George Pérez who stated "It was a good, quiet story, and I think Jill and I worked really well together on that one."[5] Thompson illustrated the Brief Lives story arc in The Sandman issues #41–49,[6] and the story "The Parliament of Rooks" in issue #40 (part of the Fables and Reflections collection).[7] Within this tale she created the characters Li'l Death and Li'l Morpheus, childlike versions of two of the Endless based on classic comic characters Sugar and Spike.
She has since written and illustrated several stories featuring the Sandman characters. These include the manga-style book Death: At Death's Door, one of DC's best selling books of 2003,[8] set during the events of Season of Mists, and The Little Endless Storybook, a children's book using childlike versions of the Endless.[9] In 2005 Thompson wrote and illustrated The Dead Boy Detectives,[4] an original graphic novel based on two characters introduced in Season of Mists and subsequently portrayed by various creators.
Thompson created the comic book series Scary Godmother, originally published by Sirius Entertainment and later by Dark Horse Comics. The books spawned two television specials: Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular, which aired in foreign countries in 2003 before being picked up by Cartoon Network in 2004.[11] This was followed by Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy in 2005. Both were animated using CGI. Thompson did scripting for the project and maintained a measure of creative control. In 2003, the merchandising rights to Scary Godmother reverted to Thompson, allowing her to proceed with plans to create a Scary Godmother fashion doll for which she promoted a successful Kickstarter campaign.[12]
Thompson was a body model for other comics artists, and uses herself as the basis for several characters in her work, most notably as the original model for Scary Godmother.[13] Her likeness has been used by P. Craig Russell in his graphic novel The Magic Flute,[14] and many other works by Russell. In a 2012 interview, she said,"For his Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight story "Hothouse", I was this evil doctor, or someone who was manipulating Poison Ivy...He used me for operas and things, like Brunhilda and Ring of the Nibelung."[15]Alex Ross used her likeness for the character Duela Dent in Kingdom Come.[16][17]
Thompson is a featured interview in the film Ringers: Lord of the Fans, a documentary about The Lord of the Rings fandom.[18] She was also interviewed for the film She Makes Comics, a documentary about the history of women in the comics industry.[19]
In 2015, Thompson was ranked fourth in the "Top 50 Female Comic Book Artists" poll conducted by Comic Book Resources.[20]
In April 2022, Thompson was among the more than three dozen comics creators who contributed to Operation USA's benefit anthology book, Comics for Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds, a project spearheaded by editor Scott Dunbier, whose profits would be donated to relief efforts for Ukrainian refugees resulting from the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[21][22]
In The Sandman: Act III audiobook adaptation of the graphic novel series, Jill Thompson performed the role of Etain, a character she drew in the comic book series.[23]
^Arnold, Andrew D. (February 16, 2004). "Drawing In the Gals; Move over, guys. Graphics for girls are the hot new genre in Japanese comics". Time. p. 97
^Cowsill, Alan (2010). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. DK. p. 300. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. The Little Endless Storybook, written and lovingly illustrated by Jill Thompson in the style of a young children's picture book, told the story of the Endless's Delirium and her dog, Barnabas.
^Waters, Luis (December 13, 2011). "Jill Thompson dresses an "American Dragon"". Archived from the original on January 7, 2012. Retrieved June 24, 2012. Legendary comic artist Jill Thompson has been busy designing ring attire for WWE superstar, Daniel Bryan.
^ abCronin, Brian (April 17, 2008). "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #151". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013. In Kingdom Come, Alex Ross DID specifically use [Jill] Thompson as the model for Joker's Daughter (and her husband, Brian Azzarello, as the basis for another character, the villain 666).
^Cronin, Brian (March 21, 2015). "Top 50 Female Comic Book Writers and Artists Master List". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. What's absolutely fascinating to me about Jill Thompson is that she is one of the few artists who have become a star artist using two fairly dramatically different art styles.
