Jill Thompson

Early life

Thompson attended The American Academy of Art in Chicago, graduating in 1987 with a degree in Illustration and Watercolor.

Career

Jill Thompson began her comics career working for such publishers as First Comics and Now Comics in the 1980s. She became the artist of DC Comics' Wonder Woman series in 1990. 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." Thompson illustrated the Brief Lives story arc in The Sandman issues #41-49, and the story "The Parliament of Rooks" in issue #40 (part of the Fables and Reflections collection). 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, set during the events of Season of Mists, and The Little Endless Storybook, a children’s book using childlike versions of the Endless. In 2005 Thompson wrote and illustrated the Dead Boy Detectives, an original graphic novel based on two minor characters from Season of Mists.

Thompson designs the ring attire for WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan.

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. 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.

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. Her likeness has been used by P. Craig Russell in his graphic novel The Magic Flute, 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." Alex Ross used her likeness for the character Duela Dent in Kingdom Come.

Thompson is a featured interview in the film Ringers: Lord of the Fans, a documentary about The Lord of the Rings fandom. She was also interviewed for the film She Makes Comics, a documentary about the history of women in the comics industry.

In 2015, Thompson was ranked fourth in the "Top 50 Female Comic Book Artists" poll conducted by Comic Book Resources.

Personal life

Thompson is married to fellow comic book writer Brian Azzarello, creator of 100 Bullets and former writer of Hellblazer and Batman.

Thompson studied improvisation comedy at Chicago's The Players Workshop and The Second City Training Center. She performed for four years with the Cleveland Improv Troupe.

Thompson is an avid gardener and holds a Master Gardener Certificate from the Chicago-based Extension program.

Awards and honors

Thompson has won multiple Eisner Awards, including in 2001 for best painter for Scary Godmother, 2004 for "Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)" for her work on The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings, and in 2005 for "Best Short Story" for Unfamiliar (from The Dark Horse Book of the Dead) with Evan Dorkin. In 2011 the National Cartoonist Society named her Best Comic Book Artist for Beasts of Burden.

She was nominated for Lulu of the Year in 1998 and won in 1999.

National Cartoonists Society Award

Eisner Awards:

Eisner Award nominations: