Photo caption: Jason Thompson actually read all this shit...
Jason Thompson’s massive new long-awaited book Manga: the Complete Guide is on sale today from your pals at Dey Ray! Wee! But he didn’t write it all by his lonesome. Several OTAKU USA superstars contributed reviews and essays as well including Shaenon Garrity, Julie Davis, Mark Simmons, and ME! Either way, it was without a doubt Jason (in all sordid truth, my ex-house mate who snuck me into the back door in Viz about a decade ago, so I am forever in his debt) who wound up shouldering the bulk of this Herculean task. As a reminder of those dark days of book-making from which he has now emerged Phoenix-like from the mire, here is a profile of Jason at his lowest ebb that I wrote almost exactly a year ago for Japan’s Figure Oh magazine.
He did it all for you...
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THE MAN WHO READ TOO MUCH MANGA
Summer, 2006
Jason Thompson, 31 years old, is living proof that reading manga can be bad for your health. His chest is sunken. His skin is white as a sheet. His face is so transparent you can see the dark blue veins bubbling just below the surface. With blond hair and light blue eyes, Jason could be the all-American boy next door…after they’d run away to the big city and became a junkie. And in fact, Jason does have a serious addiction.
Jason Thompson is addicted to manga.
“I was hired in February 2005 to write an ‘Encyclopedia of Manga’ for a major New York publisher,” he says over a plate of Indian food that he picks at, as if he barely has the strength to eat. “Since it hasn’t been officially announced yet, I can’t say what the title is, but it will come out in 2007.”
It will be an unprecedented reference book. No one has ever attempted anything like it in English before: a mammoth A-Z of manga, including essays about the history of Japanese comics. The main feature will be individual reviews of every single manga ever published in English. I repeat: EVERY SINGLE MANGA EVER PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH, from recent widely-available mainstream titles like Death Note to the most obscure one-shots imaginable, like a single translation of Versailles no bara released in 1981 in a tiny print run.
“There will be about 1,200 reviews in all, and the book will be about 500 to 600 pages.” Jason speaks shakily, like he hasn’t slept in weeks. Still, there is enough confidence in his voice to let you know that he *will* finish this project, even if it kills him.
“Originally, I set out to write three new manga reviews a day, but I’m behind schedule right now, so I have to write five. Reading takes up most of my time. On a good day, I can get through about 20 tankoban. I spend something like eight hours a day just reading manga.”
The manga itself has come from all over the place. US publishers have donated entire series. Collectors have lent rare runs of back issues out of their collections. And Jason has paid for many manga personally out of his book advance. He also mooches by sitting in back of a local comic shop and reading for free.
Jason estimates that when this book is done, he will have read some 5,000 individual manga in all. The project has literally taken over his life. The workspace in his San Francisco apartment is covered in piles of translated books and comics. It’s hard to walk around the room for fear of stepping on a complete run of Card Captor Sakura or rare copies of Ryoichi Ikegami’s Spiderman. There’s no room to sit on the sofa and the walls are lined with overstuffed bookcases.
The rest of the apartment is in tatters. Dark drapes are hung up over the windows to keep the sun out. No one has cleaned the toilet in months. The kitchen is bare and doesn’t even have a table or a place to sit. Jason explains, “I mostly eat out these days. When I make something here, it’s usually instant food like macaroni and cheese. I don’t like tea or coffee, but I like to drink something hot every now and then to keep me awake. So I usually boil water and mix it with soy milk.”
Thompson has come a long way from the affluent Bay Area suburb of Healdsburg where he grew up. Since childhood, he loved writing and drawing and wanted to become a comic artist. He has created several of his own self-published comics and is currently working on a horror web comic called “The Stiff” which has a cult following. His website with samples of his work is located at www.mockman.com.
When he was in college, Jason became interested in anime and manga. After school, Jason found himself employed as a comic editor at Viz, one of the largest publishers of English language manga in America. There, Jason worked on some of the best-selling manga in the USA, including Dragonball and Naruto. But in order to make his Manga Encyclopedia, he’s had to quit his job (although he still works for Viz as a freelancer). Since he’s both a comic artist and an editor, I can’t imagine anyone better qualified to write and English guide to manga than him.
“When it comes to giving a good review to something, I’m looking for a strong concept, strong execution, and strong art. I like Shonen manga with lots of extreme passion and fighting. The creators have to struggle to keep it fresh all the time. I also like Shojo manga that’s really melodramatic and high-spirited like Hot Gimmick and Hana yori dango.”
Unfortunately, there are several genres that Jason is much less fond of. “Lolicon manga is really bad for you. So is Moe stuff like Azumanga Daioh. Luckily, not much of either has been published in the US so far. I think it is probably some of the most psychologically damaging stuff out there.”
But after hanging out with Jason for a while, you begin to wonder how even the most innocent of manga could affect your mind if consumed in bulk.
“My friends are claiming that writing this book has been bad for my health. I’m totally surrounded by images of escapism all day and all night. As a 31-year-old man, I can’t help but wonder how I’m supposed to relate to any of it…although I guess I’m probably about mentally 14 years old. People say I’m developmentally about 10 years behind everyone else.”
While Jason is one of the hardest working people I know, it’s true that other areas of his life might be a little underdeveloped. “I first kissed a girl when I was 26. We became boyfriend and girlfriend the next day. She broke up with me four years later. She left because she wanted to get married and have children and I wasn’t ready for that.”
Now, thousands of manga have taken her place in the apartment where they used to live together. The kinds of stories that Jason has been forced to read don’t seem to be helping much. “Reading a lot of Shonen Ai manga is like taking the emotional equivalent of poison. It depicts the most extreme states of loneliness and neediness and makes them look desirable to the reader. But if you acted like that in real life, you’d be the most fucked up person in the world. For example, I spent the last year obsessing over this one girl, but we never got together. It was just like a Shonen Ai manga, except she was female. It was awful. Now, my life is more like a dumb harem manga, like Eiken, where I’m surrounded by women, but I’m too dumb to do anything.”
So why not take your cues from a hardboiled gekiga manga like Crying Freeman, I ask him? “Naw,” he says. “That’s too macho. It would make me depressed in the other direction. I’ve never masturbated while reading manga. My friend says that maybe that means I’m a normal person. I really want to be ethical and morally upstanding.”
Jason’s November 2006 deadline to finish his text is creeping up on him. “Starting this project was pretty easy, but landing is going to be tough. I’m getting evicted soon – not because they hate the stink of manga rising from the apartment – but because they are taking the building off the market.”
What’s going to happen to all that incredible mountain manga when he has to move? “I’ll keep my favorites, put some in storage, and give the rest away to my friends.”
Suddenly, it seems as if the coffee has finally kicked in. Jason perks up and delivers an inspirational speech straight out of an editorial page of Shonen Jump. “I love manga!” he exclaims. “The comic market in America was so screwed up for so long that manga was able to completely take over the market. It took a few gutsy publishers in America to see the potential. It had already taken over the rest of the world, so why not here? American comic fans just want to read about the same characters since they were little kids. Manga really does offer something for everyone. So the moral of this book really is: manga is great.”
Then he looks at his watch, which rattles loosely on his bony wrist. “Sorry, I gotta go. I actually have a date tonight, but I have to read some manga first.”
JASON THOMPSON’S TEN BEST TRANSLATED MANGA
This list was very difficult to choose. There are many other great manga: Devilman, Banana Fish, The Drifting Classroom, One Piece....
1. Death Note(デスノート) • Tsugumi Ohba (story), Takeshi Obata (art)
It really is that good, even after volume 7.
2. Please Save My Earth(ぼくの地球を守って) • Saki Hiwatari
Saki Hiwatari's novel-like writing is incredibly powerful. There are so many good shojo story manga from the '70s and '80s. Where are they today?
3. Antique Bakery(西洋骨董洋菓子店ウインーグス) • Fumi Yoshinaga
Fumi Yoshinaga is the best writer in josei manga.
4. Phoenix (火の鳥) • Osamu Tezuka
Tezuka is so good that it is a cliché to talk about how good he is. But it's true. Black Jack is equally good.
4. Cromartie High School(魁!!クロマティ高校) • Eiji Nonaka
This manga is hilarious. Unfortunately, in America, no one has read Ikegami's "Otokogumi," so it's not very popular.
5. Dr. Slump(Dr。スランプ) • Akira Toriyama
When I met Toriyama and I said "I love Dragon Ball," he asked me, "Have you read Dr. Slump?"
6. Sugar Sugar Rune (シュガシュガルーン) • Moyoco Anno
This manga is questionable for this list, but Moyoco Anno is a great artist and Sugar Sugar Rune is her best manga (unless she messes up the ending). Although maybe this is just my perspective when I compare it to all the other manga in Nakayoshi.
7. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険) • Hirohiko Araki
I am biased, so I shouldn't list it here, but Araki is an incredibly original artist.
8. Maison Ikkoku (メゾン一刻) • Rumiko Takahashi
The classic original love comedy manga.
9. Lone Wolf & Cub (子連れ狼) • Kazuo Koike (story), Goseki Kojima (art)
For this list, it's a representative of all Kazuo Koike manga.
10. The Rose of Versailles (ベルサイユのばら) • Riyoko Ikeda
It's unfortunate that only one volume of this manga was ever translated (by Sanyusha in 1981), and it's now out of print.
THE FIVE WORST TRANSLATED MANGA
For the "worst manga" list, I'm only listing original manga. The absolute worst manga are "comicalized" manga adaptations of anime and video games, but there's too many to list.
1. Eiken (エイケン) • Seiji Matsuyama
Its style (turning love-comedy into filthy hardcore ero-manga) is actually pretty original, but... maybe it's just my personal taste, but it's the most disgusting manga I've ever read.
2. Dark Angel (聖獣伝承ダークエンジェル) • Kia Asamiya
Kia Asamiya is a nice person in real life. But Dark Angel is the perfect example of a plotless, pointless "anime-style" manga.
3. Tori Koro (トリコロ) • Hai Ran
The most boring 4-koma manga I've ever read.
4. Bomber Girl (ボンバーガール) • Makoto Niwano
I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this. Please forgive me, Niwano-sensei... maybe I just don't understand...
5. Princess Ninja Scroll Tenka Muso (姫様忍法著天下・無双) • Akane Sasaki •
Everything about this manga is totally generic.
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