John L. Thompson

John L. Thompson was born in Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan, and settled in New Mexico in 1986 after spending much of his early life traveling throughout the United States and abroad. He worked as a diesel mechanic and professional truck driver before turning his attention to writing and graphic design.

His fiction and artwork have appeared in publications including Yellow Mama, Shotgun Honey, and Runewright. In 2013, he founded Dead Guns Press, an independent publisher dedicated to crime fiction and the Hardboiled anthology series.

Since 2015, Thompson has designed more than twenty-seven covers for Barry Sadler's Casca: The Eternal Mercenary series, written by Tony Roberts, along with dozens of covers for other authors and publishers. In 2025, he became co-author of the series, beginning with Casca #64: The Guardian.

He lives and writes in New Mexico.