John Jackson Miller is basically a Jedi when it comes to writing. How so you ask? Well, he’s steeped in ancient universal wisdom for starters. And second, he always carries a real, working replica of a light-saber. Seriously. I don’t know where he got it, but I’ve seen him cut people in half. Okay, not really. But he has been writing about the Star Wars Universe for a while now, so that’s gotta count for something. How much you ask? Jeez, you ask a lot of questions; just keep reading to find out . . .Dark Horse: You’ve been writing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for over two years now, with a fourth trade coming out this fall, so how did you become involved with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?
John Jackson Miller: I had bought the Indy comics when they came out years ago, and one of my early conversations with my editor on Knights of the Old Republic was that if there was ever a fourth movie, I’d love to write the adaptation. At the time I asked this, there was no movie on the horizon: they’d been working on a suitable script for many years, but at the time it was kind of a blue-sky wish on my part. I mentioned it a few times again as a running joke -- but then the surprise was mine when last year, that editor, Jeremy Barlow, was assigned to the Indy office and asked me to write the adaptation. I think that was the first I had even heard that the film was a go!
That was where it started, and lots of work followed. It was a new experience to me, translating a story intended for the screen into words and descriptions of panels for the comics page, and I had to adapt my approach to storytelling in the process. So it was a new challenge, but it was also a great and rewarding experience.
DH: What is it about George Lucas’ tales that you find so captivating as a writer?
JJM: There’s just such a wide canvas that he’s created -- and for those of us filling it in, he’s provided the colors for the palette: the themes that tend to be common to Star Wars and Indiana Jones stories no matter where or when they’re set. You can tell different kinds of stories that look very different -- and yet they’re all connected by these common elements that make them recognizable. If you’ve seen the movies, you can find the on-ramp into them.
DH: The Star Wars Universe is so complex and intricate. How do you keep track of all the history and characters?
JJM: Leland Chee at Lucasfilm maintains an official Holocron that keeps track of everything -- that's a really valuable resource. Then outside of that I have all the comics from the beginning, as well as a lot of the novels and game material -- and then I’ve got a lot of the reference works that have been published. I’ll draw on my memory to the extent that I can, though even then I try to turn to the other resources to double-check.
DH: Do you feel as if Star Wars has grown into something that, although started by the original film trilogy is beyond any single story?
JJM: Well, that’s difficult to say. For a lot of people out there, the films are the story they know. But a lot of people are also discovering that there are all these additional stories, further developing the same setting and enhancing their appreciation of the world shown in the films. That’s a good thing, and I’m glad it’s happening. There was a time after the original trilogy and before the first new novel came out that it looked like the Star Wars universe might be finite. Now, I don’t think anyone could think that.
An interesting thing is that thanks to the Expanded Universe, everyone’s Star Wars experience is subtly different -- because no two people have read exactly the same things, played exactly the same games, seen exactly the same cartoons, etc. But that again brings us back to the films as the guiding star. They’re the common element to everyone’s experience, whoever they are.
DH: Zayne Carrick isn’t any ordinary hero. What is it about him that makes him different than other characters we’ve seen in the Star Wars Universe?
JJM: Zayne differs from a lot of the characters that we’ve seen in that he’s not entirely competent. He’s got these Force abilities, and normally the Jedi would have tried to help him put them to use. But his own Master, Lucien, had better things to do than teach, and so Zayne emerges from training needing some remedial work, to say the least!
But while he’s no stranger to failure, that’s also prepared him to deal with adversity -- and so he responds to the many reversals he experiences not with anger or depression, but a desire to dust himself off and try again. He’s not perfect -- there’s a pivotal scene in the first volume, “Commencement,” where he wants to run and hide from his problems. But he’s made of better stuff than that, and so he soldiers on. He’s met every test of his character, so far — but there are rougher days ahead …
DH: To avoid certain capture, or even death, Zayne must team up with some of the galaxy’s more nefarious characters. Can you talk about how the series introduces the types of characters that have been overlooked in other stories?
JJM: I don’t know to what extent other stories have used certain kinds of characters, but what we set out to do was to create an ensemble like we saw in Episode IV, where the heroes were completely different types of people, thrown together and forced to cooperate to survive.
We wonder throughout “Commencement,” the first story arc, when the con artist Gryph will ditch Zayne in order to save his own skin. He finally does, but has reason to reconsider. We wonder how long the mysterious fugitives hiding in the junk-hauler, Jarael and Camper, will want to stay with Zayne when he’s caused them so many problems. They do leave, but fate brings them back together. In all these cases, we see that despite the conflict that exists between them and their individual aims, they’re more effective together than apart.
And I also like to play characters against their expected type. Ithorians are wise and peaceful; the Moomo Brothers are definitely not. Mandalorians are straightforward and direct; Rohlan is contemplative. I try to give them all space to see how they’ll develop if left to their own devices -- even if that means, in the case of the catatonically depressed droid Elbee, letting him sit in a stupor for most of the series thus far!
DH: Since the story is set thousands of years before Episode IV, what kinds of history can readers expect to discover?
JJM: It is the same galaxy in many ways -- the technology and institutions are pretty similar -- but there are differences, as well. In the Old Republic of the comics, the war is not between the Empire and the Rebellion, but the Republic and the nomadic armor-wearing Mandalorians. And there are lots of Jedi, but they’re in several different factions, divided over how they should respond to things like the Mandalorian War and the potential threat of the Sith. Jedi can also date, which is a nice difference (or an additional source of conflict, in some cases).
There are also some stylistic differences. This is the “more civilized age” that Obi-Wan speaks of -- and while there’s hardship and conflict out there, it’s also a soaring age with a lot of remarkable achievements. We’ve shown places like the bank-world of Telerath and the flying university of The Arkanian Legacy -- places built by peoples that really want to give substance to their dreams. Of course, some of those dreams can be corrupted, as we’ve also shown.
That said, we try to keep Knights fairly self-contained -- while there are ties to the comics set in the past and the video games set in the future, you’ve got everything you need to know about the galaxy of the day right in the series.
DH: What big plans are in store for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic?
JJM: The events of “Vector” have set up what promises to be the biggest year yet for this series -- and a very dangerous year indeed for Zayne Carrick. He enters the “Exalted” storyline with a strategy that he hopes will prove his innocence to the crimes he’s been charged with. But his foes in The Covenant are clever and foresighted (as you’d expect from a group of seers), and the path will be more difficult than he imagines. It all leads into “Vindication,” a storyline that promises showdowns galore and many secrets revealed -- including, exactly how some of our characters and events connect to the past.
Is the “Vindication” to be Zayne’s? Or is it a vindication of the Covenant’s views? Or something else? We’ll find out -- 2008 is a great time to be reading Knights of the Old Republic!
DH: If you could be transformed into any Star Wars character and transported to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, who would you be?
JJM: Hah! I’ve always been fond of the Life of Lando. No sense schlepping around the galaxy in a creaky freighter when you can set up shop in your own floating city and play cards all day!
DH: What is the worst insult you can call a person in Star Wars lingo?
JJM: It’s not Star Wars lingo, but if you want to get under a Star Wars fan’s skin, call them something from the wrong milieu. I was at a hotel con once where there was a mix of costumed people and regular hotel guests -- and when a guy in a Stormtrooper outfit walked past, some civilian said, “Hey, nice Cylon!” You couldn’t see the guy’s face under the helmet, but his body language said it all. It’s a good thing those blasters don’t really work!