A&A The Official John Jackson Miller Thread

I think the artists are always looking at their source material from before and from after, and trying to find a middle ground.

I do like the Twilight Zone -- including the sequel series we rarely see, the one from CBS in the 1980s that Harlan Ellison left. Some interesting stories there.

I wrote the Mandalorian chapter of the RPG guide, and I think it's safe to say you'll find a lot of interest in there. I got to expand upon some of the things we've only touched on so far.

 

That new big DH hardcover should have been called 'JJM - Last Hope For The Galaxy'.

As my fellow litties know, I'm not one to give praise easily... But I mean it when I submit that JJM is currently writing the most interesting, involving, intricate tales in the GFFA, that his stuff trumps all other SW comics, and that he's injecting the biggest breath of fresh air in the franchise since Timothy Zahn.

 

Hey JJM,

I've been searching for information on this and have so far turn up nil, but I was wondering if you knew about when we might be able to expect the next tpb for KOTOR?

 

I can answer that one, actually. As of the info we have right now, Knights of Hate, Daze of Suffering (KotOR Vol. 4) is coming out on September 17.

- Keralys

 

Daze of Hate, Knights of Suffering, actually -- but man, if you only knew how many times i got those titles confused! They were intended to look cool on the bookshelf, but not necessarily to say over and over again!

 

Doggonnit. And I was directly looking and typing, too. *sigh*

- Keralys

 

I have to say, I'm still pleasantly surprised at the swift pace of the main story. It's quite a contrast to the typical endless zero sum games of other comics.

 

The KOTOR Campaign Guide has been officially announced, and it has, among others, Zayne and Jarael on the cover.

 

SWEET! I'm ecstatic about that.

John, how was the writing divvied out for the sourcebook? Obviously you have a huge continuity whiz with Abel on board, but you've demonstrated quite the aptitude for it yourself. Were you contributing more story framework, etc., or how did that all play out?

Also, without getting into too many specifics, what sort of new info can we expect to see, especially as relates to the way that TotJ connects to the games/your current work?

- Keralys

 

We tried to put together everything in the 50-year era into a larger framework -- and then worked our way down to some specifics that would be useful to gamers.

We divided it up so certain people wrote certain chapters ? and then we also crossed back and forth a bit, so if I had a comics character or concept in someone else's chapter, I either wrote that or contributed to it. And then we all looked at the complete work. Very much a collaborative effort, with plenty of discussion going back and forth.

Once the book is out and the list of chapters is in print, I can get more into which sections I handled.

 

I'm fascinated to hear about that. This is actually the first time I'm sufficiently interested by a sourcebook that I'll probably pick it up. Crazy.

- Keralys

 

Wow, and here I thought I was the only one who was interested in the 1980s Twilight Zone series. I adore all those cheesy '80s horror/sci fi anthology shows. The lame music, the low production values, the campy acting. Thank God for Netflix and Amazon.com is all I have to say.

Actually, if you like the Twilight Zone, you might also like Tales from the Darkside. It has a similar creepy vibe. There's a really good one staring Seth Green with a trio of monsters hiding in his room. One has tentacles and lives under the bed. One is like a Frankenstein's monster dude living in the closet. And the final one is simply a buzz saw that comes out of the wall. I know, A FREAKING BUZZ SAW??!! So random. LOL.

Anyway, John, I just wanted to say that I recently bought the 3 KOTOR trade paperbacks that came out and I finished book one last night. It was a blast! A real roller coaster ride. Loved the whole twist on the propechy and trying to stop a Sith before they became Sith. The prophecy was a little vague for me to 100% believe that this Jedi Covenant thing would slaughter all the Padawans to stop it, but by that point I was so hooked on the characters and setting that I just kept going. Can't wait to start book two tonight, actually.

Please give my praise to the artists and colorist (is that the right word). The panels leapt off the page they were so vibrant. I love the ship designs and art direction more than any other series out there. Reading the book I immediatly wanted to play the game KOTOR and I'm not even a gamer!

I do have one request. Please please please make an Ishi Tib Jedi at some point. I've always wanted to see one! Even if it's just a small character.

 

Thanks for the kind words!

Familiar with Tales from the Darkside -- though I probably preferred the Friday the 13th show (I think that's the one, where they kept rounding up old cursed artifacts).

The first season of that Twilight Zone re-do had some decent production values and included some gems ? Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star" was in there, as was Harlan's "Shatterday." The later episodes, they're kind of running out of money on ? although even the silly premises, like the Elvis impersonator who accidentally killed and had to replace Elvis in the past, were still kind of interesting.

 

I love the Elvis one! Shatterday, if I remember, was the pilot and starred Bruce Willis as a man who calls home and ends up talking to a duplicate of himself. I also like the one Stephen King wrote about the boy who talks to his dead Grandma.

I vaguley remember Friday the 13th... I'll put in in my queue, though. The artifact angle sounds interesting.

Anyway, keep up the awesome work on KOTOR. As a big fan of TOTJ -- though I haven't read it since it originally came out -- I think it's really cool wherenever you make a reference to it, like name dropping Exar Kun or the stuff with the Mandalorians. In fact, I hope to see more tie-ins to TOTJ, perhaps with some of the characters from that series who may still be alive. But if not, your series works perfect on its own.

I'll probably finish book two tonight. Is there anyway you can tell Dark Horse to release KOTOR bi-monthly? I have to slow myself down or I'll be done with book three by the weekend! LOL.

 

And Wes Craven directed the Shatterday episode, too. I imagine the series is on DVD somewhere. Generally better on balance than Amazing Stories, which was about the same time ? though there were a couple that would have made good feature films, which is what Spielberg was going for. (Look for "The Main Attraction," the episode where the school jerk gets hit by a meteor and becomes magnetic.)

Friday the 13th (I'm pretty sure that's the series) is on the Chiller network, if you have DirecTV. Pretty campy, though there were some cool ones -- like the one where a groupie for a female pop singer uses a magic item to win her heart. Only the cursed magic item knows his true wish isn't to be with her, it's to BE her -- and they end up trapped in the same body until the Scooby kids disrupt the curse. A lot of the episodes worked like that.

There's more connecting elements coming, no worries there.

And I think the monthly schedule is pretty much the schedule ? which I don't mind at all. I wrote Iron Man biweekly for several months back when I was still moonlighting, and I was seeing armor in my sleep!

 

Haha that makes sense from your standpoint but what about us readers!

Just kidding, I'll take quality over quantity any day.

Well, I have nothing left to say except that you, sir, are one cool dude.

 

Hi again,

Since you worked on it, I wanted to point out that Wizards of the Coast has started to release previews from the KOTOR campaign guide. It's mostly rules stuff, but still.

Preview 1
Preview 2

Also, from the new KOTOR miniatures set:the statistics for the Zayna Carrick piece (you have to scroll down a bit to get to it). Turns out he has a special ability that basically gives him a 50% chance of being awesome or totally sucking, in terms of combat effectiveness.

I find this strangely appropriate.

 

Almost like we planned it that way.

 

So, the guide is out now; do we get to know which sections you contributed the most to?

- Keralys

 

re: issue 32

Bloody. Hell.

 

I've been trying to, but my blasted websites crashed and I'm still fighting to get them online. I'm planning to go into it all there.

And there were two full chapters I wrote 95% of -- I'd be interested to see which ones people THINK I wrote.

 

I noticed that. Sorry that you're having web problems; that a major pain in the neck.

I am hoping to spend some time looking at the guide this coming weekend; I'll let you know after that which ones I think you wrote (and I'll avoid your hopefully by then restored website as relates to that in particular until after I've made my predictions).

- Keralys

 

Not good, it's frustrating when things break. Hope you find out what's wrong.

Hmm. I know you did the Mandalorian chapter, as you've been developing their situation for months. And Abel said he contributed to that too, so guess that's the 5%. And then I bet you also did the Republic chapter, as it is in your comics that they're being expanded.

 

I'm going to guess you did a lot of work on the ships.

 

Still offline, but soon to resurface with a server company that actually keeps backups for longer than it takes to respond to my request to have a back-up restored. Seriously. Again, I have taken my business elsewhere... hopefully we should be back up in a couple of days.

Correct on both counts. And then I contributed a few characters and ships here and there, which were distributed around the book to wherever they wound up.