A&A The Official John Jackson Miller Thread

The sections on the Inexpungable-class tactical command ships and the Hammerhead-class cruisers sounds like they may of been written by you. Especially given the amount both vessels have been featured in the comics.

BTW- I noticed that the section on the Inexies mentions the Swiftsure being the model they based production off. Does that mean that by the time the Mandalorian wars are in full swing that there are more than the original half dozen prototypes?

Also- what was your inspiration for creating the various "Admiral of the Coreworlds"? I could not tell if they were intended to be part of the Republic Navy or if they are connected to forces controlled by individual planets or sectors.

All in all, it was a damned fine book. I can only hope that the eventual Legacy campaign guide is done to such a level.

--Adm. Nick

 

Hey John, I'm just curious about something in the generally awesome KotOR CG - the Bendak Starkiller biography. I'm asking you because I'm under the impression you authored the majority of the Mandalorian section, though I could be mistaken on that point. (Feel free to slap me down, if so.)

Bendak's biography renders several lines of dialogue from KotOR I null and void* and I'm curious as to whether or not this was a conscious decision or an honest mistake. Mainly because, if the former, it suggests you might have plans to use Bendak in the comic series - especially since Vanquo, the planet on which he's said to have been recruited, has appeared once already. If the latter, should we still view this as the "new canon" (despite my pickiness, it's hardly the biggest problem in the world), or as an error? (Maybe Voren Na'al got his hands on that entry, he's a great scapegoat )

Sorry for being an insufferable nerd , and thanks in advance if you choose to respond.

* Specifically, the references to death matches having been outlawed for "nearly ten years", comments on the extended period of time Bendak has been in retirement and the stuff on the Sith having only conquered and quarantined Taris following the battle with the Endar Spire.

 

Sorry for the delay. My websites have all seized up -- and while I've been working behind the scenes to get lifeboats in the water, I haven't had time to check in much.

This is correct. Designed the stats, too.

This is tricky. Swiftsure was actually the prototype twice. It was the initial proof-of-concept vehicle, from which the other five ships were made. Then it was brought back for retrofit to the full Vanjervalis Chain software package -- which is described in the guide and is seen in #31. That's where I'll leave things, since there is more story to tell.

They are part of the Navy. The inspiration is partly be from some of the Southern European navies where the power of the state wasn't as strong as the power of the regions ? so that when everybody joins together in the common cause, you've still got these artifactual remnants showing the forces used to belong to a city-state. That was the case in the reborn Republic we were trying to describe.

Also, I looked at Britain where you had an aristocracy with members in the Navy -- so you've got this odd, secondary source of recognition out there. There's young Captain Hornblower, whose power is strictly military, and then there's Captain Sir Edward Pellew, who's got other connections that are visible right in his name.

I like the thought of these odd titles and offices being about. It lends flavor.

As to Bendak: patience.

 

Fascinating stuff. The first thing that somes to mind for me when you reference Southern European navies is Italy. Specifically, before Italy was unified. Like when Venetian, Geonovese, and Papal forces would combine fleets to face larger threats like the Turks or other Italian states.

Thanks for the info on the Inexpungable-class. There is something about that warship that appeals to me. Granted it looks like it may turn out to be a less than perfect concept (thanks in a great part to Vanjervalis), but the design is quite attractive and very original. I love how it is entirely different from the Republic's Hammerhead-class cruisers yet at the same time familiar or related.

Speaking of warships, I have long wondered about the Venator-esque Mandalorian warships that appeared in the issue where the Courageous was captured. Was there a concious decision to give the Mandies a wedge shaped warship or did it come about entirely from the artist?

Thanks!

--Adm. Nick

 

Yes, the Italian navy was one I had in mind -- anything where you're dealing with a federation. I imagine there were times it was difficult to be entirely sure who was in charge. I think O'Brien also had stuff along those lines in his Ionian Mission book, but it's been forever since I read it.

As to the ships in that issue, you'd have to ask the artist who populated the scene. I don't always get into specifics about size and shape beforehand ? Courageous was wholly Dustin's design, but then I ran with it and elaborated on the wishing well and its function.

 

Is that code for: "stop obsessing"?

Anyway, I shall follow your advice. Thanks for the response, short though it was.

 

Well, it's done. Owing to the final, shrieking demise of my website database, I'm restoring all my materials on a new FarawayPress.com -- it'll take some time, but nothing should be lost save my old blog posts (not the production notes, just the blog, which was mostly product announcements and show photos). I have created a fresh blog at FarawayLooks.com that feeds to my main site -- it's also in the early stages, but given Blogger's easier interface I hope to be blogging more often than I previously had been.

 

Quick question for you, John:

Will be be seeing a certain "Voren Renstaal" turning up in the KotOR series before too much longer?

Reason I'm asking is because, according to the recently-released "The Betrayal of Darth Revan" RPG module, it's revealed that Renstaal loses his Jedi Master against the Mandos on Onderon, joins up with the Revanchists, becomes "Darth Voren" leading into the Jedi Civil War, and is killed about a year prior to the events of the first game (in 3,957 BBY, during Bastila's strike-mission that results in Revan's capture).

Any bones you can throw us, here?

 

That one you'll need to ask Rodney Thompson or someone else at WotC about. I know the "Dawn of Defiance" modules are official and go through the approval process, but I don't know how it works for the RPGA stuff.

I was able to get to the miniatures area at GenCon, but I never had time to get to the role-playing rooms (which seem to have been spread all over creation). Hard to believe that four days for Gen Con is not enough.

 

Aw. Now there's no chance of John missing and ignoring it.

Thanks a lot, Leto.

 

Looks like there's a little easter egg in the illustration of the LB droid in the KOTOR Campaign Guide:

[image=http://www.stanoje.de/temp/LB.jpg]

LB is holding a Weighted Companion Cube!

 

Hey, you're right.

 

John,

If you haven't checked it out already, take a listen to the new audio Holonet News on the Official Site. There's a reference to the Arkoh Adasca storyline and the Exogorths. It's just a short blurb, but awesome for readers (and no doubt writers) of KOTOR, none the less.

 

Issue 34:

Now you're just tweaking those people who obsess over who's gonna turn out to be which game character.

 

ISSUE 35 FTW!!!

How long ago did you have these basic frameworks plotted out? Did you, as I suspect, have the basics of it there from the beginning?

Also, any chance we might ever see another short story from you in this period?

 

I have more short stories I'd like to do -- it's a scheduling question, right now. But I hope to do more.

Some things were known way back when. I obviously knew Krynda in #1 and how Haazen-Barrison-Krynda worked before I wrote #9; thereafter it wasn't hard because the story of the Draays and the Covenant dribbled out a fact at a time. I didn't know Celeste and the Muur Talisman back then, but it did work rather well with what I intended and got us to the point we're at. The "big break" in the case, so to speak.

I would have liked to have planted the "redoubt/readout" line back in #27 when Gryph was listening to Lucien's recordings -- it would have been a mystery then instead of a pun. Just as well I didn't think of it then -- there was a lot going on in that scene as it was.

 

So it's safe to say now that the hooded character we saw way back in the beginning of issue #6 is Haazen - not the Jedi associate Krynda, correct?

Before Vector was conceived what, without giving away details for future arcs of course that may use this idea, was planned for where Vector is? Would it be Raana is killed on Taris and Zayne just jumps to Ordryn for evidence and take a proactive stance against the Covenant? (of course not but you know what I mean.)

 

Sorry for the delay in responding. Yes, that image was intended to be Haazen.

That's a good question. It would have taken longer to reach the resolutions Zayne reaches -- Celeste unlocked the whole conspiracy, in a way. We would also likely not have leaped that month there, so we would have had some more notion of what happened to the Resistance.

 

*gasp* John Jackson Miller! Thank you for your extraordinary work on KOTOR!!

So it's safe to say now that the hooded character we saw way back in the beginning of issue #6 is Haazen - not the Jedi associate Krynda, correct?

Ahhh...I was most definately wondering about that. I was about to ask, myself, but you beat me to it!

 

You are very welcome!

 

Even though JJM is originally from Memphis and we've claimed him as our own for a while now, the Memphis Fan Force had the honor of inducting John as an honorary member this weekend at MidSouthCon:

[image=http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g210/linworkman/midsouthcon09/IMG_8843.jpg]


I don't think any of the members post here, but John was also inducted into the 501st, along with Dean Zachary (artist on KOTOR issue 38):

[image=http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp45/traci1012_public/MidSouthCon2009/JJMDZinduction.jpg]

Thank you for everything, John! MSC would not be the same without you.


(Up next: a Slyssk puppet. )

 

I just had a question about one of the background characters, back when we didnt know who the Correlian Strangler was, the comic provided a picture of a guy wearing a bacta-tank (?) on his head as a possible image. Since then I've seen someone like that who looks very similar. I think it was issue 23 or 24 that it showed someone who looked very similar in cuffs being escorted by a Mandalorian on Taris. I just read issue 39 today and he appears again or someone with a similar taste in the fashion of wearing a fishtank on your head. So I was just wondering is this all that same character who inadvertantly happens to be around where Zayne and company is or is it some new species or something like that? Also, is he your creation or just a coincedance?

 

And actually while reading #33 another question came up, the Massassi of that issue dont have their tentacle beards and some look like a differant race altogether so are these meant to be Sith mutations of Exar Kun or Dark Jedi of that time who did the red and black tattoos much like the Legacy era Sith or are they soemthing else?

 

Sorry for the delay in responding. The fish-tank guy is a character that Brian Ching first drew in #6 -- we reused that image for the holofeed. Then Brian used a similar design in #39. I don't know his species, nor if Brian intended him to be the same guy. You'd have to ask him.

As to the depiction of the Massassi in #33, the visual differences weren't anything intentional, but we could certainly imagine that there were quite a lot of different mutations out there -- the Massassi being a very malleable people for this sort of thing.

 

Thanks alot for taking the time to answer my questions.