Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, an Interview with Writer John Jackson Miller

Dark Horse Comics celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2006. As part of that celebration, Dark Horse shook up their Star Wars titles in January of last year. The door closed on Empire and Republic while a window opened for Legacy and Knights of the Old Republic. KOTOR follows the adventures of Zayne Carrick and the motley crew of cohorts he’s picked up running away from his Jedi Master, Lucien. The story takes place about four thousand years before Star Wars: A New Hope.

It is one year later and CNI was able to ask John Jackson Miller, writer of KOTOR, some questions.


CNI: First can you tell us a little about yourself? How long have you been writing comics, how did you get into writing comics?

JJM: I’ve been writing my own comics as long as I’ve been collecting them — since age six. (Hopefully I’ve gotten better at doing them since then!) Much later, I worked as a journalist, editing magazines about comics like COMICS & GAMES RETAILER (www.comicsretailer.com) and COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE (www.cbgxtra.com) and writing books about comics like the STANDARD CATALOG OF COMIC BOOKS. In more recent times, I’ve been writing comics professionally, including IRON MAN and CRIMSON DYNAMO for Marvel, BART SIMPSON for Bongo, and, of course, EMPIRE and KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC for Dark Horse.


CNI: Knights of the Old Republic takes place 4,000 years before the movies – around the time of the Tales of the Jedi comics and the Knights of the Old Republic video games. What connections are there between your comic and other stories from that same time? The video games?

JJM: There are a number of connections — too many to quickly mention. We’re in the aftermath of the Sith War from TALES OF THE JEDI, and there are a number of lingering threads coming from that, motivating our series’ antagonists. Meanwhile, we’re in the time of the Mandalorian Wars which are in the run-up to the video games, and so there’s a whole lot going there, too. We’ve seen some game characters, like Admiral Karath; we’re going to see more in 2007.


CNI: Are there any connections to events, characters, or locations featured in the movies?

JJM: Coruscant was the setting for #9 — it’s kind of interesting to see it in the distant past. And there are certainly mentions of other locations familiar from the movies. We’ve even referred to settings from the old Marvel comics, like Aargau, in our #11.


CNI: Your story takes place in the era called the "Old Republic Era" or sometimes the "Sith Era." Can you supply us with some context for that Era? What does a fan that has only seen the movies need to know about the Star Wars Universe of this time period? What wars are being waged? Where are the Sith and what is the state of the Jedi Order?

JJM: This is an era where Jedi and Sith are plentiful — there’s no “rule of two” yet — although at my specific year, the Sith are off the stage. Naturally, the Jedi and the Republic are obsessed with worrying over when they’ll come back. Which would be fine, if the armored Mandalorians — as a result of the events of our story — hadn’t picked this moment to invade the Republic. So now the Jedi Order is in a tug of war over war: Do they get involved or not? And by focusing on the Mandalorians, do they hand the galaxy over to the Sith?

That’s about all the new reader needs to know — and it’s all there in the introduction. Other differences between this time and the movies in terms of technology, Jedi dating habits, etc. -- these are all to be more fully explored in the comics.


CNI: Who would enjoy this series? Are you targeting hard-core fans, casual fans, fans of the video games?

JJM: We’ve simply tried to tell good comic-book stories — but, yes, we’ve also made a deliberate attempt to bring in the people who are familiar with the video games. One way we did that was by setting the series’ start on Taris, the first planet you visit in the first game. And yet you don’t have to have played the games at all to enjoy the comics — there’s fans among gamers and non-gamers alike. The #0 sampler issue we did was primarily intended as an easy introduction to the era for the newer readers, and it seems to have helped. It’s part of the first trade paperback, COMMENCEMENT, now on sale.


CNI: How much input does Lucasfilm provide in terms of story or characters? Do you have free-rein?

JJM: These are, of course, their characters, and so we work closely together to make sure everything fits, both in terms of tone and continuity. They’ve been very helpful throughout, guiding us in the right direction at every turn while helping us to tell the kinds of stories we really want to tell.

One of the things I do is try to share some insights in the process of storytelling on my website, www.farawaypress.com. There’s a production notes page there for every comic book and book I’ve ever done, sort of getting into how the ideas for the stories came about.


CNI: Your protagonist, Zayne Carrick, seems the opposite of Luke Skywalker in that Zayne has all the training and not much in the talent department while Luke has all the talent and not much training. Is that disparity intentional?

JJM: Certainly we have seen a lot lately when it comes to very skilled Jedi, like Anakin and Obi-Wan — and it just seemed to me that for every student that’s at the top of his class, there’s one at the bottom. Of course, we’re now finding that he may have been underestimated, both by his teachers and friends. He’s learning more on the run than he ever did in the academy!


CNI: You've introduced an ensemble cast for your book – a Jedi, a career criminal, a mal-adjusted droid, a crazy junkyard dealer, and his fierce body-guard… how long can they possibly stick together before it comes to blows? What inspired you to create such a rag-tag band of adventurers?

JJM: They HAVE come to blows — in the middle of a chase scene in #4, Jarael tries to throw The Gryph out of the airlock! That really was what I wanted to capture from the movies — this notion that these characters really were thrown together, and in the beginning the only thing they’re sure of is they want to be shed of each other. Having them drop everything in the middle of a battle to have an argument — well, that’s STAR WARS, we figured!


CNI: The set-up for your book seems a little dark at first glance – a padawan witnesses the murder of his fellow students at the hands of their masters. Zayne Carrick, padawan, runs for his life. Would you characterize this book as generally dark?

JJM: It’s certainly got a lot of dark themes — though I would note that it has plenty of lighter moments, too. One of the nicest comments I got while we were developing the series was that we often put humor and danger right in the same line, which is my intention. Zayne Carrick’s life is falling apart around him, and a different sort of person would be falling apart, too. He’s dealing with all of it rather well, considering — perhaps in part because he never took his chances that seriously to begin with. (Maybe if Anakin had been less successful in the beginning, he wouldn’t have taken failure so hard!)


CNI: A recent story arc, Flashpoint, featured some familiar looking characters – the Mandalores! How long have they been around by the time of this story? What is their goal?

JJM: Well, they’ve been around an awful long time — but their current crusade has been going on for years by the time our series begins. It’s only in Flashpoint that we realize that they really mean to go toe-to-toe with the Republic, something that the Republic is not ready for. The Mandalorians fight for pride and their code, which is more motivation than the Republic forces have — at this point in the series, anyway.


CNI: One of the most popular characters from the Star Wars mythos is Boba Fett. Will any one of the Mandalores stick out as an individual as much as Boba? Rohlan Dyre seems a likely candidate – when will we see him again?

JJM: Rohlan is definitely a kind of Mandalorian we haven’t seen before, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him again. He’s the equivalent of a Mandalorian conscientious objector; it’s not that he won’t fight, he’s just frustrated with not being told the truth about why he’s fighting who he’s fighting. Issue #10’s ending certainly leaves the possibility of a return open.


CNI: In the Flashpoint Interlude issue, you introduced a dark figure, Haazen. He's a Sith, right? After all he is wearing black and red. What can you tell us about him and his relationship with Lucien? What is the Covenant that he belongs to?

JJM: As Haazen says in the issue, he’s a failed Padawan who was Lucien’s sort of unofficial trainer during a time when real Jedi Masters were hard to find after the Sith War. The Covenant is inextricably linked with that war — their goal is to make sure another one never happens again.

I won’t comment beyond that except to say that, if black and red makes one a Sith, Tampa needs to be worried about those Buccaneers fans!


CNI: What does the coming year hold for our intrepid adventurers? Will Lucien find his wayward padawan? Does Zayne manage to clear his name? Will Camper find his marbles?

JJM: The mysterious past of one of our major characters — I won’t say whether it’s a hero or antagonist -- will be resolved once and for all. Although that character may not be very happy about it!


CNI: You've got twelve issues down, how long do you see yourself on this title?

JJM: It’s an ongoing series, and I expect it’ll go as long as there’s interest. We certainly have more stories to tell.


CNI: How many issues ahead do you script from the current issue?

JJM: I’m working well into 2007 now, but I have general plans further out. One of the things about this series is I made sure from the beginning that I knew the answer to any mystery I introduced — and so I definitely know where we’re going. Like I say, there’s many stories yet to tell.


CNI: What is your favorite Star Wars movie?

JJM: I think I’ll always be fondest of EMPIRE, which really opened up a lot more complexity to the series. And I’m a big Lando fan, as evidenced by the amiable swindler in KOTOR, the Gryph...


CNI: What were the first comics you read?

JJM: The very first were issues of UNCLE SCROOGE and RICHIE RICH — all of which I still have. The first “grown-up” comic book I ever got, though, was the very first issue of STAR WARS.


CNI: What gives you inspiration? Do you listen to particular music or have Return of the Jedi playing in the background while you write?

JJM: No, I need quiet — though I keep the TV on, muted. I’m a pretty TV-obsessed guy — I have the same set on my office desk that I used to watch all night in college. (Which inspired a small press book, FARAWAY LOOKS, I once did that I’m slowly publishing as a webcomic on FarawayPress.com. It’s about college students who never leave the room and watch TV 24 hours a day...)

CNI: Any other projects that you are currently working on that you would like to tell our readers about?

JJM: On the non-fiction side, my 2007 COMIC BOOK CHECKLIST & PRICE GUIDE is just out — and I still write a column for COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE. On the comics and fiction side, I am hard at work on some other stuff that’s in the pipeline that I can’t mention yet — but updates will appear on www.farawaypress.com as I can talk about them. And there’s lots more KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC, of course!


Comic News International thanks Mr. Miller for answering our questions. Check out his website, www.farawaypress.com, for updates on all things Miller as well as extensive trivia and production notes for each issue he writes. His column can be found at, www.cbgxtra.com. For more information about Dark Horse comics, visit them at, www.darkhorse.com.

Star Wars: Knights of the Republic #11 was released the last week of December; #12 is released January 10th. The first KOTOR collected edition, “Commencement,” containing issues 1 thru 6 as well as the 2007 Comic Book Checklist & Price Guide are currently available at comic shops and book retailers everywhere.