John Jackson Miller, or ‘JJM’ as he is lovingly referred to on comic forums, is the writer of ‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’ and ‘Mass Effect: Redemption’ which he co-wrote with Mac Walters, the lead writer of Mass Effect 2. This fall, Miller will write ‘Star Wars: Knight Errant’ for Dark Horse Comics in addition to writing a novel for Random House Books based on the same time period and characters.  As part of Dark Horse Comics’ San Diego Comic-Con announcements, Miller will continue working with Mac Walters on a new series titled ‘Mass Effect: Evolution.’

How did you get started working in the industry?

JJM: I was a comics collector since birth — and when I entered the working world as a journalist, I was lucky enough to find a job editing the comics industry’s trade magazine alongside a couple of the comics fandom’s pioneers, Don and Maggie Thompson. I learned a lot from them and worked years producing books and magazines about comics — but the one thing I always wanted to do was write my own. Every time I’d write a review, I was really thinking how I might tell a story my way — not really fair.  So, in 2003, I took the plunge and worked up my first submission, a series about the Iron Man villain, Crimson Dynamo. Marvel picked it up and hired me to write Iron Man, and thereafter I found my way into the Dark Horse fold writing comics about Lucasfilm properties Star Wars and Indiana Jones and BioWare’s Mass Effect. It’s been a great experience; I’ve been writing comics and prose fiction full time since 2007.

What are you doing instead of going to Comic-Con this year?

JJM: Relaxing! Seriously, I just finished my first novel, Star Wars: Knight Errant — which is part of a two-pronged project I’m doing that includes a new comics series by the same name for Dark Horse later this fall. Writing both a novel and a comics series about the same characters simultaneously is a new idea — and was fairly challenging — but I think the result is definitely worth it.  Anyway, my next big convention will be Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando next month, where we’ll unveil a lot more of what we’ll be doing.

What’s the most important aspect of the industry that you feel goes unnoticed in the mainstream coverage of comics?

JJM: It’s something I actually talk about a lot — and I trumpet it in my spare time, on my comics history site, comichron.com, where I study what comics have sold over their 75-year history. It’s the fact that, by a series of accidents, comics have actually turned out be very well positioned for the future. Comics are magazines, but they’re also books — and that is a strength that has made us a very healthy sector, relative to the rest of publishing.  Unlike other magazines, comics retailers buy comics outright for a customer base they know well — meaning there’s very little waste in the system. It’s incredibly efficient. We’re also not disposable, as most other magazines are, because people consider comics to have value as collectibles. And then, unlike other magazines, all our works have a second life in collected editions, where they can be permanently kept in print.  And unlike books, where the process of writing a novel takes months, the fact that comics are serialized means that the work is both subsidized — and advertised — while it’s being made, because it’s coming out in single issues. That’s a major advantage for publishers — it recalls the days of a century ago, when novels would come out a chapter at a time in magazines.  So that’s what I want people to know. “The decline of comics” is a total myth, completely unsupported by the numbers. Comics shops are selling about the same number of comic books as they were 10 years ago, but they — and the mass market bookstores — are selling hundreds of millions of dollars annually worth of collected editions that simply didn’t exist back then. It’s made our market broader, and insulated it from the worst of the general recession.

What is your favorite Dark Horse comic?

JJM: That’s easy — I’m a longtime fan of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo. He’s a master storyteller!

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

JJM: I would be the Multitasker, specially powered to work on multiple projects at the same time without getting distracted. Yeah, yeah, I hear there are people who say they can do that, but let me hit them with my to-do list and see how they handle it!

Interview by Aaron Colter