The major inspiration for the Jack and Miracle Girl story came from a Japanese drama called Densha Otoko, which aired back in 2005. The show was basically about a total nerd trying to date a girl way, way out of his league. I liked that premise, and I thought it'd be interesting/funny to apply it to a superhero story -- making the girl a wealthy superheroine and thus even further out of the guy's league. I told my friend Anthony about the idea, and we batted it around for a while, and eventually it began to take shape.

I actually started writing the first chapter all the way back in 2005, but I didn't get very far with it then -- I only managed to put down about 2,000 words before getting frustrated with it and setting it aside. I liked the idea so much, though, that I spent the next several years tinkering with the setting -- developing its history, dreaming up new superheroes, that kind of thing. Finally, in 2013, I decided to give it another shot, and this time it worked out.

The story was originally much more of a comedy, and Jack was originally much more of a sad-sack nerd character. Shortly after I started writing it, though, I realized that my original outline was just a little too goofy and over-the-top to work as a prose novel, so I toned down the comedy and turned Jack into less of a nerd and more of an everyman, though he still retained a few vaguely nerdy characteristics.