Q&A with Midnight (January 2022) (Patreon)

—Would you consider making a color webcomic or adding color to Danger Zone One?

I would really like to feature more color DZO pages but, unfortunately, it’s always a time/scheduling issue. Color pages take so much longer to make and, in the past, it nearly put us behind schedule. I’ve looked into getting a colorist, but that would definitely increase expenses quite a bit. Maybe when we clear a few more Patreon milestones it could be a possibility.

As for a full color non-DZO webcomic, I’ve never really considered doing one. I’m partial to the look of black and white comics, especially in the manga-style. But who knows, maybe one day!

—Ever have an artist drop out in the middle of a project?

Not often, but it has happened. Katsu, the artist who worked on the first two Danger Zone One chapters, was supposed to continue onto the third chapter but backed out at the very last minute. Had he continued, the original script for Chapter 3 was going to feature the first appearance of Miss Bliss.

“Thanks, But No Tanks!” was intended to be one chapter. However, the original artist dropped out midway through. Thankfully, it was at a workable spot to split the chapters and another artist took over for the second part (Chapter 12).

—Will we see Kijo again? I liked her design.

Salaiix has some more Kijo sketches and artwork that we’ll be posting in the near future. We’re also working on a Kijo side-story. Horror High has been a  more time consuming story arc than a lot of the previous DZO chapters, so it ended up delaying the Kijo comic. That said, we’re slowly cranking away at it and already have a few finished pages.

—Ever had an argument with an artist about changing something in the script?

Not really, and never with Danger Zone One. There’s always going to be aspects of a script that an artist interprets differently than the writer, but that’s just part of the creative process. An artist may alter a scene from the script and, in some cases, this can be great and really enhance the story. In other scenarios, where a change doesn’t work, I’ll just ask them to alter it so the art adheres more closely to the script.

Recently, on a different project with a new artist, there were a few disagreements on how certain panels should look, specifically pertaining to an action scene—but it was far from an argument and just some back-and-forth discussion on how to best make the sequence work.

—Imagine if you could turn Danger Zone One into an anime and have unlimited budget and complete freedom to do what you want, what would you do? How many episodes would it be? What plots would you use?

Being a big fan of the ’80s/‘90s anime OVA format, my first choice would be to go that route. OVAs aren’t really popular anymore so, realistically, a 13 or 26 episode series would probably be the way to go. I would do a few things differently in an anime than the comic. For example, Reena’s initial arrival in Pallad City would be expanded. I’d also want to show more of Madison’s ‘cowboy cop’ antics at the start.

For plots, I’d likely stick with some of the ones from the comic. A number of episodes would be standalone stories, with a few two-parters, but there would be an overarching ‘bigger picture’ plot line with a villain that would wrap up the season. I’d love to see some wild action sequences. A scene with Madison’s Hyper Interceptor would be especially fun.

—I have two questions:

1.) If you ever got tired of DZO or didn’t have the time to write it anymore would you consider letting other writers take over the scripts? Or would you hire other writers to work on stories?

2.) DZO is one of my favorite webcomics being made today. There were a few other webcomics I used to read from different writers and artists but they just stopped and vanished. The stories went unfinished and their sites went down eventually, If you ever stop DZO would you let us know in advance so we’re not wondering what happened?

1.) I really enjoy writing DZO and I have no immediate plans to call it quits. I have so many storylines in mind that I don’t think it would ever be necessary to hire any writers. Maybe if the day comes when I’m out of ideas or don’t have the time to continue the comic, that could be a possibility.

2.) If I ever decide to pull the plug on DZO I will absolutely let readers know in advance. Again, no danger of that happening anytime soon!

—Any thought on writing an “R” or “X” rated comic? I liked the Miss Bliss scenes in the last chapter and that got me thinking XD

There’s one very specific project I’d like to do which would fall into that category. It’s for a horror/action comic, but definitely has a very NSFW theme (ie Devilman, Overfiend, etc). Depending on how DZO, Sailor Justice, White Wraith, and GunRiot go this year, maybe that could be a project for late 2022 or early 2023.

—How did you and Salaiix meet?

I originally discovered Salaiix's work on DeviantArt (I believe it was back in late 2016). I'm trying to remember which art of his I'd seen first...it may have been an Evangelion sketch he did of Rei, or a color artwork of Saeko from Highschool of the Dead. Anyway, I messaged him shortly after and commissioned him to make a DZO test page, which ended up being the very first page of Nightmare Island! And he's been an absolute joy to work with ever since!

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That wraps up this month's Q+A! If you have any questions you want answered in a future Q+A, you can do so by sending me a private message through Patreon or an email via MidnightPublishing@yahoo.com (just make sure to put Q+A in the subject heading).