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

We're doing two Q&As this month, the Patreon-exclusive seen here and a public one—which can be found on the Danger Zone One website. 

—You’re really going full throttle with the 3 new comics! I’ve been enjoying them and wondered if any anime and manga inspirations helped you when writing them?

There were quite a few!

Sailor Justice — While Sailor Moon might be the “go-to answer” here, I was actually more inspired by Iczer One, Iczelion, Cutie Honey, Birdy the Mighty, and Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko.

The White Wraith — Lupin the Third was a definite influence here, at least in terms of the over-the-top “heist” format of the series.

GunRiot — There was less of an anime/manga influence for GunRiot, and more from the Mad Max films and Escape from New York. But the Desert Punk anime was definitely a source of some inspiration, as you'll see later in the comic.

—You mentioned a canon NSFW chapter? Any updates on that or hints?

The NSFW chapter’s title is “Pleasure Pursuit” and will focus on Miss Bliss’s backstory, while also continuing events hinted at in the main Danger Zone One storyline. We’ll see more of Officer L’Ceal and it’ll feature the introduction of Mari Vetra (finally!). We're hoping to start that later this year.

—What are the chances of getting a Danger Zone One video game made? And what style would it be in? I really want a RPG set in the Danger Zone One world.

Initially we planned on the Danger Zone One visual novel, since that's the most feasible style of game to produce on a limited budget. While that's on the back burner at the moment, I’m hopeful we can return to it in the near future.

An RPG would be fantastic. I also think a third-person action game would be a lot of fun—especially if there's two-player co-op with the option of playing as either Reena and Madison. 

—Are there other Danger Zone One projects coming out soon?

The new webcomics have monopolized so much of my time that I’ve been unable to work much on any additional DZO projects, outside of the main comic, Patreon content, and the upcoming NSFW comic. However, we are currently working on a Kijo comic—and I'm seriously blown away by Salaiix's work on it! I'm not sure if we'll launch that comic on its own site or if it'll premiere on Patreon as a NSFW comic (there's a lot of NSFW content in it!!!) 

We also have a short animated trailer that I really need to finish (mostly needs a little more editing and some extra voice overs). A smaller side-project I’ve been wanting to do is make a DZO "world map" showing all the various countries. I kind of forgot about this one, but someone recently mentioned it on the DZO site not long ago and reminded me.

—I have the second audio drama and was impressed with the bonus songs. Will you consider doing more?

Those were so much fun to do and creating more music inspired by DZO is something that could be very doable in the near future.

Another audio drama is a definite possibility too. I really enjoy doing those. I think it's a format that would work nicely with The White Wraith and GunRiot as well. 

—If you could release any kind of DZO merchandise what would it be?

If the sky’s the limit, then statues/figures of Reena and Madison would be awesome. I guess, now with 3D printers, it's not so far outside the realm of possibility. 

On a more feasible scale, I’d still like to do 3D mousepads. As of now, the options I’ve found are either inferior quality or too overpriced. I’m determined to get these things made though :D

—What’s the girl’s name in GunRiot? Her design looks great.

Her name is Kyrie (pronounced KEER-ee-ay). I'm thrilled with Kuraikabe1990's work on her—he really nailed what I was going for in the script. There's a bunch of early Kyrie concept art I'll either post later this month or next. 

—Will any of the new comics get multiple weekly updates like Danger Zone One?

I'm optimistic, but we've been struggling to reach our current Patreon milestone—and that's just for one extra comic. Since we're running three of them, it doesn't look likely (at the moment) that any of these will update more than once per week. I would personally like GunRiot to update twice weekly, since it has tons of action sequences and the more frequent schedule would be nice. 

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That wraps up this month's Q&A! Thanks for all the great questions!! 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).