About the Seventh Guardian of Midnight:
First off, you all have Maritza Campos, of College Roomies from Hell!!! fame, to thank (or curse) for this comic. Although I started reading PvP before starting on CRFH, the latter was the first comic that I really began to "participate" in, in the form of forum posts and the occasional piece of funart. I've always wanted to draw, and I've always wanted to write...and I've always wanted to tell a story that I, or a couple of my friends, wouldn't be the only ones reading. I had never before considered the web a very effective means of doing so, but seeing CRFH (and from it, the Keenspot/Keenspace network) changed my mind. Noting that Keenspace was offering free comic hosting, I sort of decided to try my hand at doing a webcomic. Thus, I'm deeply indebted to Maritza for writing such a wonderful comic, and being such an inspirational figure.
The Seventh Guardian of Midnight was initially called "Godefrey Rex," and intended to be a rather goofy comic about a more or less normal kid forced to room with an extremely weird one. Not a terribly original concept, except the extremely weird Godefrey Rex also happened to be both the general of an alien armada and someone who had helped shape the nature of reality. That one seemed a little too much, plus I realized that I can't do comedy very effectively. Scrap idea one.
I'm still not sure how I came up with The Seventh Guardian of Midnight after the ludicrousness of that first idea. I had just finished reading "And Eternity," which is the last of the "Incarnations of Immortality" series by Piers Anthony. I wanted something similar, but placed in a darker universe with the characters on less of a pedestal. It was initially called "The Guardian," which then became "The Guardian of Midnight," which progressed to "Guardian of the Seventh Midnight" as I added more detail to the universe. Godefrey was always a central character, though his appearance was updated to reflect the more "realistic" look of the new comics.
Even when I settled on a universe for The Seventh Guardian of Midnight and even as far as when the first few comics were drawn, things kept changing (evolving, I like to say). The most radical actually took place two strips into the comic, when I changed the setting from a far future metropolis to a modern day college town. That forced a complete re-write of all the scripts I had up to that point (which, fortunately, wasn't too many). Eric was an addition that occurred toward the end of the prologue, though his appearance wasn't finalized until he actually showed up, and his personality not crystallized until...ahem...the formation of the cast pages. Genesis and the Malchari were even later additions, not really considered until Godefrey crashed Eric's bike. I have a good idea of the entire plot, with character, from this point onward, and hopefully, there won't be any extra characters except those I planned from the very beginning. (You won't know the difference anyway, will you?)
Everything here copyright Yingzhi Zhang
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