Hello Friend and Enemies,
Hope you are all doing well. It’s been about a month since the last Midnite Gazette so I’m here with a hot, steaming new newsletter to enjoy.
This issue of the Midnite Gazette wouldn't be possible without our amazing sponsor. That kid at school who used to eat worms.
We all went to school with him and we were all horrified yet impressed with their ability to gorge down worms like a man on death row. Whatever happened to these worm eating menaces? Who knows, some might have become lawyers, some might have become doctors, some might have become you.
Thank you to that kid at school who used to eat worms for the sponsorship.
Updates:
I don't have many updates I can share right now. My writing has slowed down in March, not for any particular reason I just haven't been pushing myself to write which I'm hoping this new issue will push me to get back into the writing as I have the final two issues of Osaka S.P.D. to write plus I want to get started on a new project I have planned not to mention I still have a short film script to finish. Lots to do!
I also received some possibly exciting news recently but don't want to mention anything until it is all confirmed so just trust me bro.
One last thing is I’d like to congratulate my good pal Jamie for having his game [ECHOSTASIS] nominated for the 2024 A MAZE. Awards. He’s a good lad, some boy for a few pints let me tell ya but also he’s very good at that game development malarkey. If you enjoy Indie Horror games, especially the sort with a retro or analog vibe then check out his games. The Enigma Machine, MOTHERED and [ECHOSTASIS] (not out yet so just check the other two for now) and follow his account on all the usual places HERE.
Goodbye to the Greatest:
Earlier in the week the legendary mangaka Akira Toriyama died. It was a surprise to everyone as he was only 68 but people close to him have said he had been sick for a year or so. The outpouring of love and tributes that Toriyama received was amazing to see. Toriyama created Dragonball (and Dragonball Z) which is such a beloved series and is seen as one of those series that unites cultures. Somebody joked that if you wanted to make friends in any country just wear some Dragonball merch, which is true. I have a few tshirts and people always point them out on the street or in shops when I wear them.
The amount of tributes he received was crazy. Politicians, actors, writers, artists, you name it. So many people had been effected by Dragonball across the world and so many people felt geniune sadness when the news broke. I was definitely one of those people, I barely got any work done in the morning as I just scrolled social media reading every tribute I could find. Dragonball Z was a massive influence on me as a child, I absolutely loved it. And as a kid any stories I wrote were basically just DBZ rip-offs. The characters and stories in DBZ were the coolest thing to me and so many of my friends and we all wanted to be like those characters.
But DBZ had an important role to play in my life, one that actually led me to where I currently am with my writing. I was a really nerdy kid but as a teenager I rejected that side of me, it wasn't cool and it was a good way to get slagged (Irish slang for insulting someone) by your peers. So I put my nerdy stuff away and became a lot more of a stereotypical teenager. I always loved writing and I did continue to love English in school but I never read books while as a kid I was an avid reader. Being a writer (or actor which was another childhood dream) wasn't something I was considering either, the only writing I did was for my homework. I actually wanted to be a mechanic when I was a teenager to be honest. But then when I was about 16 I ended up watching some random clips of DBZ on YouTube and I loved them, it was like reuniting with an old friend. So I then started to watch the show again from episode one the whole way through to the end of DBZ and then I watched Dragonball GT. I absolutely loved the series on rewatch as much as I did as a kid and I actually started to slowly get back into "nerdy" stuff. I started to watch more anime from that point on and even played games I wouldn't usually play (I was very much a strictly Call of Duty teenager). A year later I was up in Dublin and bought my first comic book (I actually bought two Green Arrow #19 and Green Arrow #20). There was no comic book stores near me as a kid so I had never read them back then but always loved the characters from animated shows and movies. At that point when I bought that first comic I did want to be a writer but it was actually as a games journalist, I had dreamed of writing books but a games journalist seemed more likely. Once I read that comic though I knew what I wanted to do and started to read more comics and I got back into reading books to grow my skills. Eventually that all led to Osaka Mime being published and me sitting here writing this newsletter.
It may seem hyperbolic and the chances are I probably would have fell back into writing one way or another but in my eyes if I never rewatched DBZ I may have never ended up as a writer. A lot of people during the week spoke about how important Akira Toriyama was to their journey of becoming an artist and you can add my name to that list. He was an absolute legend and I truly believe Goku will forever remain an important and iconic character to the point of reaching mythological status on the level of Dracula, Frankenstein or Superman.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Toriyama and thanks for everything.
That's all I got for this week. Weirdly enough I've never read the original Dragonball but my lovely fiance got me the first volume awhile back so I best get round to reading it.
Stay safe, stay hydrated and keep it sexy
- AAL x