In panel 1, behold one of my favorite—and, quite possibly, overused—narrative techniques for introducing a new setting: the upward-angled panoramic shot, featuring prominent signage to help set the scene! (In fact, I just trotted out this very same shot to kick off a sequence in the recent one-shot Empowered: Pew Pew Pew!) Not sure when and where I first picked up this storytelling concept, as I recall using it waaaaay back in my second Dirty Pair miniseries. Why, I may even have devised this approach on my own! (I think it rather more likely, alas, that I ripped it off from a manga artist.) 

A note of clarification: In panel 1’s far right corner, that indistinct blur is supposed to represent the reflection of Emp hurtling towards the window’s glass. Have to say that the image is a bit unclear, given that I haven’t noticed that part of the panel since I drew it a decade ago. Oh, well.

Panel 3: Yeahp, Emp’s figure features just a touch of the oft-mentioned Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch that randomly plagued my work during this era. (Though, I suppose, her prominently smooshed boobs probably draw focus away from the rest of her flawed torso. Nice save, Prominently Smooshed Boobs!) Someday, I promise, I will get around to posting a lengthy tweetstorm discussing the Mysterious Glitch in numbing detail. No, really!

In panel 5, brace yourself for this story’s breathtakingly wretched attempt at a British accent, which is almost as appalling as Emp’s similarly godawful approximation of a Southern accent in “Howdy, Y’all!” For the record, the wretchedness is, I swear, intentional on my part as a writer, though not intentional on the part of the actual character, who fancies himself quite the—ahem—“authentic bloke.”

-Adam Warren