Panel 1: Classic Yukito Kishiro (Gunmm, aka Battle Angel Alita) “sucker mouth” on future Ocelotina, you’ll notice. I’d largely gotten away from using this riff circa 2006, but it still would reappear in my work from time to time; in fact, on occasion I still trot out the ol’ “sucker mouth” for old times’ sake.

As opposed to the previous page’s riff of “same shot, three times,” I much prefer the somewhat more radical “same camera angle, but visual elements change dramatically” approach seen here in panels 1 and 2. The flawed but dynamic foreshortening on Treacherous Chick’s leg in panel 2 really sells the motion of the women getting yanked outta the trunk, I think.

A note re: naked Emp’s sojourn in the automobile’s trunk: Four volumes later in Empowered, Emp will opine about the very real threat of “rug burn” from thrashing about on the coarse carpeting of a car’s trunk. Luckily for poor Emp, I hadn’t yet considered the concept when she was flung wildly to and fro whilst completely naked in this scene; the rug burn potential would have been serious indeed. 

Panel 3: The Yukito Kishiro-ing continues apace with a very particular visual element in this panel. See those dust-cloud streamers at the top of the page, whipping by underneath the “WHROOOM” sound FX? I believe I might’ve scavenged those 20-odd years ago from a spectacular Battle Angel Alita scene of a tornado rampaging through the desert(?) in the first series. In 1997 I had to draw a tornado myself for the climactic joke from my Gen13: Bootleg arc GRUNGE! The Movie, and not surprisingly riffed fairly directly off the Alita shot, which (despite little competition) remains easily one of the best tornadic depictions in the comics medium. Ah, but no biggie, as greater minds than I riffed off the same series, given the surprising number of shots in Mad Max: Fury Road that appear, superficially at least, to be inspired by Alita imagery—including the very same tornado, it seems!

Panels 4-6: What’s this? Who’s this? Lordy loo—have things gone from bad to worse for long-suffering Emp, or has her luck turned? Or possibly neither of the above? Find out next time, true believers—same Emp time, same Emp channel!

-Adam Warren