Pencils and inks for this cover illo were done by me, and fine color art on the piece was handled by the great Emily Warren (no relation), who would later do the full-color artwork for the one-shot Empowered: 10 Questions for the Maidman. This is a very “busy” cover with a helluva lot going on—maybe too much going on, TBH—but still one of my favorites from the series.

These covers are usually drawn long before I’ve gotten very far into writing and drawing the actual volume, so I often have to make guesses as to where the story will end up going. On occasion, some of that conjecture turns out to be mistaken, as the very organic and free-flowing way I produce Empowered tends to shift stories and elements in directions different than I might have originally thought. This time around, I initially thought that F**king Oyuki-chan would have a much bigger role in vol. 6, as I once believed I was gonna be able to cram a big ol’ ninja fight into the second half of this book, which now seems to be a ludicrous idea. (In fact, said battle wound up consuming most of Empowered vol. 7.) 

Also, Emp’s odd-looking VORPP from this illustration was gonna be a specific tactical modification of her usual supersuited energy blast, but I never got around to using it either here or anywhere else. Oops!

-Adam Warren