Well, what to say about this page? Hrmmm.

In panels 1, 3—ehh, screw the serial comma—and 5, note the limitations of the ol’ Big Pouty Lips approach to drawing Emp’s face: that is, the BPLs don’t lend themselves terribly well to varied and complex facial expressions. In fact, even during the bygone era that Big Pouty Lips reigned unchecked in my artwork, I would constantly switch in and out of the stylistic affectation when I had to depict complicated emotional states. Gotta say, this sequence would’ve worked better—or at least been a fair bit funnier—if I’d drawn a more cartoony variety of mouths on Emp through these panels. Oh, well.

Panel 2: Y’know, I’m not entirely sure—in fact, I have no recollection whatsoever!—as to why I’ve always depicted Thugboy wearing such old-school, throwback, “aviator”-style sunglasses. In fact, more modern-looking sunglasses have proven a fair bit easier to draw, on the infrequent occasions I’ve drawn Thugboy (or other characters) wearing such eyewear. Mysterious! And given the vogue during the last decade or so for sturdy and practical “tactical eye protection” driven by military interest, it really is inappropriate for a dude with Thugboy’s interests to be rocking such impractical mirrorshades. (Then again, webcomics readers won’t discover the true scope of Thugboy’s interests—and the full extent of his colorful backstory—for quite some time.)

Panel 7: “Did she miss me?” Well, I’d completely forgotten about this particular line. Side note: Recently stumbled across the original version of this page, and it features a very clear and distinct saliva string trailing down from Thugboy’s mouth. Alas, much like the very similar image involving Emp’s mouth in the first draft of the last panel from “Witless Minions,” I redrew this potentially problematic panel in an ultimately doomed attempt to avoid getting Empowered vol.1 shrinkwrapped for readers protection. Oh, well, again.

-Adam Warren