COVER-ILLO SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

Yeahp, this image pretty thoroughly spoils a story matter that isn't resolved "in-volume" until (checks printed version) 25-odd pages into the book but hey, why the hell not? Could be worse, I suppose; the soon-to-debut cover for March 2023's Empowered vol. 12 gleefully if not obnoxiously spoils a far more significant series development, as you'll soon see. (Please, NO SPOILERS OR HINTS OR CENSORED TEXT from Patreon subscribers, who received a sneak peek at the EMP12 cover a week or two ago.)

Re: this cover, I cannot easily convey to you how annoyed I am by 2016(-ish?) Me's absolutely brutal rendering of the windblown(?) clumps and strands of Emp's flowing mane. Dunno what the hell happened, other than the distinct possibility that I was caught at a low ebb in terms of energy and/or enthusiasm and was just desperately and hopelessly hacking my way through yet another uninspired cover illo for which I "just wasn't feelin' it." (Gotta love how the second and third "hair clumps" from the top look rather like the beak of a toucan. Yay!)

Circa Empowered vol. 11, I developed a much better approach to rendering Emp's flowing hair ends that featured overlapping strands and clusters inspired by, I think, third-hand, dimly remembered Alphonse Mucha visual riffs and also by the life drawing practice I started up on a nearly daily basis at the end of 2017.

UPDATE: A week or so back, as happens every few months or so, a commenter complained about the repetitive nature of my commentaries' perceived negativity re: my old(er) artwork; IIRC, the criticism in that day's commentary was mild at most, but still triggered this oft-heard lament that has recurred many times throughout the years of this webcomic serialization.

Wellp, as I've so often responded to this particular complaint, if you're ticked off by the free content I'm providing with these commentaries, then do us both a favor and stop reading them, okay? Moreover, my larger and more important point with these often picayune critiques and artistic quibbles is to show you readers that one's tastes and preferences as an artist and storyteller can and do shift over time, and that's generally a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. I've been writing and drawing comics professionally for a bit over 35 years now (ouch), and I'm quite pleased that I haven't wound up entirely stuck in an artistic rut of ossified stagnation and numbing repetition.

Next week, Empowered vol. 10 kicks off in earnest! "Get excited," as Dr. Stone's Science Hero protagonist would say!

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design departments, or possibly something entirely new. Golly!

-Adam Warren