Volume 2 Page 51
Posted August 15, 2016 at 12:01 am

Panel 1: Yeahp, reading Emp’s old college textbooks is the rationale for Thugboy rattling off seemingly obscure terms seen on previous pages such as “Manichean” and “superpositioned quantum state,” given that such terminology was no doubt relevant to her degree in Suprahuman Studies. 

Panel 3: Note the rare occasion in which I find the use of one-point perspective drawing acceptable—that is, a first-person POV shot. Generally speaking, comic artists are better off steering the hell clear of one-point perspective for anything beyond this specific type of camera view. I’ve seen many a panel ruined by inappropriate deployment of the ol’ “one-point,” as its inherent distortions become obvious very, very quickly in such contexts.

Panel 5: Note the appearance of my beloved paperback copy of Roget’s Thesaurus in Thugboy’s hand, albeit under the modified name “Foget’s Thesaurus.” Nowadays I reference one of several thesaurus apps on my phone or iPad—such as the pricey but very useful Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus—but a decade ago, I was still consulting a big, floppy, badly battered edition of Roget’s, especially when working on the Caged Demonwolf’s abstruse vocabulary. In truth, the dead-tree Roget’s can provide better and more exhaustive results than any of my apps, but can’t compete with the dramatically greater ease and convenience of the digital thesauri. 

Note also Emp’s shiny underpants, drawn that way just because the limitations of the pencil-rendering technique I use on Empowered are such that I can render high-contrast materials much better than more conventional forms of underclothes. Note further that she’s standing in front of a dresser that’s rarely—possibly never—seen elsewhere in the series, due to the slightly puzzling reason that I seldom use this particular camera angle for scenes set in Emp’s bedroom. Can’t really say exactly why, as this isn’t a difficult view to construct; the most likely reason is because most bedroom shots depict Emp and Thugboy in bed, and effectively placing the camera on the pillow and looking out across the mattress makes for an rather awkward view.

-Adam Warren

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