Panels 1 and 3: Note that panel 3 is just a copy/paste of panel 1’s artwork, as I didn’t care to redraw the same panel again. For artists Of A Certain Age, this type of copying used to be known as a “stat panel,” in reference to the old-school practice of using “photostats” to replicate original (inked) artwork within a comic. (This was long before the advent of AdobePhotoShop, let alone more recent software such as Manga Studio.) Back in the fabled day, getting photostats done was quite the arduous experience, alas. I have vivid memories of having to bail off to a downtown San Francisco print shop to get “stats” made—at a non-trivial cost, as I recall—for elements of a Dirty Pair issue. As you might guess, this took place in a decades-ago, dramatically less expensive version of San Francisco, one in which an indie cartoonist could afford to rent an apartment. (I strongly suspect that very, very few indie artists abide in the ol’ City by the Bay in the modern era.)
Panel 2: Note that, a decade ago, artificial respiration along these lines was still a recommended part of emergency procedures. (Er, I think so, at least.) Nowadays, of course, one is supposed to just stick to the CPR chest-pumping in such a scenario, and not mess around with any attempts at artificial respiration. Tragic, I guess, that folks of a certain age such as myself who had to breathe air into a “Resusci-Annie” dummy as part of a high-school Health class find their hard-won knowledge to now be rather useless. Note, by the way, that “Resusci-Annie” could very well be the “supranym” of an Empverse character, possibly for a superhero who works at the Suprahuman Treatment Wing of the Purple Paladin Memorial Hospital. (For the benefit of webcomic-only readers, that reference will make a bit more sense a few hundred pages from now.)
Panel 4: Without blundering too far into SPOILER-iffic territory, I advise new readers to keep Emp’s blurted declaration, here, in mind as the volume progresses.
And thus ends the brief Empowered vol.2 story “Wahh, Wahh, Wahh,” kids. Next time, we begin a longer story, “Smart Girl,” that introduces the garter-belted and mini-skirted majesty of Emp cosplaying as “the Sexy Librarian.” Brace yourselves, folks!
-Adam Warren
