For this page’s “whatever” montage—a personal favorite, by the way—I traced off the same Thugboy shot from panel 1 eight more times, but with a different setting each time. Thought this was a fun storytelling approach, but I soon got tired of repeating this one g-d close-up. Once again, an idea that appeals to me as a writer turns out to not appeal to me very much as an artist. Reminds me of a fair number of American comics I’ve read lately that are entirely writer-driven, to the point that the scripter even chooses a very specific panel layout. Hello, 9-panel grid—like this one!—which is usually the true sign of a SERIOUS COMICS WRITER AT WORK! (Ironic, by the way, that Watchmen’s artist Dave Gibbons apparently suggested the book’s iconic 9-panel grid, which unleashed a fearsome tool for ambitious and/or pretentious writers to unleash upon hapless comic artists ever since.)

Note also that Thugboy’s hair grows to its present-day long and rather unkempt state in the course of the montage. As I said earlier, I do kinda miss drawing the shorter-haired version of the lad, but have never gotten around to having him cut his hair later on in Empowered. Oh, well.

Panel 5: “Whatever Thugboy” was, it seems, working in a wintry clime at some point. Doesn’t look like he was legitimately employed, either, unless this was an unusually harsh snow-plowing job or the like.

Panel 7: Alas, Thugboy is selling the now-defunct cryogun he used to freeze Willy Pete. Might’ve been a better long-term strategy to get that sucker repaired, but “whatever Thugboy” clearly no longer gave a crap at that time.

-Adam Warren