Panel 1’s high-contrast shot worked out really well, and still stands up today as a strong piece of my artwork. Panel 2’s awkward attempt to render Emp’s Big Pouty Lips in Sharpie®-marker chiaroscuro, alas, worked out not very well at all. Oh, well. Can’t win ’em all, folks. 

Panel 3: Behold, another rare appearance by Emp’s little-seen SUV, as seen earlier in Empowered vol. 1. Even in 2006, the idea of down-on-her-luck Emp owning a car in an urban setting like this seems a bit unlikely; nowadays, with rapidly dropping rates of car ownership in her city-dwelling demographic, even more so. (Hell, I didn’t own a car when I lived in San Francisco at roughly her age, but that was an especially automobile-superfluous city back then, even decades before ride-sharing apps and the like.) Ah, but an interesting idea just occurred to me: What if this is actually Thugboy’s SUV? The story never explicitly declares this to be Emp’s property, after all. Now, might be a bit unseemly for a manly fellow such as Thugboy to own a wussy little compact SUV like this, but beggars can’t be choosers, as he would likely have acquired it by some rather shady means. Hrmmm.

-Adam Warren