In poor ol' Phallik’s word balloons, we see what I think is an early appearance of a riff that would recur more and more often throughout later Empowered volumes. That is, his “HHHRRHH" and “GUHHHG” both feature what I’ve dubbed “graphite haloes” around the initial lettering, an effect done by adding a bit of HB-pencil shading. Dunno exactly why, but the look of the “haloed” lettering really works for me, and eventually I wound up using it for most sound FX as well.

Note that the lettering’s graphite haloes are pretty much the same effect I’m using on the glowing head of the Phallospear. Come to think of it, I’m actually trying to emulate the look of screentone, as many mangaka use similar effects in their work—and so did I, back when Dirty Pair featured extensive—and expensive!—use of those dot-pattern sheets. (Pretty sure I spent roughly $300 to $600 per issue of DP: Sim Hell on screentone alone; then again, I was a bit of a wastrel in my approach to cutting tone, rather than economizing and stretching every sheet of LetraSet as far as possible.)

-Adam Warren