Kinda random, but for the most part I do wish that we'd used a mixed-case font for my name on these covers; somehow, the all-caps "ADAM WARREN" generally feels a bit too grim for the series as a whole. Then again, such an ineffable quality might well be appropriate for this particular volume's tearjerking and, well, intense narrative.

Colors on this illo by the fine artist Rob "Robaato" Porter, though he had higher-quality raw material to work with in subsequent illos that he colored for me. I had a helluva (ha ha!) hard time with the Spooky and Emp drawings in this piece, which I disliked intensely back in 2012 (which is prrrobably the year when I drew this piece) and dislike just as much today; Past Me and Present-Day Me are definitely in agreement!

What can I say, folks; sometimes, no matter how hard you try or how many g-d rough-sketch variations you churn out, you just can't make a specific composition or drawing work out to your satisfaction, meaning that you have to grit your teeth and roll with a badly flawed piece of artwork teeming with imperfections that jab you in the g-d eye every time you see it. Drawing, for me, is generally not an especially "fun" experience as such*, but I can tell you that putting up with a crappy drawing that you just cannot seem to salvage is EXTREMELY NOT FUN, folks.

*More on this matter later, as the transcendent experience(!) of working on Empowered vol. 8's climactic story truly clarified for me exactly why I participate in this often frustrating if not downright infuriating line of work.