Panels 1-2: I vaguely recall a reader accusing me of the dreaded practice of "strawmanning" during this sequence, but I was never quite clear as to which political leaning the reader felt I was characterizing unfairly. TBH, being accused of strawmanning both of these characters' doctrinaire political views would've been a nice change of pace, but I sincerely doubt that's what the critic meant.

Panel 3: That gasped ">HOOG<" boasts a bizarrely obscure derivation, as it's cribbed from Stephen King's Misery, believe it or not. IIRC, that the noise that Annie makes when the writer wallops her with a typewriter; I've always liked that as a break from the more traditionally comic-booky "UNGH" or "OOF," hence its sporadic (re)usage in my oeuvre.

Today’s Patreon update: In an attempt to scratch out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design departments, or possibly something entirely new. Golly!

-Adam Warren