As you will see in the pages (and weeks) to come, this opening story of Empowered vol. 9 serves as a recap for both the series as a whole and the last few volumes' events more specifically. Up until this volume, each book started with an increasingly protracted series of Meta Emp recap pages covering the previous installments' plot points, but those recaps had grown so obnoxiously lengthy that I eventually got rid of 'em. (I suppose I could dump 'em over in the "About" link at the top of the page, which currently features only the very first Meta Emp recap page.)

Panel 3: While the whimsically fractured French of Le Chevalier Blanc always amused me and several of my French-speaking friends, I gather that some readers would up considerably less amused by his linguistic shenanigans. Wellp, all I can say to those displeased readers is, "Tant pis pour toi, bébé."

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. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon posts—extensive Empowered previews, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

-Adam Warren