We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Next week on the webcomic serialization, the "horror movie reboot" rolls on briefly before a different type of jump scare jumbles the narrative. Lordy loo! 

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Panel 1: GASP!

Panel 3: Ninjette is unsurprisingly blurting "AAA" in Japanese (or, more specifically, the hiragana for "A" with the "tsu" character to indicate vowel extension). Have to admit, I still quite like trying to imitate by hand the very specific hiragana font commonly used in untranslated manga.

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching 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, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics Crazy Witch, The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

'Tis indeed a somewhat unusual approach to Emp's chained word balloons on this page, but I quite like the way the way this lettering riff turned out.

Also, enjoy a rather higher number of long-shots and backgrounds on this page than has been the norm in this volume, dear readers!

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Panel 1: One hell of a backhand swing on Ninjette's part, but TBH the g-d left-right orientation of the panel and the figure placement forced my hand (and Kozue's, too). Oh, well.

Panel 4: Gotta love what I've dubbed "edgelit silhouette shots," with partial highlights along the darkened figures helping to pick out details along their edges. Definitely adds a li'l somethin' somethin' to a conventional silhouette shot, gotta say.

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching 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, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics Crazy Witch, The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Panel 1: Ah, yes, the tragic tale of Ninjette's lost cowboy hat. Y'see, I had entirely forgotten that she was wearing the g-d thing on the previous page when I drew this page; my guess is that I must've stopped work on this scene and returned to work on it days (or even weeks) later, only to forget about that part of her costume. I'm pretty sure that the falling hat in this panel was an art patch added only after I belatedly remembered that it had mysteriously disappeared between pages. Too bad, TBH, as I thought Kozue looked quite cute with a cowboy hat; this might have been an unconscious reference to Jessica Biel fetchingly rocking such headwear in the otherwise forgettable mid-2000s remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

As difficult as this page proved to draw, in retrospect I can say that this was nonetheless one of my favorite pieces of artwork from the entire volume.

Next week on the webcomic serialization, brace for a lengthy dose of zombie horror as well as a sudden plot twist of a very different nature. Yay?

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Gotta say, by this point in our current pseudo-cyberpunk reboot, I found myself already quite weary of drawing the SF riffs I once slathered over hundreds of pages during my long-ago run on Dirty Pair. While I certainly wouldn't mind writing another SF-oriented project someday (and, to be fair, Empowered did occasionally venture into SF adjacency), I rather doubt I could interest myself in drawing such an effort. (Oh, well.)

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching 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, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics Crazy Witch, The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Panel 2: The "GEE M" backpacks sported by our heroines and hero are, of course, a reference to the Gravitational Manipulation gear I designed for Lovely Angels Kei and Yuri in a fair chunk of my run writing and drawing my own idiosyncratic (and long outta print) take on Dirty Pair.  

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Panels 5-6: As I mentioned last week, my original vision for Empowered vol.12 did indeed spend a whole lotta pagecount dealing with the dire emotional aftermath of vol.11's climactic events. The next few reboot scenes with the trio represent a severely truncated version of said vision, for good or ill. 

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching 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, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics Crazy Witch, The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Note that, while I was basing these SF-skewing outfits somewhat loosely on armor and weapon designs I worked up for the first issue of 1995's Dirty Pair: Fatal But Not Serious, I never bothered to go back and look at the actual DP comic in question; I was just rolling with (and riffing off) my vague recollections of that material from 30 years ago. 

Panel 3: I quite like the way this silhouette shot worked out, gotta say. Nicely done, 2021-ish Me!

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Aaaaaand we're back to vaguely Dirty-Pair-reminiscent SF riffs, folks! (Well, reminiscent of my take on the DP, at least.)

Next week, stand by for plenty of cyberpunky goofiness as 2021-ish Artist Me begins (or began?) a steady descent into madness!

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Alas, I never did get particularly comfortable with using pencil shading to convey nighttime lighting, as this page's rather too dark toning displays clearly. (Notice that I even had to draw in ruled-out lines over the characters' shading throughout most of this page, as the base tones seemed insufficient on their own.) 

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching 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, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics Crazy Witch, The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Yeahp, Emp is definitely not nmuch of a shinobi in terms of being able to move stealthily through a forest... (Bit of a callback to a vol.1 story, in fact.)

Panel 2: Gotta say, I do love the use of graphite as a toning medium to add that slight shading inside this panel's sound FX. Hey, you don't entirely suck, pencils!

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

This "reboot" scene is an oblique reference to the long-discarded original narrative I had been planning for Empowered vol. 12, in which Ninjette would've had a quite lengthy and emotionally catastrophic reaction to being coerced into nearly killing Emp at the end of vol. 11. Meltdown ahoy! Binge-drinking blackouts! F**king Oyuki-chan and the New Jersey clan make an appearance of sorts! A bloody, ultimately fatal fight scene involving a combination of opponents that I guarantee would surprise you!

Alas, that narrative would've set up vols. 12 and 13, and thus had to be abandoned as I belatedly realized this series' graphic-novel format had become completely untenable (and had been so for years already, in fact). Oh, well.

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching 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, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics Crazy Witch, The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Had to darken up this page's file a fair bit in Photoshop before posting; perhaps surprisingly, one of the odder challenges of working with Sharpie-based inks on on otherwise pencil-based is that, in order to get Sharpie "ink fills" to repro at 100% black, you often wind up making the pencil art look too dark in the process.

Needless to say, this will no longer be a major concern for me in future projects, given that Empowered's pencil-based art approach is now lost to me (for various reasons I've occasionally discussed here).

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Panel 1: Lordy loo, but I do love the look of captions (or balloons, as with the late Neurospear) featuring white text set against black.

Next week on the webcomic, we move onward as I will prrrrobably discuss my original vision for vol. 12's narrative, which the next few scenes will be kinda-sorta tangentially addressing. Yay?  

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

The suit riffs for "Gangster Thugboy" here are, as noted earlier, based on the elegant ways that Boichi handled such fashions in his gangster epic manga Sun-Ken Rock, now being released over here in three-volume "Perfect Edition" omnibi. Yay! 

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching 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, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics Crazy Witch, The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Another mostly inked page, with graphite used only as a toning medium. Yeahp, by this late point in the series I was inking almost as much as I was penciling, mainly to save wear and tear on my drawing hand but also to allow for cleaner and more precise (if more time-consuming) rendering.

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Wellp, at one point in this volume's herky-jerky evolution, the extraordinarily meta "Titanic scene" (which I've mentioned here before) followed next, but wound up being cut from the book for pagecount purposes. I'm contemplated still running the Titanic scene here after the volume proper wraps up in a few months, as it does serve as an amusing (if meta) coda to the series, I think.

Today’s Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching 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, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics Crazy Witch, The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much more—remains available for Patrons' perusal.

-Adam Warren

We continue serialization of Empowered vol. 12, which proved to be the final volume of the series in this specific graphic-novel format, though I was unaware of that unfortunate reality when I started work on the book.

Panel 3: Ehh, not sure that the exceedingly wee figure of Emp atop that building is clearly perceptible enough, even with that obnoxiously long word balloon tail pointing down to her for extra emphasis.

Panel 4: A bit too much photoreferenced realism with Emp's lips in this shot, gotta say. Wellp, worry not, as I eventually laid off this approach later in the volume... not that all that much of the volume is left, alas.