ComicGet version -75 slightly alpha, Empowered archive

Fri Dec 18 22:59:56 2015

Ah, feminine hygiene humor! How very progressive of 2005-Era Me! Then again, the point of this anecdote was supposed to be that Thugboy is perhaps not quite as ideally secure in his masculinity as one might hope.

Mon Dec 21 00:38:17 2015

I do hope this page's punchline won't be viewed as, well, "film-shaming." (My sincerest apologies to diehard fans of THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD who happen to read this.)

Tue Dec 22 00:39:47 2015

See commentary below for self-flagellation about this image's flawed figure drawing.

Wed Dec 23 00:38:22 2015

Sadly, I never worked up any further lyrics for the Superhomeys' theme song other than, well, "Superhomeys...YEAHHH!"

Thu Dec 24 08:38:20 2015

For reasons presently unknown to me, Emp's hair is way, WAY too long in this page's panels. A mystery for the ages!

Fri Dec 25 00:38:20 2015

Tremble, y'all, before the terror of Emp's idea of what a Southern accent would sound like!

Mon Dec 28 00:38:18 2015

Note that ol' Douchebro, here, is wearing a baseball cap referencing noted "douchecape" Major Havoc.

Tue Dec 29 00:38:23 2015

Well, at least I didn't go so far as to postulate that Emp can directly perceive the reader, or she'd already have known what the reader was up to. That, I think, would have been a Metatextual Bridge Too Far.

Wed Dec 30 00:38:21 2015

Long-term readers, having met Deathmonger a thousand or so pages later, may wonder exactly why DM was attacking City Hall in this story. Good question, which I cannot presently answer!

Thu Dec 31 00:38:16 2015

I'm saddened to report that Emp's Capitan Rivet pullover has never reappeared in the series. A pity, really.

Fri Jan 1 00:38:16 2016

I'm also saddened that we've never gone on to reveal very much about the "Ravening Shadowlord's troubled cosmic childhood." Maybe someday, folks...

Mon Jan 4 00:38:21 2016

In retrospect, I'm not entirely sure where the hell Thugboy had stowed that .50 cal Barrett rifle before its dramatic appearance in the last panel. Seems a bit large to have been resting off-panel on the coffee table, don't you think?

Tue Jan 5 00:38:17 2016

Yeahp, panel 2's Thugboy reference to having "experience with heavy hitters" is, indeed, a bit of ominous foreshadowing. That Thugboy, he's quite the International—no, Domestic—Man of Mystery.

Wed Jan 6 00:38:19 2016

While I do feel that this particular EMP story is peculiarly well drawn (though exactly why that would happen to be the case, I can't tell you), must say that the image of Emp's Big, Pouty Lips dessicated by illness kinda creeps me out.

Thu Jan 7 00:38:16 2016

To reiterate the commentary below, I'm really fond of the four-panel progression that kicks off this page. Definitely need to revisit this layout for future use!

Fri Jan 8 00:38:18 2016

First appearance of "the L-Word" in EMPOWERED continuity! Huzzah!

Mon Jan 11 00:38:20 2016

My apologies to poor Emp for the misfortune of being created by an artist whose work is marooned between the two extremes she mentions. (Plus, let's face it, a black-and-white superhero comic represents, to put it mildly, an idiosyncratic choice.)

Tue Jan 12 00:38:21 2016

Panel 4: Not one of the better Emp close-ups drawn by 2005-era Me. I'm willing to cut my decade-ago self a fair bit of slack as an artist, particularly since these early EMPOWERED pages were cranked out at a breakneck pace, but still...

Wed Jan 13 00:38:19 2016

Panel 1: Such is my misplaced affection for intentionally inept Anglicisms that I once wrote a Psylocke/ Wolverine story for Marvel titled (wait for it) "BLOODY 'ELL."

Thu Jan 14 00:38:18 2016

Just noticed that the Atari T-shirt reference is more than a tad anachronistic for the timeframe involved here, even in 2005 when I drew this. My theory: The strong autobiographical basis of this story led me astray.

Fri Jan 15 00:38:19 2016

I do like the panel 4 bit in which Emp expresses sympathy for her adversary's rehabbing buddy. A warm-hearted individual, our heroine.

Mon Jan 18 00:38:32 2016

The ogling (ahem) "superheroes" worked out okay, but I'm none too fond of the figure drawing on this chapter break's Emp. Can't win 'em all, 2005-Era Me.

Tue Jan 19 00:38:19 2016

An unsolved mystery for the ages: What videogame were Emp and Thugboy playing? (Note that the latter's T-shirt features the King of the Universe from KATAMARI DAMACY...)

Wed Jan 20 00:38:20 2016

Note the dreaded "talking butt" in panel 2! That is, a shot of a speaking character that shows a behind and not a face. Best avoided unless you have a point in mind; here, the point is, in theory, the ultra-revealing nature of Emp's supersuit. (In theory.)

Thu Jan 21 00:38:18 2016

Saddened to admit that I had completely forgotten about panel 2's butt-concealed superheroine Q-Girl! Must try to use her in a future EMPOWERED story. The burning question, though: What does the supranym Q-Girl stand for? Alas, your guess is as good (or better) than mine, as I have no recollection whatsoever as to what the answer might be.

Fri Jan 22 00:38:16 2016

Despite how I botched the figure proportions on panel 2's shot of Emp, this easily remains one of my better renderings of what her supersuit looks like when fully intact. Yay?

Mon Jan 25 00:38:20 2016

Exciting background trivia in panel 1: Note the speakers visible beyond Thugboy's head, indicating that Emp potentially has a home-theater set-up in her living room. (Or maybe just a stereo?) In any event, enjoy this rare view of said speakers, as I'm fairly sure they never reappear in another EMPOWERED panel. Sorry 'bout that, speakers.

Tue Jan 26 00:38:17 2016

Amusingly enough, this is probably the first sex scene in EMPOWERED in which Thugboy ISN'T wearing his heretofore omnipresent sunglasses. Wheeeee!

Wed Jan 27 00:38:19 2016

In an exciting change of artistic pace for 2005-Era Me, here Thugboy seems to be suffering from the Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch that has mainly been plaguing my figure drawings of Emp up to this point. Sorry about that, T-Boy.

Thu Jan 28 00:38:19 2016

In Panel 1, note the word balloon whose lower boundary is perilously close to the black gutter below it. This sort of unfortunate tangency is something to be avoided at all costs when lettering your comics. (Well, perhaps not at ALL costs, but...) In defense of 2005-Era Me, I'm pretty sure that this page originally had a much thinner gutter, which I thickened up when I reformatted these early pages.

Fri Jan 29 00:38:16 2016

Panel 3: The lettering on Thugboy's T-shirt is, I think, a quotation relating to the Sex Pistols. My assumption is that I was photoreferencing the shirt in question, but I have no recollection as to where I saw said reference in the first place. (Sorry.)

Mon Feb 1 00:38:20 2016

That's a pretty cute closeup on Ninjette in panel 5—in which, coincidentally enough, she happens to be saying the word "cute." Eerie! In any event, I should revisit the particular facial expression I used for her, as I've never quite drawn that one ever since.

Tue Feb 2 00:38:20 2016

Rare use of two sentences in a single word balloon in panel 1, as I usually prefer to break multiple sentences into separate balloons, which strikes me as reading a lttle bit better. In this case, though, not enough open space at the top of the panel for two word balloons.

Wed Feb 3 00:38:19 2016

Note that, in panel 3, I botched Ninjette's figure proportions by making her head too large in relation to her body, as compared to the previous page's panel 1, in which I drew her head as too small. Oops!

Thu Feb 4 08:38:17 2016

I do rather like the flushed, narrow-eyed close-ups of Aroused Emp in panels 4 and 6, which is a character-design approach I rarely use for her. Not bad, 2006-Era Me!

Fri Feb 5 00:38:21 2016

Good thing those sweat droplets in panels 3 and 4 are entirely figurative, or everyone else in the room would be getting spattered—if not hosed down—with the spray from Blushingly Aroused Emp!

Mon Feb 8 00:38:16 2016

Odd, isn't it, that I so rarely use big ol' close-up shots like this one when I'm drawing chapter-break pages…

Tue Feb 9 00:38:18 2016

New readers might be wondering, “Hey, what's up with the peculiarly enlarged eye socket on the blazing corpse in panel 3?” Don't you worry, folks, as this seeming anomaly will soon be explained…

Wed Feb 10 00:38:17 2016

Panel 4: Anomalous eye socket issues clarified! Cue the musical theme for “The More You Know,” right? 🎶🎵

Thu Feb 11 00:38:18 2016

Dang, but ol' Willy Pete looks rather different in this, his first appearance, than he does later on in the series. Clearly, I hadn't yet refined my ideas for depicting a burning, superheated fella at this time.

Fri Feb 12 00:38:21 2016

Wondering exactly which of the “superfolk” ol' Willy Pete is referring to, on this page? (Hint: It's not Major Havoc, as much as some long-time readers might wish.) Find out in our next installment!

Mon Feb 15 00:38:24 2016

For the hover text, here, I'll just paste in the one-line email response I received from the first person I ever showed this page to: “AAAAAAAAA WTF?????!!!!!”

Tue Feb 16 00:38:21 2016

For the hover text, here, I'll just paste in the one-line email response I received from the first person I ever showed this page to: “ONLY A DREAM, HUH? U R SUCH AN F**KING A**HOLE, WARREN.” (Asterisks did not appear in the original email.)

Wed Feb 17 00:39:49 2016

Note that "HLLORRK" is a quote that I might have ported over directly from Howard Chaykin's AMERICAN FLAGG!—no, wait, I'm probably thinking of "GUCHHKK," another gurgling exclamation I almost certainly snagged from AF!

Thu Feb 18 00:38:20 2016

One of the best chapter-break illustrations so far in EMPOWERED vol. 1, and one of my favorites from the series as a whole. Well done, 2006-ish Me!

Fri Feb 19 00:38:25 2016

In panel 2, poor Emp suffers from a touch of the much-mentioned but never clarified Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch that once plagued my artwork during this era. Sorry ‘bout that, Emp.

Mon Feb 22 00:38:22 2016

Perhaps Emp's lips in panel 4 are swollen due to the trauma of having the glue pulled off of them? No? Alas, I'm afraid they're swollen just because that's how I rolled in 2006: big and pouty, at least on occasion.

Tue Feb 23 00:38:22 2016

For young Spookums-to-be, hell is indeed other people, per Sartre—more specifically, blonde people, in this case.

Wed Feb 24 00:38:27 2016

Q: How few background details can one show in order to still convey a given setting such, as, say, a janitorial closet? A: How about just a g-d mop, as seen in panel 2? Kinda works, though.

Thu Feb 25 00:38:32 2016

Panel 3's Infernal Service Provider line about guaranteeing “a movie-star face and a porn-star body” is kinda cute, but I'm not sure that it would really appeal ideally to his schoolgirl clientele. Oh, well.

Fri Feb 26 00:38:19 2016

As panel 6 closes out this page, brace yourselves for the evergreen trope of the so-called “Gilligan cut,” in which a character's firm, unyielding rejection IMMEDIATELY cuts to a negation of said rejection in the next scene. Wheeeee!

Mon Feb 29 00:38:20 2016

Some mildly wonky anatomy in panel 1, here—including a touch of the ol' Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch—but I still find the shot reasonably cute. Your Mileage May, of course, Vary on this matter.

Tue Mar 1 00:38:22 2016

Yeahp, panel 1 features a fine—or rather, wonky as hell—example of the oft-mentioned Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch that randomly plagued my figure drawings during this era. Sorry 'bout that, Spookums.

Wed Mar 2 00:38:25 2016

This point will become rather more obvious on the next page, but note that, bit by bit, Emp is donning the uniform worn by Young(er) Spooky's high-school tormentors.

Thu Mar 3 00:38:26 2016

As I mentioned earlier, jeez, that plaid pattern on Emp's skirt kinda sucks, doesn't it? Later on, I surreptitiously replaced it with a better-looking design taken from Ken Akamtsu's NEGIMA!

Fri Mar 4 00:38:26 2016

Behold, in the upper left corner of this title-page illo, the unnamed superchica that I've code-named “Kirby Helmet Chick.” Will we learn her real superhero name in this story? Well, no, we won't, but new readers WILL learn her Oh-So-Secret Origin, for whatever that's worth.

Mon Mar 7 00:38:23 2016

Hmm… Who might this page's unnamed blond fellow be? Might he turn out to be a certain “douchecape” in the end, rather than just a mere douchebag? (SPOILER: He might indeed!)

Tue Mar 8 00:38:24 2016

To quote panel 1, all I can say about this page in summary is a straightfoward but evocative, “Dude.”

Wed Mar 9 00:38:27 2016

Nice close-up on Emp in panel 3, though some of her hair strands are depicted as WAY too short. Hey, you win some, you lose some, 2006-Era Me.

Thu Mar 10 00:38:25 2016

For some reason, the ill-fated player's shiny pants in panel 1 crack me up. Coño!

Fri Mar 11 00:38:23 2016

Interesting close-up on Emp in panel 3, in that it's a rare shot in which her hair's blown back so we can see a full view of how her supersuit's neck connects to her mask.

Mon Mar 14 00:38:22 2016

Panel 2: Might just be me, but there's something a tad creepy about a douchecapey fella asking Emp sexually charged questions as the sound FX “SHLUPP” appears above him.

Tue Mar 15 00:38:24 2016

I quite like the huge, glittering eyes of Middle Metatextual Emp on this page; not sure why I've never revisited this visual trope, I must admit.

Wed Mar 16 00:38:23 2016

Yeahp, that box labeled “MINION CRAP” at far right is supposed to be more eBayable “supervill” gear that Thugboy acquired as a villain-victimizing “Witless Minion,” as mentioned in the earlier story of the same name.

Thu Mar 17 00:38:22 2016

Hey, another solid close-up of Ninjette in panel 3. You're on a bit of a roll, 2006-Era Me!

Fri Mar 18 00:38:22 2016

Convenient word balloons ahoy! A censoring trick that never fails to amuse me, I must admit.

Mon Mar 21 00:38:24 2016

Best not to wonder how Emp would've picked up the SUV in such an enclosed space without damaging it, let alone how she's going to safely put it back down…

Tue Mar 22 00:38:26 2016

Rather like the facial expression on narrow-eyed, Pissed-Off Emp at far right. Have to consider revisiting this visual riff for future use…

Wed Mar 23 02:38:28 2016

Lordy loo, Ninjette's ponytail sure did get long in panel 2, didn't it? This was, of course, a stylistic flourish to add a little more energy to the shot, but DANG that's some long hair, 2006-Era Me.

Thu Mar 24 00:38:42 2016

Hey, 2006-Era Me: Nice action flow in panels 1 and 2, dude! Keep it rolling, buddy! Too bad that there aren't many more action scenes left in this volume; well, that'll change in a hurry one we get into EMPOWERED vol. 2. Huzzah!

Fri Mar 25 00:38:26 2016

Oddly truncated head on panel 4's shot of Capitan Rivet, I must admit. Mysterious! Perhaps 2006-Era Me was trying something different, if perhaps unsuccessful.

Mon Mar 28 00:38:25 2016

On this page, enjoy a rare shot of Emp's supersuit in a fully intact condition! Yay! Note that, alas, the hypermembrane is visually rather uninteresting when not torn. No yay?

Tue Mar 29 00:39:55 2016

Okay, so panel 3's close-up of a “wiggly-lipped,” prevaricating Emp was not a successful effort. Can't win 'em all, 2006-Era Me.

Wed Mar 30 00:38:27 2016

WTF ALERT for panel 3: Ninjette's gloves inexplicably have fingers again, AND the normally thin-lipped character sports a pouty-lipped profile! What the hell were you thinking, 2006-Era me?

Thu Mar 31 00:39:54 2016

Note the expression of alarm on Thugboy's face in panel 5, for reasons that will made very clear on the next page. Or can you figure out said reasons from this page's dialogue?

Fri Apr 1 00:39:59 2016

I'm saddened that I've never thought to use panel 2's reference to Ninjette's tingling “ninja sense” again. (I should admit that, alas, I'd completely forgotten about it until I reread this page today.)

Mon Apr 4 00:38:22 2016

One rarely sees speed lines during a dialogue scene, but panel 2 fearlessly features 'em anyway. (I kinda like the effect, must admit.)

Tue Apr 5 00:38:23 2016

Nice Angry Emp faces in panels 5-7, 2006-Era Me! I'll have to remember these images the next time I get to draw her Unmasked and Furious. (In later volumes, she's certainly Furious quite often, but usually while wearing a mask.)

Wed Apr 6 00:38:45 2016

Odd choice to try to fit a close-up shot that's seemingly ideal for a vertical panel into panel 1's horizontal, panoramic format, but it seemed to work out just fine.

Thu Apr 7 00:40:14 2016

The Thugboy progression in panels 4 and 5, from silent pause to sudden alarm, still cracks me up. Well done, 2006-Era Me!

Fri Apr 8 00:38:27 2016

I've always wanted to include a flashback detailing where and how Ninjette and the Demonwolf spent the last few hours before this panel; alas, seems a bit late in the game to revisit this old scene. So, I leave it to the reader's imagination as to what they were up to, okay?

Mon Apr 11 00:38:29 2016

Some days, I just can't think of much of anything to include for an EMPOWERED page's “hover text.” Today, alas, is one of those days. My apologies, hover-text enthusiasts.

Tue Apr 12 00:38:24 2016

A rare “fully metaphorical” page, here, with a wholly figurative scene meant to convey an emotional impression. (A good idea, which I should probably try to revisit someday.)

Wed Apr 13 00:38:25 2016

In panel 1, thrill to what may well be the very baggiest of all the baggy-T-shirt images I've ever drawn of Thugboy. (I wised up in later volumes, and switched him over to a mostly shirtless sartorial state.)

Thu Apr 14 00:38:24 2016

Whoa! That's some super-duper long hair on Ninjette's ponytail in panel 1. You're outta control with the flowing manes, 2006 Me!

Fri Apr 15 00:38:42 2016

Some marginally wonky "arms crossed" poses, here. Then again, most of us artists use fairly stylized versions of such a pose—not that that really constitutes much of an excuse, though.

Mon Apr 18 00:38:22 2016

Note, of course, the cruel joke inherent to Young Emp's panel 2 declaration. (Probably for the best that she has no idea what the “tight 'n' clingy” costumed future holds for Grown-Up Emp.)

Tue Apr 19 00:38:26 2016

In panel 1, thrill to Young Ninjette's costume sporting that ever-popular ninja fashion trope: fishnets! As I'm not a big fan of drawing the ol' fishnet pattern, I've never even considered adding that feature to Grown-Up Ninjette's outfits.

Wed Apr 20 00:38:26 2016

Not really sure if even figurative blindfolding or muzzling would actually work on ol' Syndablokk's wholly inhuman head, but what the hell…

Thu Apr 21 00:38:29 2016

Big Pouty Lips in full effect in panels 1 and 2! If this displeases you, might I reassure you that I stopped drawing this particular affectation years ago? (You'll have to put up with Big Poutiness for quite a while in my older work, though.)

Fri Apr 22 00:38:22 2016

Super-Long Emp Hair Alert in panels 1 and 3, kids! An odd tendency on 2006 Me's part, as Emp's flowing tresses are (canonically!) supposed to halt well clear of the small of her back.

Mon Apr 25 00:38:22 2016

Look out, folks! Things are getting all spicy in here! *fans face with hand in comically exaggerated manner*

Tue Apr 26 00:38:25 2016

Lordy loo! FIFTY SHADES OF EMP—All-Superheroine Edition—ahoy!

Wed Apr 27 00:39:58 2016

Judging by the comments, most readers have already figured out what this story's title ("The OTHER F-Word") means. If not, don't worry, as all will be revealed soon-ishly.

Thu Apr 28 00:38:35 2016

Yeahp, 2006-Era Me gave Emp some seriously Big Pouty Lips on this page. If they displease you, you may rest easier knowing that I stopped drawing this riff years ago. If they please you, well, we still have years of Big Poutiness in store as the series progresses.

Fri Apr 29 00:38:27 2016

Woo hoo! Check out the package delivery (fan) service in panel 2, folks! Lordy loo!

Mon May 2 00:38:29 2016

Dumb a pun as it might be, panel 6's line about “a look of stony determination on his face” still amuses me perhaps more than it should.

Tue May 3 00:38:24 2016

I am perhaps a little too amused by panel 3's reference to the characters “gazing soulfully into each other's eyes,” a description that is complicated a tad by the fact that, technically, Syndablokk doesn't HAVE eyes as such.

Wed May 4 00:38:26 2016

Hey, that's a nice shot of Ninjette in panel 2, 2006-Era Me—in civilian garb and everything! (Less pleased with the view of Emp wearing “day-of-the-week”-labeled underpants, but what the hell.)

Thu May 5 00:38:24 2016

Again, not a bad Ninjette-and-Emp “two shot” in panel 3, 2006-Era Me. Good to see that I didn't spend ALL my time cratering my artwork with the Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch back then…

Fri May 6 00:38:25 2016

The idea of this illo is, I presume, that Thugboy feels himself at Emp's affection-withholding mercy. But why is she about to DIP the poor lad in sauce? What does THAT represent, pray tell? Alas, I can no longer recall 2006-Era Me's exact thought process.

Mon May 9 00:38:22 2016

Warning: Tsingtao beer alert in panel 1! (Not that I bothered to reference the labels, but you can safely assume those are supposed to be Tsingtao bottles.)

Tue May 10 00:38:26 2016

The squared-off thick-finger-palooza rolls on in panel 3! Think that ol' Kirby-fingered Frank could pick up a dime or a needle off the floor, folks? Frankly (pun unintended), I doubt it.

Wed May 11 00:38:26 2016

“You know where you are? / You're in the Underjungle, baby / You're gonna dieeeeeeee”

Thu May 12 00:38:24 2016

Love the ol' “icicle balloon” bit in panel 4 indicating Emp's coldness towards Thugboy. Bit of an “old-school” technique, to be honest, but what the hell…

Fri May 13 00:38:25 2016

Enjoy the view of Thugboy's baggy T-shirt, by the way, as this rather puzzling sartorial choice will soon disappear from the series, to be replaced thereafter by generous servings of Seriously Shirt-Averse Thugboy.

Mon May 16 00:38:25 2016

To quote the cheesy if not outright cretinous headline that most of us long-time print comics creators have winced at all too many times, “BIFF! BAM! POW! Comics aren't just for kids anymore!”

Tue May 17 00:38:26 2016

Panel 6: Possibly the first appearance of Emp's characteristic squeal of delight—“EEK!” with, of course, a little heart next to it.

Wed May 18 00:38:26 2016

Must admit, Ninjette entering Emp's apartment through a second-floor, street-facing window in broad daylight seems perhaps not the stealthiest imaginable approach.

Thu May 19 00:38:23 2016

Probably a good call on 2006-Era Me's part to leave sound FX out of this panel, though Your Mileage May Vary on this point.

Fri May 20 00:38:25 2016

A rare page that consists of nothing but Emp close-ups! Enjoy the magic, folks!

Mon May 23 00:38:24 2016

Kinda narrow-looking hallway in panel 3, though I recall that the real-life San Francisco apartment upon which Emp's place is based might indeed have had such a constricted layout. (I have vague but unpleasant memories of forcing a floppily recalcitrant mattress down this narrow-ass hallway.)

Tue May 24 00:38:24 2016

Panel 2: Whatever the Caged Demonwolf's flaws as an immortal paragon of cosmic evil might be, at least he certainly has good taste in TV shows.

Wed May 25 00:38:28 2016

Alert for fans of tiresome panel-to-panel continuity nitpicking: Note that the sheathed katana on Ninjette's back seems to randomly vanish from shot to shot. Enjoy, nitpickers!

Thu May 26 00:38:25 2016

“OK, wait. If you guys are really us, what number are we thinking of?” OTHER BILL, OTHER TED: “69, dudes!” BILL, TED: “Whoa!” *QUADRUPLE AIR GUITAR*

Fri May 27 00:38:24 2016

Of all the arguably excessive musculature that I saddle Thugboy with, must admit that his trapezoids might be his most overdeveloped muscle group. (Not that I give a particular crap about so-called—ahem—“realism” in my depiction of the male figure, let alone the female figure.)

Mon May 30 00:38:24 2016

Can't quite tell for sure, but those vague labels on the beer bottles might have been referenced from real-life brands. Tricky to recognize 'em without the helpful hint of coloring, though.

Tue May 31 00:38:51 2016

Panel 1: Instead of the line “blushing of cheeks both fore and aft,” I might have chosen “cheeks both topside and belowdecks,” granting a slightly more nautical flair to the Demonwolf's dialogue.

Wed Jun 1 00:38:54 2016

Scroll down to see how well my expressed intent to keep these page commentaries briefer and less time-consuming has gone… Yeahp, that's a good 625-odd words of blathering below, not counting the comic-page jpeg. “Sigh,” as Emp would put it.

Thu Jun 2 00:38:27 2016

Panel 2: Well, thank goodness I didn't have the Demonwolf bellow something along the lines of, “Have you not heard of Ask Jeeves, fools?” Technological anachronism successfully avoided!

Fri Jun 3 00:38:23 2016

Panel 2's line about “the dread ‘C-word' of which the legends whisper” still amuses me to no end, I have to admit.

Mon Jun 6 00:39:53 2016

Panel 4 worked out pretty well, In My Humble Opinion From The Lofty Vantage Point of 2016. Not bad for 2006-Era Me (he typed condescendingly).

Tue Jun 7 00:39:54 2016

Cute Emp drawing in panel 3, IMHO. Points off, I suppose, for using only close-ups on this page.

Wed Jun 8 00:39:57 2016

Well, the MYTHBUSTERS reference held up pretty well over the last decade or so, didn't it? (The Vanilla Ice ref, less so, but that was already an intentional anachronism.)

Thu Jun 9 00:39:54 2016

Decent facial work on Emp, Ninjette and Thugboy in these closing “meta” pages, gotta say. Well done, 2006-Era Me!

Fri Jun 10 00:39:57 2016

In retrospect, Emp's belly exposure on this back-cover illo seems a bit of a stretch for such a self-conscious character, but who knows? (I gather that “midriffing” was still a Big Fashion Deal in some circles circa 2006, unless it wasn't.)

Mon Jun 13 00:38:23 2016

Dunno what the hell I was thinking when I left King Tyrant Lizard's goofy-ass but undeniably amusing little crown off of this cover illo. Bad call, 2006-Era Me!

Tue Jun 14 00:38:26 2016

Hey, THERE's the goofy-ass little crown I mentioned in yesterday's hover text! Again, I'm disappointed with myself—or my 2006 self, at least—for leaving that sucker off the volume's cover illustration.

Wed Jun 15 00:38:22 2016

Enjoy the first appearance of “HRAAAR,” one of my favorite ways to write an inchoate, wordless roar of anger! No, not “Hodor,” but HRAAAR!

Thu Jun 16 00:38:40 2016

Attn. new readers: Hope you like the five sound FX in this panel, as you'll see them many, MANY times hence in the next few thousand pages. (Not a huge degree of variation among the sound FX I use, alas.)

Fri Jun 17 00:38:23 2016

Nice drawing of a superpunch in panel 1, 2006-Era Me! (Or would this be 2007-Era Me, by this point? Not sure.)

Mon Jun 20 00:38:23 2016

Every now and then, I can't think of a g-d thing to write for a page's “hover text”; this, alas, is another one of those times.

Tue Jun 21 00:38:22 2016

Sudden scene change, y'all! (Or, as I'm a native Northerner who lives practically on the Canadian border, perhaps I should say, “Sudden scene change, you guys!”)

Wed Jun 22 00:38:23 2016

Wilderness setting ahoy! Enjoy it while you can, as we'll never see this particular mountainous environment again, I'm afraid.

Thu Jun 23 00:38:22 2016

Panel 1: I think—in theory, at least—that's NOT a “belly shirt” Emp is wearing, but rather an untucked tee blowing wildly hither and yon. (I might be wrong about that, though. 2007-ish Me often moved in ways mysterious to my present-day understanding.)

Fri Jun 24 11:11:16 2016

Panel 3: Interesting “stacked/ overlapped lettering” approach on those three Os in the sound FX “WHOOOSH.” (Not something I've tried very much since, I can tell you.)

Mon Jun 27 00:38:27 2016

Panel 4: Note that the normally thin-lipped Ninjette here sports oddly full lips in profile, a stylistic tic that popped up at random in early EMPOWERED stories. Mysterious!

Tue Jun 28 00:38:25 2016

Note that, despite the 90s heyday of Powerman 5000, I still default to the number 3000 when arbitrarily naming a robot or the like, as with “Lame-O-Tron 3000” in panel 1. MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, it seems, casts a long shadow.

Wed Jun 29 00:38:23 2016

Panel 2: For the record, those toothy little beasties are “putti”—or “anti-putti,” in Empverse terminology—and not “cherubim,” despite the common misapprehension about such wee, winged folk and their appearances in Renaissance religious art.

Thu Jun 30 00:38:23 2016

Note that, due to the unusually squat dimensions of the EMPOWERED format, attempting a 4-tiered page results in some annoyingly cramped and vertically challenged panels. Sometimes, I really do miss the greater “headspace” of the standard comics format.

Fri Jul 1 00:38:27 2016

Emp may not be the best at “combat quipping,” but she certainly can freestyle an S-intensive rant when necessary, can't she?

Mon Jul 4 00:38:23 2016

Nice detail in panel 2, with King Tyrant Lizard's “HFF” word balloon sporting a tail pointed directly at his nostril. Strangely amusing to me, in retrospect.

Tue Jul 5 00:38:23 2016

Nice action shot of ol' KTL in panel 6, with the wide-open, toothy maw that indicates that trouble is definitely in store for poor Emp.

Wed Jul 6 00:38:24 2016

Panel 1 holds up really well, even with Emp rocking a fully intact supersuit for once in her action-heroine career!

Thu Jul 7 00:38:24 2016

Panel 2: Emp blurts the rarely seen double exclamation point, indicating she's REALLY in serious trouble!

Fri Jul 8 00:38:24 2016

Behold a rare post-action shot of Emp's hair in serious disarray, here. Shocking!

Mon Jul 11 00:38:25 2016

KTL's grip on Emp in panel 2 is a solid idea in principle, but I screwed up by making his thumb way, WAY too long, for some reason. Should've just shown his claw protruding up over her shoulder, not his entire thumb; oh, well.

Tue Jul 12 00:38:27 2016

Panel 1: The concavity of the cinderblock wall as Syndablokk uses his powers still cracks me up a bit, for reasons I can't quite explain. An amusing effect on the part of 2006-ish Me!

Wed Jul 13 00:38:28 2016

Solid, rather interesting idea for a shot choice in Panel 4, 2006-ish Me! (Probably should have revisited it during EMPOWERED vol.10's action scene with ol' Syndablokk, but I just plain forgot about this panel.)

Thu Jul 14 00:38:26 2016

Still like Syndablokk's “frisky and playful” line in panel 3 quite a bit. Well done, 2006-ish Writer Me!

Fri Jul 15 00:38:22 2016

Panel 3: Like those relatively thin, wide-open Os in WHKOOM, which is a lettering flourish I've long gotten away from using. Considering the barrage of sound FX approaching in EMPOWERED vol.11, might have to revisit this approach.

Mon Jul 18 00:38:26 2016

Props for decade-ago Yrs Truly for the nice shot of King Tyrant Lizard in panel 2. Not bad, dude!

Tue Jul 19 00:38:25 2016

If I recall correctly, this title-page illo was immortalized as a tattoo on the body of an EMP reader, but with a Super Nintendo controller in place of the Playstation 2 controller seen on the original piece. Bold!

Wed Jul 20 00:38:29 2016

This page's depiction of Ninjette's outfit presents a remarkably elaborate series of fabric folds, wraps and highlights, considerably more so than I bother to draw nowadays. Way to go crazy with the cloth detail, 2006-ish Me!

Thu Jul 21 00:38:25 2016

Gotta love that Ninjette doesn't deign to remove that katana—or straight-bladed “ninja-to”, I suppose—slung over her shoulder whilst playing a ninja videogame. Now, THAT is dedication to a role, folks.

Fri Jul 22 00:38:25 2016

I rather like the cheap but fun—ahem—“backgrounds” of this page, with each panel featuring a shifting orientation of zinging speedlines as a backdrop. ZING!

Mon Jul 25 00:38:25 2016

Panel 1: Nicely dramatic shot of a videogame-playing character, if do say so myself, in all modesty, not to toot my own horn. (Then again, I AM talking about Me Circa 2006, whom I effectively consider to be a different person altogether; such is my endless, irrational, bizarre contempt for Past Me in any form.)

Tue Jul 26 00:38:30 2016

Bit awkward to have the bottle's motion switch direction (right to left, then L to R) between panels 4 and 5, I should note.

Wed Jul 27 00:38:30 2016

Behold, the very first appearance of Young Emp! (I think.) Huzzah!

Thu Jul 28 00:38:31 2016

Panel 1: Ah, yes, the evocative yet slightly puzzling manga trope of “a line through one eye indicates a dazed character.” Not sure exactly WHY that cartoony flourish works, but it certainly is effective.

Fri Jul 29 00:38:34 2016

Panel 1: Enjoy the oddly heavy detail level on that camera in the foreground, folks! (Provides a nice contrast with the background's notable LACK of detail.)

Mon Aug 1 00:38:31 2016

Panel 2: Note the first appearance of the “Homey Wiki” concept at upper left, which would later become a minor plot point in future EMP volumes.

Tue Aug 2 00:38:33 2016

One of the better title-page illos from the volume, and possibly the series as a whole! IMHO, of course, as Your Mileage May (No Doubt) Vary on this matter.

Wed Aug 3 00:38:40 2016

Panel 1: Do not care for the way I drew Thugboy's baggy jeans in this shot. Pity he's not the sort of fellow who would wear “skinny jeans,” which are MUCH easier to render.

Thu Aug 4 00:38:31 2016

Panel 1: Enjoy(?) one of the last appearances of Thugboy in a baggy T-shirt as, after this story, I switch him over to a state of near-constant shirtlessness, because why not?

Fri Aug 5 00:38:35 2016

Panel 3: Ah, the great, ultra-cartoony visual riff of “crossed, popping veins” visible in an irritated Emp's hair(?), an anger-conveying trope that tickles me to no end, here, given its strong degree of abstractness.

Mon Aug 8 00:38:29 2016

Panel 3: Thugboy's dramatic pose—including that flowing T-shirt—as he utters this bold, BRAVEHEART-worthy declaration still cracks me up. Well done, 2006-ish Me.

Tue Aug 9 00:38:38 2016

Panel 4: I suspect I went with “bootyliciosity,” here, because “bootyliciousness” seemed too obvious. Bad call on 2006-ish Me's part, though.

Wed Aug 10 00:38:35 2016

Panel 1: Not quite sure why I bothered to draw Emp with a cartoonishly noseless look in this panel, but it does still strike me as an oddly cute affectation.

Thu Aug 11 00:38:33 2016

Panels 3 and 4: Admittedly, I've never seen anyone who would do separate “thumbs up/ thumbs down” gestures with separate hands, but this approach made for a marginally more interesting pair of panels.

Fri Aug 12 00:38:27 2016

Panel 3: Alas, the crappy font for “cat girl” does not represent a high point for my career as a letterer. Typeset-emulating fonts like this one are not my strong suit. Then again, I didn't have enough money to hire a real letterer, so I have to live with my own less accomplished efforts.

Mon Aug 15 00:38:28 2016

Panel 1: I like the fact that, even as Comics' Frank mangles Schrödinger's name as “Schrödingus,” he nonetheless retains that all-important umlaut.

Tue Aug 16 00:38:45 2016

Panel 1: Let's all bid a fond farewell to Thugboy's Led Zeppelin T-shirt, never to be seen again in the rest of the series.

Wed Aug 17 00:38:30 2016

As detailed below, Emp's figure is tragically flawed, but the shot of Sistah Spooky worked out quite well. As you can see—or, at least, as I can see, nowadays—2006-ish Me's mercurial art performance ranged freely from “messed up” to “pretty good,” sometimes within the very same panel or page.

Thu Aug 18 00:38:38 2016

Panel 3: Enjoy a rare image of Emp's supersuit fully intact, folks! Rest assured, alas, that this happy state will not last long.

Fri Aug 19 00:38:29 2016

Panel 6: “Superfreak”? Really? Note that this Rick-James-ian term didn't catch on in the series, unsurprisingly enough.

Mon Aug 22 00:38:29 2016

Slightly odd but rather cute “pouty face” on Emp in panel 4.

Tue Aug 23 00:38:30 2016

Panel 3: Well, at least this, ah, “rear view” of Emp isn't the infamous “talking butt” shot, which I've discussed before. In my meager defense, though, not too many other options for a panel of this shape and size, without turning panel's 1-3 into a repetitive three headshots in a row.

Wed Aug 24 00:40:11 2016

Torso Glitch probably in effect in panel 1, but the fact that her right arm's pulling back across her upper torso makes this a bit harder to judge than usual. Oh, well.

Thu Aug 25 00:38:40 2016

Panel 3: Just noticed the wee but notably icky detail that the gag is dripping with the other girl's saliva. Icky indeed, 2006-Era Me!

Fri Aug 26 00:38:58 2016

Anomalously long Emp hair in panel 4, as part of a cartoony stylistic flourish I used rather more often back in the series' early days.

Mon Aug 29 00:38:50 2016

Bit of the ol' Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch in panels 3 and 4. Is my frequent flagging of this artistic flaw getting tiresome, at all? The Glitch eventually goes away, I should note, but not for a few volumes yet.

Tue Aug 30 00:38:57 2016

Nice character work by 2006-Era Me on the As-Yet-Unnamed Brunette, here, despite the fact that I never bothered with drawing any character designs for her ahead of time.

Wed Aug 31 00:38:41 2016

Another page of nice character shots of Treacherous Girl—or, if you prefer as a long-term EMPOWERED reader, the future Ocelotina. Not bad, 2006-Era Me!

Thu Sep 1 00:38:42 2016

Panel 4: A helpful member of the BDSM community pointed out to me that any post-slap reddening of Emp's behind would comprise more of a “palm print" than the open-fingered impression I depicted. The More You Know, y'all!

Fri Sep 2 00:38:42 2016

Panel 1: Interesting choice for a stylized if simplistic mouth indication on Treacherous Girl, here—or should I call her Lecherous Girl?

Mon Sep 5 00:40:43 2016

Short form of what I would've written for a proper commentary on this particular page: PROBLEMATICALLY INAPPROPRIATE! ALSO, A RETROACTIVE CONTINUITY ERROR, THANKS TO THE AS-YET-UNCREATED “UNWRITTEN RULES!” MAY I REPEAT, PROBLEMATICALLY INAPPROPRIATE?

Tue Sep 6 00:38:38 2016

Pretty good facial work on this panel, 2006-Era Me. (Pity about the whole “hadn't thought up the Unwritten Rules yet,” though. Watch those hands, future Ocelotina!)

Wed Sep 7 00:38:36 2016

Panel 4: Oops, the pentagram's not upside-down on the back of that glove, as it should be. (I think.)

Thu Sep 8 00:38:49 2016

Panel 1: I like Spooky's casual “twirly” gesture as she magically manipulates the maelstrom.

Fri Sep 9 00:38:31 2016

Panel 4: The “supranym” for the bad guy, here, is—I kid you not—“Tape-Top Tommy.” (Even more bizarre, he's ported over from a non-EMPOWERED story.)

Mon Sep 12 00:38:29 2016

Some amusing facial expressions on this page, IMHO. Wheeee!

Tue Sep 13 00:38:29 2016

Panel 2: Unusual cartoony approach on Treacherous Girl's eyes, you'll notice.

Wed Sep 14 00:40:49 2016

I rather like the goofy expression of the ill-fated Treacherous Girl in panel 1.

Thu Sep 15 00:38:32 2016

The faces of panel 3's toothily demonic blonde maenads with the Disney's-TANGLED-length hair crack me up, for some reason.

Fri Sep 16 00:38:30 2016

Panel 1: “By the way, you're pregnant.” Yikes!

Mon Sep 19 00:38:26 2016

Cowboy hats: Freakishly difficult to draw from certain angles, as I'll eventually discover to my dismay. This shot worked out okay, though.

Tue Sep 20 00:38:27 2016

Panel 2: Not entirely clear, here, that Emp is actually being struck by the Gunman's fire. Showing the “streaks” of stray rounds richocheting off her might've helped to clarify matters a tad.

Wed Sep 21 00:38:28 2016

Enjoy—or not!—some vintage “Big, Pouty Emp Lips” in panels 3 and 4, folks!

Thu Sep 22 00:38:28 2016

Panel 5: The way Emp's suit molds to the ill-fated Lone Gunman's face is pretty damn creepy, don't you think?

Fri Sep 23 00:38:32 2016

Panel 6: Jeez, all it takes is adding a wiggly line to a cartoony sweat droplet (as seen on the side of Emp's head), and suddenly you've got what looks like a giant sperm cell in her hair. Whoops!

Mon Sep 26 00:38:44 2016

Could Emp's hair possibly itself be a sentient entity with metatextual awareness, given its suspicious propensity to carefully place itself between Emp's nipples and the camera? Intriguing!

Tue Sep 27 00:38:32 2016

Panel 7: Nice to see, of course, that Empverse “supervills” who've endured harrowing brushes with death can keep their priorities straight!

Wed Sep 28 00:38:25 2016

Note the rare “blushing Thugboy” seen here, with his expression perhaps being understandable if you could see the rest of Emp's “Sexy Librarian” costume that's triggering his reaction.

Thu Sep 29 00:38:28 2016

Emp's musical-note word balloon at lower right: Presumably she's not whistling, given the pencil she's holding in her mouth. Perhaps she's just humming a tune?

Fri Sep 30 00:38:26 2016

Panel 1: A well-drawn facial expression—notwithstanding her mask—on Emp, here. Well done, 2006-Era Me! And that despite me not resorting to the standard approach I use nowadays, which is to make her mask transparently display a “blushing” effect on her cheeks with such an expression.

Mon Oct 3 00:38:28 2016

Gotta say that I do rather like the rapid-fire pacing of this page's panels, which is a bit of a departure for the series' often slower-paced storytelling.

Tue Oct 4 00:38:27 2016

Must admit, the vertical “MAN” lettering on Idea Man's groin still cracks me up.

Wed Oct 5 00:38:38 2016

Panel 2: Odd mixture of errors with Emp's hair, here. The braided part of her hair is way too long, yet the loose strands of hair around her face are way too short. Mysterious!

Thu Oct 6 00:38:28 2016

Panel 2: Note the dreaded “brokeback” pose on Emp, here, in which both her bosom and booty are visible in the same shot! GASP!

Fri Oct 7 00:38:29 2016

Kind of a strange call to “flop” the orientation of Emp and Idea Man from facing one direction in panel 1 and than facing the other direction in panel 2.

Mon Oct 10 00:38:37 2016

Panel 1: Can't go wrong with the timeworn but still useful visual trope of “reflections in sunglasses,” folks.

Tue Oct 11 00:39:17 2016

Panel 1: In retrospect, I think the “deeper” tone of a sound FX like “KLOKK” would work better than the frankly anemic “KLIK KLAK” I used here to convey the noise of Emp's stiletto heels.

Wed Oct 12 02:38:28 2016

Panel 2: Note that Thugboy's commitment to rocking the ol' “mirrorshades" is so profound that he keeps 'em on even when clearly swept away by volcanic passion. (Now, THAT is commitment, folks.)

Thu Oct 13 00:38:25 2016

Despite the fact that I drew it from photoreference, this Emp pose just plain didn't quite work out. (I won't burden you with more detailed and self-flagellating criticism—or 2006-Me-flagellating criticism, anyway.)

Fri Oct 14 00:38:29 2016

Panel 2: One of the wonkier bits about how I draw Thugboy are his “traps,” or trapezoid muscles, which I occasionally draw with alarmingly excessive mass. This, needless to say, is one of those occasions.

Mon Oct 17 00:38:27 2016

Panel 4: Odd that I forgot the usual “N” engraved in the shuriken on Ninjette's headband.

Tue Oct 18 00:38:28 2016

Somewhat wonky torso—or wonkily skinny waist, at least—on poor Emp in panels 1 and 2. (The oft-mentioned “Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch” in effect, as always.)

Wed Oct 19 00:38:27 2016

Panels 6-7: Took me until EMPOWERED vol.10, but I finally got around to mentioning an obvious complaint that someone as prone to public crying jags as Emp would have: Her supersuit provides no pockets in which to carry tissues, which would be a major inconvenience, to put it mildly.

Thu Oct 20 00:38:27 2016

The “KICK/ KIDNAP ME” sign: Is that now an anachronism, I wonder? That is, does the school-age joke of the secretly taped-on “KICK ME” sign still exist? (Or, more to the point, was it still in effect when these bad guys were in school a decade or two earlier?)

Fri Oct 21 00:38:27 2016

Panel 1: Not everyone can manage to somehow squirt tears out through a mask but then again, not everyone is Sistah Spooky.

Mon Oct 24 00:38:28 2016

Panel 1: Gotta admit that Thugboy's trapezoid muscles are especially—nay, excessively, if not grotesquely—massive and gigantic in this shot, even though they're not clearly visible. Oops!

Tue Oct 25 00:39:54 2016

Panel 3: No idea why I kept forgetting to include the letter “N” that's supposed to be engraved on the shuriken sewn to Ninjette's headband.

Wed Oct 26 00:38:30 2016

Panel 1: Rare use of the single-letter-H “Bah,” rather than the double-H “Bahh” I normally use for the Caged Demonwolf's dialogue.

Thu Oct 27 00:38:28 2016

Panel 5: The Caged Demonwolf using the term “diaper babies” still amuses me to no end. (I should reuse that particular flourish in future Demonwolf dialogue.)

Fri Oct 28 00:40:01 2016

Panel 4: Don't care for the dull and unexciting pseudonym “intergalactic devastator,” which may be the lamest of all the Demonwolf's many, many names for himself.

Mon Oct 31 00:38:27 2016

Panel 4: Thrill to a very, very brief cameo (re)appearance by Pimpotron 3000, cyberprocurer to the Cosmolactic Empire!

Tue Nov 1 00:38:31 2016

Note the further Emp “blush patterns” on this page, a riff derived from the work of “josei” mangaka Mayoco Anno (as I mentioned in the previous installment).

Wed Nov 2 00:38:39 2016

Panel 2: These cartoony “tee hee” faces of Thugboy and Ninjette amuse me to no end, for some reason.

Thu Nov 3 00:38:27 2016

I quite like Ninjette's rather saucy strut in panel 5. Well done, 2006-Era Me!

Fri Nov 4 00:38:34 2016

Some amusingly goofy Thugboy facial expressions on this page, I gotta say.

Mon Nov 7 00:38:56 2016

Just occurred to me: The fakeness of Ninjette's ersatz boobs is clearly indicated by the fact that she's holding a cold beer against one of ‘em. (Then again, who knows, perhaps her ninja clan is inured to cold exposure, akin to Miyamoto Musashi under the waterfall.)

Tue Nov 8 00:38:26 2016

Panel 5: Note the rare use of the word-balloon-free “aside question mark” next to Thugboy. Unusual!

Wed Nov 9 00:38:27 2016

Panel 1: What does the “M” emblazoned on these goons' helmets stand for? Your guess is as good—or possibly better—than mine!

Thu Nov 10 00:38:29 2016

Panel 5: Awkward left thumb on the chair-swinging goon—but then again, thumbs can be surprisingly awkward to draw from certain angles, even when consulting photoreference. (Which I wasn't, in fact, but I believe my larger point still stands.)

Fri Nov 11 00:38:31 2016

Panels 1-3: Gotta love the concept of a thrown pizza slice as a weapon, if only a sight-impairing one. Did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ever do so? (Don't bother to tell me, as I don't really care enough to hear the answer.)

Mon Nov 14 00:38:27 2016

Panels 1 and 5: Note varying uses of “AAAA”-based yelling, which I find to be a remarkably useful and flexible form of bellowed roar. Pain (“NGAAA”) in panel 1, rage (“HRRAAAA”) in panel 5.

Tue Nov 15 00:38:58 2016

Arguably would've been slight better storytelling to show Emp-disguised Ninjette from the back again in panel 3, but I thought three panels in a row depicting her “toothsome rump” (per the Caged Demonwolf) seemed excessive.

Wed Nov 16 00:38:32 2016

Note that the “feet” of Emp's supersuit are theoretically NOT supposed to separate around the wearer's toes, but look instead like very tight socks or the like—but this technicality has proven maddeningly difficult to visually convey. Oh, well.

Thu Nov 17 00:38:28 2016

Panel 2: For the record, I should note that Emp-disguised Ninjette is ducking her head away from the muzzle of the off-panel pistol, not dodging the actual bullet as the Flash or Quicksilver or the super-speedster like might do.

Fri Nov 18 00:38:33 2016

Panels 3 & 4: In the commentary below, I refer to the surprised fellow as “Bloodied Mook,” but he might be better described as Excessively Punctuated Mook. (Or, possibly, “Excessively. Punctuated. Mook.”)

Mon Nov 21 00:38:32 2016

Panel 4: Quite like this panel, which is one of my favorites from this rather lengthy story. (Too bad that blithely pleased Ninjette is about to have her mood spoiled, alas.)

Tue Nov 22 00:38:28 2016

Panel 2: Enjoy that nice little plant on the table in the background, as I'm pretty sure it appears only rarely—or possibly not at all—after this panel. Sorry about that, background plant.

Wed Nov 23 00:38:31 2016

For the record, this page layout was—ahem—“borrowed” from a neat sequence in Fujihiko Hosono's manga MAMA (aka “Takahashi's MAISON IKKOKU, if Kyoko were an unwed teenage mom”), a 90s romcom manga that was a surprisingly big influence on my work.

Thu Nov 24 11:26:45 2016

Panels 2-3: On Ninjette's face, enjoy more of the distinctive blush-pattern rendering I “borrowed” some time ago from the great mangaka Mayoco Anno (INSUFFICIENT DIRECTION, SAKURAN, SUGAR SUGAR RUNE).

Fri Nov 25 00:38:28 2016

Panel 5: I like the visual of Thugboy delicately removing the shuriken earring from Ninjette's palm, while the still-upset “kunoichi” remains oblivious.

Mon Nov 28 00:38:28 2016

Nice Ninjette close-up in panel 2, 2006-Era Me! (Note that I add “-Era” because I'm not entirely sure as to what year it was when I actually drew this page. I could look up the date of original scan in my archives to make sure, but why spoil the mystery?)

Tue Nov 29 00:38:28 2016

Panel 2: Once again, everyone sing along with the Admiral and me: “IT'S A TRAP!” No, it's just excessive trapezoid-muscle mass on ol' Thugboy, a 2006-era drawing glitch that plagues him almost as often as the Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch plagues Emp.

Wed Nov 30 00:38:45 2016

I cribbed Ninjette's very particular “mouth in profile” view from either A) the American artist Bob Oksner or B) the Japanese artist Kikuchi Shouta or C) possibly both, somehow.

Thu Dec 1 00:38:44 2016

That's a photoreferenced pose on Ninjette, folks! Not a bad job on 2006-Era Me's part, gotta say. (The fingers on her right hand are a bit flawed, but what the heck.)

Fri Dec 2 00:38:29 2016

Slightly wonky Ninjette figure in panel 2, followed by a MUCH wonkier Ninjette figure in panel 3, as her head and body proportions slid outta whack. (Or should that be “wack”?) Oh, well; can't win ‘em all, 2006-Era Me.

Mon Dec 5 00:38:26 2016

Panel 2: Would've given Ninjette the word balloon “PHTWEPH” as a “spit-take” reaction, here, but I ran outta space.

Tue Dec 6 00:38:25 2016

Panel 3: I do rather like the Demonwolf's line about “in the parlance of the filthy hippies.” I should revisit that riff sometime, come to think of it.

Wed Dec 7 00:38:24 2016

A bit Demonwolf-ish, true, but hard to beat the (Shelly's) Ozymandias-riffing line, “Gaze upon my groin, ye mighty—and DESPAIR!”

Thu Dec 8 00:38:27 2016

Panel 3: Yeahp, per the Demonwolf's POV, the sound FX for a searingly intense Male Gaze is “VREEEE.” The more you know, right?

Fri Dec 9 00:38:49 2016

Panel 2: Amusing facial expression on Ninjette at left, of an unusual sort I rarely draw in this series. Wacky stuff, 2006-Era Me!

Mon Dec 12 00:38:26 2016

Panel 1: The practice to which the “kinda freaked-out” Ninjette refers was, methinks, perhaps less commonplace in 2006—or discussed in public less often, at least.

Tue Dec 13 00:38:26 2016

Panel 6: Am still fond of the Demonwolf's demand, “Now, let your DRAWERS drop as well!” That, despite the fact that Ninjette isn't wearing any drawers as such—a shocking error on the Nigh-Omniscient Overlord's part, to be honest.

Wed Dec 14 00:38:26 2016

Panel 1: Note the extremely convenient—or inconvenient, perhaps, depending on your viewpoint—Caged Demonwolf word-balloon placement. Who says his words have no power?

Thu Dec 15 00:38:26 2016

Gotta love that boggled, wobbly-eyed close-up on Ninjette in panel 6, by the way.

Fri Dec 16 00:38:26 2016

Panel 4: Pareidolia alert! Pareidolia alert! Again, I'm amused that I never noticed those lights on the Demonwolf's cage could be perceived as a face when I was drawing him.

Mon Dec 19 00:38:37 2016

Do rather like Thugboy's expression in this chapter-break illo, so chalk up some props—or at least one prop, singular—for 2006-Era Me.

Tue Dec 20 00:38:26 2016

Panel 1: To what “secondary powers” does Thugboy obliquely refer? Answers will shortly follow, never fear!

Wed Dec 21 00:38:26 2016

Really like Emp's blushing expression in panel 5, I gotta say.

Thu Dec 22 00:38:27 2016

Well, look at this: A page consisting of nothing but close-up shots! Lordy loo! Don't try this at home, kids!

Fri Dec 23 00:38:34 2016

Panel 2: I'm a bit dubious about the spelling of “rawk,” here.

Mon Dec 26 00:38:31 2016

Do like the phrase “transmundane tatters of her supersuit” in panel 1, but I missed the opportunity to use the Lee/ Kirby-esque phrasing “suit super” (or something similar), along the lines of the Marvel term “the power cosmic.”

Tue Dec 27 00:38:27 2016

Nice “through the tears in the supersuit” framing in panel 2, here. Kudos, 2006-ish Me!

Wed Dec 28 00:38:28 2016

“GOTTA HAVE A MONTAGE!” Actually, this panel-border-free page is technically a vignette, not a montage, but TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE didn't have a catchy song about vignettes, alas.

Thu Dec 29 00:38:28 2016

Another page consisting of naught but close-ups! Best not to try this at home, young creators, as it's a bad storytelling habit to fall into.

Fri Dec 30 00:38:26 2016

Panel 2: As eagle-eyed readers might have noticed from easier scenes set in Emp's shower, it DOESN'T actually sport the “shower-head thingie” (that is, a handheld shower fixture) of which she speaks. Plumbing continuity error!

Mon Jan 2 00:38:29 2017

Panel 6: Alas, the "plot thread" about the Demonwolf's seizure of the TV remote is never again addressed. My apologies, longtime readers.

Tue Jan 3 00:38:29 2017

All these Japanese traditional masks were photoreferenced, I should note—with some of them were considerably more difficult to draw than others. Perhaps surprisingly, the simpler ones were tougher.

Wed Jan 4 00:38:30 2017

Panel 4: Kinda bungled my attempt to visually convey the “facial curve” of that mask at foreground left. I believe that 2006-2007-ish Me eventually got better at drawing that mask, howeva.

Thu Jan 5 00:38:31 2017

Panel 6: This is one of the more entertaining Japanese masks from this group to draw, as opposed to the seemingly simpler but actually easier-to-botch “kitsune” mask in panels 1 & 2.

Fri Jan 6 00:38:28 2017

Panel 1: Woo hoo—a rare “thought balloon” usage here! Bit of a stretch, though, as this grumbling shinobi could just as easily have been mumbling under his breath.

Mon Jan 9 00:38:30 2017

Panel 2: For those who follow me on Twitter, note that this panel has a bit of the ol' “Zaxxon downshot” flavor to it. Best to steer clear of this boring, unimaginative shot choice, young artists!

Tue Jan 10 00:38:28 2017

Surprisingly, even shockingly difficult to get that g-d clock face right—and it's still not quite correct, either. Always non-fun to discover how much difficulty one can encounter drawing seemingly simple objects like this, folks.

Wed Jan 11 00:39:58 2017

Panels 2 & 4: Capitan Rivet occasionally had a more truncated-looking head in early EMPOWERED, for reasons presently unknown to me.

Thu Jan 12 00:38:31 2017

Panel 1: I rather like this shot of goofy-ass supervillain "Killing Time." Well done, 2006-ish Me!

Fri Jan 13 00:38:29 2017

Was asking for trouble with the perspective I chose for this grandfather clock—and lo and behold, trouble did I indeed receive with the rather wonky-looking clock face! (Very tough to line those Roman numerals up correctly, which in fact I did not manage to do. Oh, well.)

Mon Jan 16 00:38:30 2017

Panel 1: Another appearance of the periodic EMPOWERED trope of Emp suddenly sporting extraordinarily long hair, as a cartoonishly stylistic flair to add ineffable “zest” or interest to a shot. (YMMV.)

Tue Jan 17 00:38:28 2017

Maddening amount of perspective work required for panel 1's g-d clock face, IIRC. (Ughh.)

Wed Jan 18 00:38:30 2017

Gotta love it (or not): An EMPOWERED page without Empowered, other than that teeny shot of her absconding into the background of panel 4.

Thu Jan 19 00:38:29 2017

Panel 1: Regardless of his other offenses, this jackass arguably DESERVES to get a rock to the head just for trotting out such a lazy, crappy excuse for a pun.

Fri Jan 20 00:38:32 2017

Nice shot of Emp in panel 3, I gotta say! Well done, me from over a decade ago!

Mon Jan 23 00:38:28 2017

Y'know, I really didn't intend for the sock monkey to look so damn phallic in this image. No, seriously, that wasn't my intention! Oh, well.

Tue Jan 24 00:38:32 2017

Some days I just can't think of something to write for a page's “hover text.” This, alas, is one of those days.

Wed Jan 25 00:38:30 2017

Panel 2: Mighty convenient placement of that gearshift lever down at lower right, don't you think?

Thu Jan 26 00:38:30 2017

Panel 2: For some reason, the gaping darkness of the “neckhole” of Empty Emp Supersuit creeps me out a bit.

Fri Jan 27 00:38:29 2017

Panel 1: Excessively Trapezoidal Thugboy strikes again! (That is, his trapezius muscles are excessively large in this shot, as happens fairly often in this era.)

Mon Jan 30 00:38:30 2017

Panel 3: A toilet-paper blindfold? Seems a tad dubious, even for the budget-minded BDSM aficionado. Good thing this is a dream sequence, huh?

Tue Jan 31 00:38:42 2017

Panel 1: A fair number of these background characters return for another Thugboy-intensive EMPOWERED vol. 3 story, by the way.

Wed Feb 1 00:38:31 2017

Panel 2: Whoops, Emp turned into Sistah Spooky between pages in this goofy dream sequence. WHAT DOES IT MEAN????

Thu Feb 2 00:38:28 2017

Panel 2: Nice shot of the Barrett M82 rifle, here—so nice, in fact, I assume that I either photoreferenced the image or straight-up traced it from a pic.

Fri Feb 3 00:38:29 2017

Panels 3-5: OOPS! Good thing this is a dream sequence, butter(trigger)fingers!

Mon Feb 6 00:38:30 2017

Panel 1: SOCK MONKEY ATTACK! AIEEEEEEE!

Tue Feb 7 00:38:28 2017

Panel 1: Cute shot of Emp, even if the texture on her “boy shorts” looks a little bit—or, in fact, a LOT—too shiny.

Wed Feb 8 00:38:27 2017

Some nice—if deliberately cartoony—facial-expression work on this title page. Decently done, 2006-Era Me!

Thu Feb 9 00:38:28 2017

Panels 1 and 4: Flip-phone alert! Well, could've been worse, I could've drawn a Razr or the then-popular like, which would've aged even less gracefully since 2006-7.

Fri Feb 10 00:38:30 2017

An unusually long and sinuous cartoony “sweat drop” running down the side of Crossword Puzzle Mook's face in this shot.

Mon Feb 13 00:38:27 2017

Panel 2: Alas, I no longer have idea what sports team Crossword Mook's jersey might be referencing—or, for that matter, if it's based on a real-life team's jersey at all.

Tue Feb 14 00:38:42 2017

Uh, oh—a comics page consisting of naught but close-up shots! Better not try this at home, kids!

Wed Feb 15 00:38:28 2017

Panel 4: Sadly for Emp, her 2nd word balloon represents a bit of unfortunate foreshadowing.

Thu Feb 16 00:38:29 2017

Panel 7: What's going on here with the eyes of Emp's mask? Find out in our next installment, folks!

Fri Feb 17 00:38:26 2017

Panel 3: Why does Emp know so much about aneurysms—or “aneuryfmf,” as she puts it while speaking around a gag? You'll find out shortly, folks.

Mon Feb 20 00:38:28 2017

Panel 5: Still like the goofy, sing-song “d'oh dee d'oh dee d'oh” riff that Crossword Mook sarcastically trots out.

Tue Feb 21 00:38:32 2017

Panel 1: I'm still fond as hell of drawing a small panel featuring a silent reaction shot, which adds a nice storytelling beat to a conversation sequence.

Wed Feb 22 00:38:30 2017

Panel 5: Amused to see the super-cartoony, “big head” proportions I was using for Emp, here. Very different from—in fact, the polar opposite of—what I do nowadays.

Thu Feb 23 00:38:30 2017

Panel 2: Looks like Crossword Mook's daughter won't make it to Chuck E. Cheese's tonight. Sorry about that, little Janey.

Fri Feb 24 00:38:29 2017

Panels 3 and 4: I advise readers to take note of Bescrubbed Woman from this scene, as she'll soon take a larger role in the story.

Mon Feb 27 00:41:31 2017

Poor call on 2006-ish Me's part to flop the direction that Crossword Mook's daughter is facing between panel 1 and panel 2. Best to keep such orientation consistent from panel to panel during a given page, though storytelling needs may force you to change it over the course of a longer scene.

Tue Feb 28 00:41:24 2017

Panel 1: Must admit, I never bothered to check if Fruity Flakes® were, indeed, already a registered trademark. Oh, well.

Wed Mar 1 00:41:33 2017

Panel 3: Oddly amused that Crossword Mook's daughter seems almost as upset about the idea of her father crapping himself as the idea that he might die.

Thu Mar 2 00:42:07 2017

Panel 4: Note the drooling Emp in panels 4 and 5, a callback to a story earlier in the book. Alas, I can't put a hyperlink in “hover text,” so you'll just have to take my word for this.

Fri Mar 3 00:42:00 2017

Panel 2: Yeahp, Crossword Mook's daughter—“Janey,” you might remember from earlier in the story—clearly inherited her freckles from her mother. (Well, at least she got lucky and didn't end up with her father's notable-looking honker of a nose.)

Mon Mar 6 00:41:01 2017

Panels 3-6: Enjoy a rare EMPOWERED use of the presently unfashionable thought balloon, folks!

Tue Mar 7 00:41:53 2017

Panel 4: For the record, I'm pretty sure that Emp, here, is trying to say “Let me go!” My, isn't that relevatory? I'm sure that, today, EMPOWERED readers must be EXTRA glad that they moused over this “hover text.”

Wed Mar 8 00:41:37 2017

Panel 3: For the record, I'm pretty sure that Emp, here, is trying to say “No, it wasn't!” Another startling revelation, huh? Never let it be said that I don't offer premium content in EMPOWERED's hover text, folks!

Thu Mar 9 00:43:15 2017

Panels 2-3: I can say that the Evil Orderly's little comm device is almost certainly referenced from real-world gadgetry of some sort, but a decade later I can't begin to guess what that might have been. It's not a conventional 2006-ish cellphone, I can tell you that.

Fri Mar 10 00:41:24 2017

Panel 3: Yes, poor Emp is indeed trying to say, “‘Project Slappy'…?"

Mon Mar 13 00:41:37 2017

Too sick to write hover text tonight, folks! Sorry 'bout that.

Tue Mar 14 00:41:22 2017

Am presently sick like unto a dog from “con crud,” so commentary and “hover text” will be fairly minimal over the next few days.

Wed Mar 15 00:41:28 2017

Last story page of EMPOWERED vol.2! Woo hoo!

Thu Mar 16 00:41:27 2017

Volume 2 Pages 204 & 205

Fri Mar 17 00:42:51 2017

Nice Ninjette and Thugboy, IMHO. Solid effort from 2006-ish Me.

Mon Mar 20 00:41:27 2017

Not sure where this illo originated from; just sorta seemed to appear in my files, at some point. Mysterious!

Tue Mar 21 00:42:20 2017

Note: The EMPOWERED volumes' back-cover illustrations alternate between images of Emp with her mask off (odd-numbered books) and other characters (even-numbered books).

Wed Mar 22 00:41:24 2017

Could that be a possibly semi-familiar character at lower right? Well, you'll find out for certain only 130 or so pages from now!

Thu Mar 23 00:43:04 2017

AKK! No time for "hover text" tonight, as I'm writing this only minutes before the page posts! Yikes!

Fri Mar 24 00:40:35 2017

Cute enough image of Emp and Ninjette, here, though I'm amused by how cavalier 2006-Era Me was about using the cartoony “Big Head/ Narrow Shoulders” riff. Not as big a fan of that stylistic flourish nowadays, needless to say.

Mon Mar 27 00:41:10 2017

Quite like this page's rather dynamic panel 1. Well done, 2006-Era Me! (Might be 2007-Era Me by this point, though.)

Tue Mar 28 00:43:53 2017

Panel 4: Look out, wee mosquito! (Too late.)

Wed Mar 29 00:43:46 2017

Panel 4: Note the close-up shot of the slashed-in-half mosquito, which recurs later on in the story.

Thu Mar 30 00:42:34 2017

Panel 5: Like this relatively dynamic shot, with the wee steps in the background (or BG) leading to the leaping Emp in the foreground (or FG).

Fri Mar 31 00:46:11 2017

Panel 5: Not fond of Emp's extended leg in this shot, but what the heck, the image still works fairly decently.

Mon Apr 3 00:41:51 2017

Wellp, so much for Emp's supersuit being largely intact.

Tue Apr 4 00:41:41 2017

Panel 1: Gotta say, hefting this not-that-large rock really doesn't seen like much of a test for Emp's supersuit. Then again, maybe she's pursuing a high-rep, low-weight workout program, here?

Wed Apr 5 00:42:10 2017

Due to the larger size I drew this story at—10” X 13”, versus the normal 8.5” X 11”—my hand lettering seems a bit wonkier than usual, as I was scrawling it at a scale I was unused to.

Thu Apr 6 00:41:25 2017

Not fond of the call to just show Emp's head on these Metatextual Emp pages. Works better when we see more of her shoulders and upper torso, IMHO.

Fri Apr 7 00:41:34 2017

High-contrast, Sharpie®-marker-based artwork ahoy! Cue some well-meaning dude immediately chiming in, to my annoyance, “Looks like SIN CITY, man!” I was experimenting with this style in g-d high school, well-meaning dude. Frank Miller didn't invent chiaroscuro, okay? In all likelihood, Miller's “harsh B&W” art style was strongly influenced (IMHO) by the same source that inspired me back in day: Jim Steranko's graphic novel CHANDLER: RED TIDE.

Mon Apr 10 00:41:34 2017

Excessive wasp-waistedness on poor Emp in panels 1 and 3, gotta say, though this isn't quite full-on Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch; that involves more serpentine, undulating distortion and twisting of the midriff, IMHO.

Tue Apr 11 00:41:38 2017

Panel 3: That's a pretty damn sturdy table that Emp's getting tossed onto, gotta say.

Wed Apr 12 00:41:23 2017

Panels 2 and 3: Rather like the high-contrast images of the Unnamed Criminals in these two shots. (Cue the inevitable comment of “Looks like SIN CITY, man.” GTFO with that BS, okay?)

Thu Apr 13 00:41:33 2017

Panel 1: Awkward-looking hand on Unnamed Criminal, here. Drawing hands is tough, folks! (Though not as tough as drawing feet, or at least g-d TOES, which are the WORST.)

Fri Apr 14 00:41:38 2017

Panel 2: Like the AKIRA-like taillight trails smearing from the departing automobile in the distance. Design-y, folks!

Mon Apr 17 00:41:20 2017

Panel 2: Behold, the return of Emp's mysterious and rarely seen SUV! Or IS it actually Emp's SUV, after all? More on this ambiguous matter in our next EMP installment.

Tue Apr 18 00:41:29 2017

Panels 3-4: KREEK KREEK KREEK? What the devil is going on, here? Let's find out tomorrow, shall we?

Wed Apr 19 00:41:42 2017

Nice high-contrast work in panel 1, though arguably 2006-Era Me cheated by drawing that outline for Emp's shoulder where it's shown against the whiteness of the windshield.

Thu Apr 20 00:41:35 2017

Panel 4: In Thugboy's first word balloon, I shouldn't have tried to fit all three words into that fourth line. Too tight a fit in the limited available space.

Fri Apr 21 00:44:46 2017

Panel 2: Despite the fact that he was born long after the brief heyday of 80s one-hit wonder Corey Hart, Thugboy clearly remains quite committed to the ethos of the song “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night.”

Mon Apr 24 00:41:33 2017

Lotta drinking in this story, folks, including some quite literally messy incidents drawn from real-life experience with overindulging friends. Brace yourselves!

Tue Apr 25 00:42:20 2017

Behold the first, but certainly not the last, karaoke riff in EMPOWERED! Many, many more such riffs will follow, to put it mildly.

Wed Apr 26 00:41:34 2017

Atmospheric hover text: As I type this, I can hear wild turkeys—specifically, squabbling male “tom” turkeys—gobbling furiously outside my studio window. Welcome to that rural lifestyle, folks!

Thu Apr 27 00:41:27 2017

Not thrilled with Ninjette's index fingertips meeting at her nose in panel 3, but what can ya do?

Fri Apr 28 00:41:37 2017

Panel 3: Don't care for Ninjette's rather oddly shaped second word balloon. That odd curve at lower left, where the balloon abuts the previous one, seems off to me

Mon May 1 00:41:25 2017

Panel 4: Gotta love the colorful image of pelvic-thrusting Capitan Rivet, which is certainly a different look for the normally staid, sober and seemingly thrust-free Superhomeys team leader.

Tue May 2 00:41:31 2017

Panel 4: Rather like the old-school, goofily cartoony word-balloon riff of the icicles hanging off Ninjette's word balloon to convey the frosty tone of her response to Emp.

Wed May 3 00:41:31 2017

Panels 2, 3 and 5: Note the very specific blush pattern on Ninjette, which is a visual riff I borrowed from the manga artist Mayoco Anno.

Thu May 4 00:41:32 2017

Panel 5: Here, note the rare use of “aside lettering”—meaning, spoken dialogue written outside a word balloon—with Ninjette's “GRARR!”

Fri May 5 00:41:40 2017

Panel 2: And ANOTHER supposedly rare thought balloon here! Apparently, they're not too rare in this particular story, mysteriously enough.

Mon May 8 00:42:03 2017

Panel 1: I do have to wonder what the waitresses at this superhero-serving club might look like. (They're never mentioned—or, indeed, thought of by me—again.)

Mon May 8 14:41:45 2017

Panel 1: I do have to wonder what the waitresses at this superhero-serving club might look like. (They're never mentioned—or, indeed, thought of by me—again.)

Tue May 9 00:41:25 2017

Panel 2: By this point, I was already regretting my decision to draw a rocket sled from photoreference. (As usual, Writer Me foolishly wrote out a figurative check that Artist Me had to cash, much to the latter's grudging dismay.)

Wed May 10 00:41:39 2017

Panel 3: Note the cartoonily stylized flourish of Emp's hair suddenly growing unusually long as she grinds against Thugboy in this shot.

Thu May 11 00:41:32 2017

Saucy wackiness in panel 1, folks. Seems a tad messy for Thugboy to agree to, really, but no doubt his objections were half-hearted at best in the face of peer pressure from two very cute—and very drunk—girls.

Fri May 12 00:41:30 2017

For some reason, the saliva string on yelling Metaphorical Emp in panel 3 amuses me to no end.

Mon May 15 00:41:30 2017

Panel 3: Belatedly noticed that the bathtub in the background of this shot seems rather gigantic, if you look closely at the rather vague indications of its contours. Perspective: It's tricky, folks!

Tue May 16 00:41:37 2017

Panel 3: Gotta say, “What (insert concept here) madness is this?” is one my favorite Caged Demonwolf dialogue riffs.

Wed May 17 00:41:35 2017

Nice close-ups in panels 2 and 4, I gotta say. You're not all bad, 2007-ish Me!

Thu May 18 00:41:31 2017

Panel 6: Ah, yes, when I was much younger, I shared Emp's misplaced optimism about better job performance somehow applying to the rest of my life. Oh, well.

Fri May 19 00:41:50 2017

First night back from a weeklong trip to Toronto, and I'm swatting mosquitoes constantly for the first time in 2017 as I type this hover text. Yay, that rural New England lifestyle.

Mon May 22 00:41:30 2017

Possible ominous foreshadowing in panel 2, folks! Beware!

Tue May 23 00:41:41 2017

Fun—if aggressively cartoony and exaggerated—expressions on this page, gotta say.

Wed May 24 00:41:40 2017

Nice close-ups on Emp and Ninjette in panel 3, gotta say. Who says I have naught but scorn for 2006-Era Me's work?

Thu May 25 00:41:26 2017

Not one of the sexier title pages in EMPOWERED history, gotta admit.

Fri May 26 00:41:34 2017

Panels 3-4: Hapless Minion's description of this EMPOWERED vol. 2 incident makes it seem even more muddled and confused than it really was, don't you think?

Mon May 29 00:41:17 2017

Panel 1: Oddly, I would probably prefer the slightly different sound FX “FSHINGG” nowadays.

Tue May 30 00:41:28 2017

Ah, yes, the stereotypical straight-bladed, so-called “ninja-to” sword, as mentioned in so much lazy ninja-related hackery. Oh, well; might discuss this choice in more detail later on in this volume.

Wed May 31 00:43:06 2017

Panel 4: Definitely not a POV shot one would care to experience, given this ninja clan's coldblooded ways.

Thu Jun 1 00:41:39 2017

Nice shot of Emp, gotta say. (Her hair's a bit too long, but that's a wholly forgivable stylistic flourish in which I occasionally indulge.)

Fri Jun 2 00:41:32 2017

Panel 1: Unusually detailed view of a side of Emp's bedroom that we rarely see.

Mon Jun 5 00:43:00 2017

Yeahp, Mellow Mr. Monkey's alleged dream-snuffing powers were mentioned previously, at the end of EMPOWERED vol. 2. Say, might make a decent story if I explored the idea that “MMM” actually possessed dream-related abilities, wouldn't it? Hmm…

Tue Jun 6 00:41:41 2017

Panel 1: Hark! Another sighting of Emp's Capitan Rivet underpants, as glimpsed in passing back in Empowered vol. 1.

Wed Jun 7 00:41:32 2017

Panel 1: Some wonky anatomy on Thugboy here, due to the fact that I didn't “draw through” his figure—that is, I drew his arm partially cropped off at the panel border, a practice which often leads to drawing errors.

Thu Jun 8 00:41:41 2017

Again, gotta say that I do not care for those pointy word-balloon tails awkwardly thrusting at poor Thugboy's face. As I mentioned t'other day, I prefer short, “hooky” tails that remain clear of the speaker's face.

Fri Jun 9 00:40:37 2017

Rare bit of EMPOWERED “aside” lettering—that is, text without a word balloon around it—above the first Meta Emp headshot.

Mon Jun 12 00:40:28 2017

Panel 1: The idea of this doofus supervillain's costume sporting fiberglass “clouds” (of chloroform, presumably) for his headpiece and shoulders amuses me to no end.

Tue Jun 13 00:40:30 2017

Panel 2: Behold my beloved if simplistic “glitter FX,” which are hand-drawn (and whited-out) analogues for the snazzier effects a comics colorist can achieve in Photoshop.

Wed Jun 14 00:41:40 2017

Panel 5: The bit that really amuses me about this scene is the idea of Chloroformaster laboriously scribbling a note for the unconscious Major Havoc before absconding. Did he bring along a pad of paper and pen, just in case? Or was Chloroformaster so well-prepared that he already had a note written beforehand, anticipating disappointment?

Thu Jun 15 00:40:55 2017

Panel 5: Does this represent implicit chloroform slut-shaming? Perhaps.

Fri Jun 16 00:40:37 2017

Panel 1: Touch of the ol' Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch to Emp's midsection, here. Also, her arms are too short. A mess, overall; can't win 'em all, folks.

Mon Jun 19 00:40:51 2017

Panel 3: Gotta say, the use of the rather obscure vocabulary word “lissome” is taking this bad guy into the Caged Demonwolf's linguistic territory.

Tue Jun 20 00:40:37 2017

Panel 3: Uh oh! Where is Chloroformaster's right hand drifting? Yikes!

Wed Jun 21 00:42:19 2017

Panel 1: “Excelsior!” Dude must be a serious Marvel fan—or Stan Lee fan, at least. Wait, am I saying that Marvel and/or Stan Lee exist in the Empverse? Hrmmm.

Thu Jun 22 00:41:46 2017

Panel 3: Ahoy! A rare sighting of post-coitally disheveled Emp!

Fri Jun 23 00:40:40 2017

I like Emp's confused, semi-pouty mouth in panel 2, but no longer care for the seriously Big, Pouty Lips in panel 3.

Mon Jun 26 00:41:51 2017

As seen with the second Emp head, here, I really needed to be warier about keeping her face well clear of the bottom of the page. Oh, well.

Tue Jun 27 00:42:10 2017

Panel 2: Looks like a photoreferenced outfit (and possibly hair) for Treacherous Girl, here. Probably from some catalog pic or advertising insert that showed up with the local newspaper.

Tue Jun 27 14:41:39 2017

Panel 2: Looks like a photoreferenced outfit (and possibly hair) for Treacherous Girl, here. Probably from some catalog pic or advertising insert that showed up with the local newspaper.

Wed Jun 28 00:43:04 2017

First two images of Treacherous Girl, here, are pretty cute, 2007-ish Me! Alas, I'm less fond of her face in the third shot at lower right.

Thu Jun 29 00:41:32 2017

Say, notice that Treacherous Girl is often looking into the camera? Might she possibly be literally—and I do mean LITERALLY, not “literally meaning really”—looking into a camera? Hmmm.

Fri Jun 30 00:41:45 2017

Panel 1: Gotta say, that's a solid philosophy that Treacherous Girl is trotting out. (Or quoting, as we'll eventually figure out.)

Mon Jul 3 00:41:30 2017

Panel 2: Weirdly, bungled the scale, here, as Treacherous Girl looks positively humongous next to poor Emp.

Tue Jul 4 00:42:35 2017

Not a fan of the super-long word-balloon tail in panel 1—then again, in terms of lettering, I'm not a fan of using long balloon tails in general.

Tue Jul 4 14:41:35 2017

Not a fan of the super-long word-balloon tail in panel 1—then again, in terms of lettering, I'm not a fan of using long balloon tails in general.

Wed Jul 5 00:41:29 2017

Panel 5: Say, what's that cryptic label on the back of the Anonymous Goon in the background? Keep “A.R.R.” in mind for future reference, folks!

Thu Jul 6 00:42:48 2017

Behold, yet another example of Emp drooling in her sleep, as noted prominently in the previous story (“Chlorosexuality”).

Fri Jul 7 00:41:40 2017

Panel 5: Hey, don't you HATE when this happens? SPROIIINGG!

Mon Jul 10 00:41:26 2017

Panel 1: Not sure if the “eyeball gag,” here, was a pun on the more familiar term “ball gag” from BDSM circles—or, I suppose, a certain PULP FICTION scene, though the actual term wasn't used in the film.

Tue Jul 11 00:41:31 2017

Panel 3: “Kindefaçade” is an amusing promotional neologism, I gotta say.

Wed Jul 12 00:41:29 2017

Panels 3-4: Worry not, readers, you'll soon get a better view of the goofball uniforms worn by these fellas.

Thu Jul 13 00:42:00 2017

Panels 4-5: Sudden super-long Emp hair alert!

Fri Jul 14 00:41:35 2017

Panel 1: The actual tango musical notation continues, as opposed to my usual practice of slapping in the same two or three musical notes over and over again. Um, yay?

Mon Jul 17 00:41:13 2017

The tango musical notation—referenced from actual sheet music for a tango, for once—continues! Yay?

Tue Jul 18 00:41:27 2017

Panel 1: Another super-long Emp hair alert, folks!

Wed Jul 19 00:41:29 2017

Behold, a startling three (3) subsequent full-figure shots in panels 1 through 3! Will wonders ever cease?

Thu Jul 20 00:42:51 2017

Panel 4: Yeahp, return of the ol' chloroform-soaked rag—or, as I've noted before, the narratively convenient fictional trope of chloroform, which has little to do with the real-world drug.

Fri Jul 21 00:41:29 2017

Panel 1: For some reason, the indication of eyelashes on the A.R.R. mask—presumably as a reference to Johnny Depp's makeup in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN—never fails to crack me up.

Mon Jul 24 00:41:23 2017

Panel 2: Note the use of the very rare sound FX “BOMF,” which I'm just now noticing is only one vowel removed from the trademark “BAMF” of the X-MEN's Nightcrawler.

Tue Jul 25 00:41:26 2017

Panel 1: Just now noticed the ARR dude behind Emp clearly keeping the camera trained on her “toothsome rump” (per the Caged Demonwolf). Priorities, folks!

Wed Jul 26 00:42:57 2017

Panel 3: Not really sure whether or not Emp is making up this stat about 13% of supervills being women.

Thu Jul 27 00:41:22 2017

Last panel: Behold, the dueling cartoony and—ahem—“unrealistic” flourishes of spraying sweatdrops and visible blushing on a mask's surface! Suck it, supposed realism!

Fri Jul 28 00:41:13 2017

Panel 4: Not a fan of that third word balloon at the bottom of the panel, with its tail awkwardly going right into Emp's open mouth. A balloon too far!

Mon Jul 31 00:41:49 2017

Panel 2: Yikes, the caved-in mask on the background ARR! goon looks like it would hurt like the dickens. Ouch!

Tue Aug 1 00:41:58 2017

Panel 1: In case anyone cares, the treacherous “Maura” from the beginning of this story almost certainly got her butt kicked in this montage of A.R.R. demos gone disastrously wrong.

Wed Aug 2 00:42:00 2017

Panel 1: Note the “EXTREEEEME” riff of the bondage exoskeleton being labeled as a “STRAIGHT-JAKKIT.”

Thu Aug 3 00:42:57 2017

One of the more puzzling bits about Emp's Sexy Librarian cosplay is that it suddenly gives her relatively short bangs, which she of course does not actually have. Whoops!

Fri Aug 4 00:41:34 2017

Yeahp, had to buy EMPOWERED vol.3 on Comixology and start using screencaps of this heavily tinkered-with story's pages. Ughh.

Mon Aug 7 00:41:27 2017

Panel 4: I do rather like the term “tale-telling titangoat,” here. Have to remember to use “titangoat” again sometime.

Tue Aug 8 00:52:46 2017

Panel 4: Not fond of Emp's highly stylized lower leg, but do like the just as stylized highlights on the shiny black bands at the tops of her stockings.

Wed Aug 9 00:41:37 2017

Rare—but not unprecedented—use of thought balloons in panels 3 and 4.

Thu Aug 10 00:41:20 2017

Panel 2: Turns out that drawing the numbers—Roman numerals or otherwise—on a frickin' clock face is a surprisingly difficult and frustrating challenge. Ughh.

Fri Aug 11 00:41:16 2017

Panel 2: Rare use of not only a thought balloon, here, but also a much, much rarer example of the balloon's text oriented to match a slanting gutter.

Mon Aug 14 00:41:25 2017

Panel 4: Yeahp, the narrating Caged Demonwolf is bugged by the oft-used but slightly puzzling phrase “without warning,” which is a tad odd when you (over)think about it.

Tue Aug 15 00:41:30 2017

Behold, what I was taught to refer to as the “vignette style” of comic page, in which no panel borders are used, but the artist tries to keep a series of overlapping illustrations reading in a specific order. Wheeee!

Wed Aug 16 00:41:34 2017

Panel 2: Ah, a reference to a fairly ancient Bill Cosby Jell-O® ad campaign tagline dating back to the 80s and 90s, a callback which has not aged gracefully in several different ways. Note, BTW, that I left the hyphen out of “Jell-O®” on the actual page.

Thu Aug 17 00:41:30 2017

Yeahp, the same “progressive zoom-in” shot of the Demonwolf and his coffee-table kingdom from 9 pages earlier, but with a new set of dialogue added. As I said, expect to see this page many, many times in the future.

Fri Aug 18 00:41:26 2017

Panel 2: Bit of Torso Glitch wasp-waistedness to Emp, here, though I do like the artistic touch of not completing the line of her shoulder, instead having the deltoid outline fade into the open space of her neck. A small detail, but what the heck.

Mon Aug 21 00:43:04 2017

Panel 2: Another stylistic art flourish on my part, as Sexy Librarian Lingerie Emp's braid is depicted here as rather longer than it actually should be. Heaven forfend that Emp's hair should ever grow long enough to obscure her “toothsome rump,” per the Caged Demonwolf.

Tue Aug 22 00:41:47 2017

Still amuses me that this story's hairstyle for Sexy Librarian Emp features inexplicably short bangs, which our long-haired heroine quite notably does not possess. (Note that the original, EMPOWERED v.2 incarnation of the Librarian Sexy did not feature this stylistic flourish.)

Wed Aug 23 00:40:41 2017

Panel 3: Gotta say, the phrases “eyegreened with envy” and “unbridled lust burning in your feminine cauldron” still amuse me. Per Craig Ferguson, “I made myself laugh, and that's half the battle.”

Thu Aug 24 00:41:34 2017

Panel 4: For some reason, the open gap of the neckhole in Emp's animated supersuit creeps me the heck out.

Fri Aug 25 00:42:22 2017

Panel 4: Ah, the grim fate of Emp's poor suit, doomed to listen to the same Caged Demonwolf narration a second time.

Mon Aug 28 00:43:23 2017

Drawing revolvers? The absolute worst, compared to relatively easy-peasy, boxy semiautomatic pistols.

Tue Aug 29 00:43:19 2017

Huzzah! Thugboy with short hair! Huzzah, I say!

Wed Aug 30 00:41:22 2017

Panel 3: “ Art cheat” alert, as I'm fairly sure I traced that shot of the M82 Barrett from a photo. Just kidding about the “cheat” part, though; gotta roll with whatever works to get that g-d page done, folks.

Thu Aug 31 00:42:08 2017

Wonky perspective on panel 1—the burst-obscured ground line is a bit off—but screw it. Go in peace, 2007-Era Me.

Fri Sep 1 00:41:27 2017

Panel 1: Nice up-angled profile shot of Thugboy, 2007-Era Me!

Mon Sep 4 00:41:44 2017

Panel 1: In theory, they're inside a large van of some sort, but DAMN that interior seems sprawling and echo-y. The gap between seats seems so large that the drawing might be Hummer-based, as I drew a fair number of such vehicles for earlier projects.

Tue Sep 5 00:41:36 2017

Bunch of sound FX on this page that are, I suspect, largely Frank Miller-derived—the “DD” and “OKK” FX, at least.

Wed Sep 6 00:41:32 2017

Panel 1: Repeated that “inside the SUV” shot from two pages before, but with a wonkier shot of Thugboy. Also, pretty sure this IS meant to be the inside of a Hummer, if not an actual HumVee.

Thu Sep 7 00:41:23 2017

Nope, I haven't the slightest idea what the “W” on this fallen superhuman's cape and helmet stands for—or stood for, past tense.

Fri Sep 8 00:42:35 2017

Panel 1: In retrospect, Young(er) Thugboy would've been likely to wear better eye protection in combat than those mirrorshades, but I erred on the side on visual continuity between panels 1 and 2.

Mon Sep 11 00:41:28 2017

Panel 2: Nice close-up of ol' Will Pete, here, which proved to be a bit of a turning point in how I depicted him.

Tue Sep 12 00:43:13 2017

Panel 5: Ol' Willy Pete's being a tad disingenuous, here, as I sincerely doubt he would actually be very gentle at all.

Wed Sep 13 00:46:46 2017

Yeahp, it's supervillain Icy Mike's cryogun from a few pages back. Surprise, Willy Pete!

Thu Sep 14 00:53:42 2017

Not sure exactly why, but I really love this page, for some reason.

Fri Sep 15 00:43:41 2017

Panel 2: Yeahp, traced off the previous page's panel for this Willy Pete close-up.

Mon Sep 18 00:41:37 2017

Panel 8: Yeahp, that's Thugboy's kinda-buddy Frank—he did try to shoot Thugboy in the face, after all—from EMPOWERED vol. 1 speaking.

Tue Sep 19 00:41:42 2017

Panel 1: Like the direct if cartoony riff off the “word balloon with hearts” pointing to Thugboy's chest.

Wed Sep 20 00:41:36 2017

Behold, another appearance of disheveled-during-coitus Emp, who we've not seen in a while! Huzzah!

Thu Sep 21 00:41:54 2017

One of the funnier bits about this superchica's costume is that the painted-on cat's eyes on her chest wind up looking kinda like an owl, though that might not be clear as yet in this shot.

Fri Sep 22 00:41:36 2017

Panel 2: What's the story with the goons in the bakground, I wonder? They're marginally more interesting than the (usually beardless) “thuggy wallpaper” I scribble in the BGs of my supervillain or garden-variety criminal scenes.

Mon Sep 25 00:41:58 2017

Panel 1: Ah, a touch of the ol' Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch in this shot of Ocelotina, given her snakelike torso.

Tue Sep 26 00:42:10 2017

Panel 5: Uh oh. The tragically anachronistic CRT display of Emp's PC lurks at panel right. Oops!

Wed Sep 27 00:41:55 2017

Panel 5: Note the dark, swirly background haloing the scowling Emp, which is a mildly expressionistic visual riff I picked up decades ago from manga.

Thu Sep 28 00:41:50 2017

Okay, fine, argably Emp should've said "SOME guys like to look at tied-up girls".

Fri Sep 29 00:41:48 2017

Volume 3 Page 138

Mon Oct 2 00:41:54 2017

Anomalously super-long Emp hair alert in panel 6!

Tue Oct 3 00:43:33 2017

Hrmm. Every now and then, Ocelotina's cat ears look more like they're supposed to be fox ears, I must admit. Hrmm.

Wed Oct 4 00:44:58 2017

Panel 1's Stretch-Armstrong-style A.R.R.! restraint gear does crack me up, gotta say.

Thu Oct 5 00:43:38 2017

Panel 4: Well, I guess the idea of Ocelotina “making bank” from DVD sales is a concept that's not aged terribly gracefully during the intervening decade.

Fri Oct 6 00:41:43 2017

Unusually hirsute blonde eyebrows on this shot of Emp, gotta say. Stylistic flourish ahoy!

Mon Oct 9 00:45:34 2017

Note the STREETFIGHTER-esque “VS” up on the panel 1 “big board” comparing the bodies of Ocelotina and Emp.

Tue Oct 10 00:47:33 2017

“IT'S A TRAP!” Excessive Trap(ezoid Muscle) Alert on Thugboy in panels 2 and 5. Then again, not like I was doing much (or ANY) life drawing or anatomy study back then.

Wed Oct 11 00:50:17 2017

“ITS A TRAP!” S'more excessive trap mass on ol' Major Havoc on this page, as with Thugboy on the previous page; a stylistic flourish I'm no longer fond of, especially after spending most of this year struggling to draw muscular dudes from photoreference.

Thu Oct 12 00:53:10 2017

Panel 1: Shortcut alert! Copy-pasted an earlier panel here, but with different dialogue (that didn't quite fit the existing balloon, alas).

Fri Oct 13 00:44:45 2017

Gotta say, the “sexy cosplay” pics of dWARf! at lower right are probably my favorites from this hilarious page.

Mon Oct 16 02:44:42 2017

Overly Long Hair Alert on Emp in Panel 1! Heaven forfend that her hair ever grow long enough to potentially obscure her “toothsome rump,” per the Caged Demonwolf.

Tue Oct 17 00:48:40 2017

Panels 2 and 3: I do rather like Emp's appended thought balloon of “dumbass” each time, here.

Wed Oct 18 00:48:00 2017

Panel 1: Breaking out the fun manga trope of the “crossed popping veins” visible in Emp's hair, here. For some reason, putting that riff in a character's hair—rather than on, say, an exposed forehead—amuses me to no end.

Thu Oct 19 00:49:01 2017

Hope y'all are down for a strong dose of Metatextual Emp, as Emp's desperate address to the reader goes on for a few more pages.

Fri Oct 20 00:44:55 2017

Note that I probably could've moved the Emp's word balloons and images upward a bit more without impinging on the title text, so we could get a better view of her AND the comics she's holding up.

Mon Oct 23 00:42:36 2017

Not fond of 2007-ish Me's choice to leave off Emp's shoulders in this shot. Oops!

Tue Oct 24 00:44:07 2017

Panel 3: Based the park bench, here, on real-life reference, but the curving shape kinda got away from me when I tried to render it in the this panel. Oh, well.

Wed Oct 25 00:42:37 2017

Panel 2: Still having trouble drawing the lower curve of that park bench correctly, alas.

Thu Oct 26 00:43:24 2017

Panel 4: Here, we bid adieu to Ninjette's ill-starred flip-phone. (In fact, I'm not sure if we ever see her with another phone after this.)

Fri Oct 27 00:41:40 2017

Panel 2: Random shuriken types courtesy of a blurry photo from an old Masaaki Hatsumi book on ninjutsu.

Mon Oct 30 00:43:00 2017

Panel 2: Ouch! Sorry 'bout that, 'Jette. (Alas, much worse is in store for her later in this story.)

Tue Oct 31 00:41:37 2017

Panel 1: With this page, unlike the previous two, I did choose to depict flung shuriken as spinning projectiles. Can't say that I entirely liked the results, though.

Wed Nov 1 00:41:29 2017

Panel 2: Weirdly important shot of the kitchen in Emp's apartment, as this was one of the clearer views we ever see of it, given my deliberate avoidance of proper establishing shots at this point in EMPOWERED.

Thu Nov 2 00:41:51 2017

Panel 1: Nice shot of Ninjette in panel 1, but I'm rather less fond of her profile shot in panel 5, including that cartoony but oddly obstrusive “sweat drop” on her cheek.

Fri Nov 3 00:41:41 2017

Enjoy a rare use of thought balloons in panels 2 through 4, folks!

Mon Nov 6 00:42:12 2017

Panel 1: My guess is that the big ol' ninja's Hoodie of Holding concealed that katana and the chain being carried by the foreground ninja, as well as the arsenal of shuriken seen earlier.

Tue Nov 7 00:41:24 2017

A bit tough to convey that the six times that Ninjette stabs this dude with the bō (stick) shuriken occur in roughly two seconds

Wed Nov 8 00:41:41 2017

Panel 2: Gotta say that I do quite like this shot of Ninjette, as opposed to the subsequent shot in panel 3, which I do NOT care for. (As I said recently, drawing comics can be tough, folks.)

Thu Nov 9 00:41:24 2017

Panel 1: Whoops, I'd forgotten about the icky detail of blood dripping from this ninja's shuriken-stabbed genitalia…

Fri Nov 10 00:41:23 2017

Panel 2: For some reason, I really like the wee “?” by Emp's head as she woozily responds to Ninjette's first question.

Mon Nov 13 00:41:28 2017

Panel 4: Aaaaand the Jogging Ninja's leg is too short. Had to keep his g-d foot inside the panel, though, which clearly led to tragedy. Oh, well.

Tue Nov 14 00:41:33 2017

Panel 3: Ouch! Injury to eye motif!

Wed Nov 15 00:41:32 2017

Panel 3: I say again: Ouch!

Thu Nov 16 00:41:43 2017

Panel 3: “GCHOK” is a great sound FX that my late friend Toren Smith coined for his English translation of Hiroaki Samura's fine manga BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL.

Fri Nov 17 00:41:34 2017

Panel 5: Super-long hair alert for Ninjette, either as a stylistic flourish or to cover up some wonkiness on her figure drawing. (Honestly not sure which is the case; maybe both.)

Mon Nov 20 00:41:48 2017

Panel 1: Super-long-hair alert on Ninjette's ponytail!

Tue Nov 21 00:41:30 2017

Panel 1: Oh, how I do love this urban park setting as a backdrop for my pages. Easy-peasy, yet not obviously and conspicuously so, I feel.

Wed Nov 22 00:43:32 2017

Panel 3: Ouch! Watch out for that tree, Dogwalking Ninja! (Too late.)

Thu Nov 23 00:41:29 2017

Panel 3: And the notably generic leaves fall from the tree! For some reason, I mainly draw beech-style leaves on my generic trees, despite never having checking if they're native to the West Coast.

Fri Nov 24 00:41:37 2017

Panel 1: Gotta say, that particular Noh mask was more challenging to draw than the others, for some reason.

Mon Nov 27 00:41:18 2017

Panel 1: Not entirely thrilled about putting the French “l'accent aigu” mark over the E in MOE, but I thought this might clarify the pronunciation for folks not familiar with the Japanese term.

Tue Nov 28 00:41:13 2017

Panel 1: “Foolishiest”? Not a fan of such a half-assed neologism. Try harder, 2007-ish Me.

Wed Nov 29 00:41:25 2017

Panel 4: TBH, the technically incorrect apostrophe placement of “S'CALLED” probably reads more smoothly than the version I used here.

Thu Nov 30 00:41:23 2017

Don't care for the shots of Ninjette on this page. NOT so well-done, 2007-ish Me.

Fri Dec 1 00:41:39 2017

Panel 1: Yeahp, the Dogwalking Ninja is srsly dedicated to keeping her worse-for-wear mask in place, as the chains around her head indicate.

Mon Dec 4 00:41:21 2017

Panel 3: Yikes, that was close! But what—or WHO—might Dogwalker Ninja be hearing?

Tue Dec 5 00:41:32 2017

Not sure what the hell those leaves are supposed to be, but I'm pretty sure they are in fact photoreferenced. Pretty certain they're not maple leaves, though the clusters of smaller leaves do rather look like one.

Wed Dec 6 00:42:59 2017

Panel 3: Sudden, excessively long hair alert on Emp, here.

Thu Dec 7 00:41:40 2017

Panel 3: Big Pouty Lips ahoy! Enjoy 'em while they last, folks!

Fri Dec 8 00:41:26 2017

Gotta say, the streaming intestines from the blown-apart shinobi do add a certain, fairly repulsive frisson to the shot…

Mon Dec 11 00:41:20 2017

Panel 1: Clearly, these sad bastards failed their Saving Throw vs. VORPP.

Tue Dec 12 00:41:36 2017

Panel 4: Uh oh!

Wed Dec 13 00:41:42 2017

Panel 2: Not a fan of just barely showing the shooter's hand in this shot. Either clip it out entirely, I say, or do a classic GUNSMITH CATS shot and show the whole hand along with the pistol.

Thu Dec 14 00:41:32 2017

Panel 1: Bit of a climax-of-TAXI-DRIVER feel to the through-the-hand shooting, though I don't think this is a deliberate reference.

Fri Dec 15 00:41:28 2017

Panel 1: Not really sure which fallen Ayakami Thugboy is shooting, here. He might just be pumping a few more rounds of insurance into the ones he's already shot.

Mon Dec 18 00:41:28 2017

Behold, a “tactical reload” on Thugboy's part. That is, he's switching out a partially—but not fully—expended magazine for a fresh one, just in case of further ninja encounters.

Tue Dec 19 00:41:42 2017

Not a fan of the cartoonishly narrow-shouldered and/or big-headed Emp and Ninjette on these pages, which is a stylistic flourish that I longer longer favor.

Wed Dec 20 00:42:59 2017

Good thing for Emp that the shuriken adorning Ninjette's short shorts are ornamental and, presumably, dull-edged, right?

Thu Dec 21 00:41:39 2017

Yeahp, Glorpp/Protean (antlered, at lower right) is, technically, always running around nekkid.

Fri Dec 22 00:42:04 2017

Overly Long Braid on Sexy Librarian Emp, here. Heaven forfend that her hair would ever grow long enough to obscure her “toothsome rump,” per the Blazing-Eyed Devilgoat.

Mon Dec 25 00:41:32 2017

I normally depict Thugboy with proper gun safety, which in this case would mean keeping his finger out of the g-d trigger guard. Made an exception here, I think, because of the James Bond-ish nature of the image, and ol' JB is rarely shown with scrupulous gun safety in mind.

Tue Dec 26 00:42:56 2017

Akk! Forgot to write any hover text for this page ahead of time, and have only scant minutes before having to post this sucker. Worse yet, I'm bloated and logy from Christmas meal(s), and hence lack the initiative to write anything clever or insightful for this part of the webcomic; a little stream of consciousness will have to do. Okay?

Wed Dec 27 00:43:34 2017

As I've said many times recently, not a fan of the cartoonishly narrow-shouldered Emp seen in the metatextual intro pages. Like this Emp's hair, though. Plus, enjoy “Big Pouty Lips” Emp, who in the future will no longer sport such big pouty lippiness.

Thu Dec 28 00:41:40 2017

Panel 1: I do NOT care for the long tail on Emp's word balloon, which I occasionally would do with a balloon placed uncomfortably far from the speaking character. Then again, if I drew a short tail here, so what? Would the reader think the broken windshield was speaking, instead?

Fri Dec 29 00:41:28 2017

Yeahp, as you might guess, this “Dark Horse Comics on MySpace(!)” story was meant to serve as an introduction to EMPOWERED for new readers.

Mon Jan 1 00:41:51 2018

Panels 3-5: Very pleased by the idiosyncratic “vertical pink streaming” background on these panels. A fun choice by colorists Guru eFX!

Tue Jan 2 00:41:37 2018

Panel 4: Alas, circa 2008 or so, the once-popular exclamation “Boo ya!” had fallen out of societal favor. (By that time, people were even forgetting about the hip-hop majesty of the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., sad to say.)

Wed Jan 3 00:41:46 2018

I do rather like the appropriately warm color scheme that Guru eFX color artists Lee Duhig and/or Joe Weltjens used for this scene. Nice!

Thu Jan 4 00:41:30 2018

Panel 1: Note that Emp is responsibly wearing her seatbelt, here; a few pages from now, this becomes a minor plot point.

Fri Jan 5 00:42:18 2018

Panel 2: Not a stunningly accurate depiction of what a deploying airbag would look like, but just between the two of us, I really didn't care. (And still don't.)

Mon Jan 8 00:41:40 2018

Panel 4: Yeahp, seems a tad unlikely that Emp would wind up gagged by a seat belt in such a manner, no matter how chaotic the Hummer's tumbling. (Then again, I'm not exactly shooting for absolute realism, here, either.)

Tue Jan 9 00:41:43 2018

A pretty decent group shot, overall. Decently done, 2008(?)-ish Me!

Wed Jan 10 00:43:06 2018

Panel 2: Much like the “NINJETTE” printed across the seat of her costume’s shorts, note that wearing a top printed with the Japanese character “nin” is an extraordinarily unstealthy and “un-ninja” thing to do—which, of course, is exactly why Kozue does it.

Thu Jan 11 00:41:47 2018

Panel 3: Okay, this getting a bit weird. Also, skeevy.

Fri Jan 12 00:41:33 2018

Panel 6: “…and then I woke up!”

Mon Jan 15 00:41:43 2018

Panel 1: Gasp! Outrageous nurse outfits ahoy! (Never fear, the male nurses’ uniforms are reasonably outrageous as well.)

Tue Jan 16 00:43:21 2018

Panel 2: I do rather like the shadow off the doctor’s headwear, indicating that his head really is brushing the ceiling.

Wed Jan 17 00:43:01 2018

Panel 1: Note that, as perhaps excessively “nice” and polite as she is, Emp only whispers her not-that-severe criticism of Dr. Big McLarge Huge.

Thu Jan 18 00:41:33 2018

Panel 4: Not entirely sure about this, but my choice of the MST3K callback name “Big McLarge Huge” for a doctor might have been, in turn, an oblique reference to the “McDreamy” bit from GREY’S ANATOMY. Maybe? (The “McWhatever” meme was damn near inescapable circa 2008, as I recall.)

Fri Jan 19 00:43:21 2018

Panel 1: Gotta admit, I’d forgotten that the Übernurse’s outrageous outfits feature a red cross on the seats of their miniskirts. (Never fear, any hackle-raised readers out there, as we’ll soon see that goofily provocative nurse uniforms cut across gender lines in the Suprahuman Treatment Wing.)

Mon Jan 22 00:41:36 2018

Panel 2: I’m amused that Nurse Foxtrot may, in fact, be “out-cutesying” Emp’s own level of verbal affectation with this line.

Tue Jan 23 00:41:35 2018

Panel 1: Enjoy a fairly rare shot of the interior of Emp’s apartment from this camera angle—or distance, more to the point.

Wed Jan 24 00:50:46 2018

Enjoy a rare “2x2” 4-panel grid, which is a page layout I only rarely use in this series.

Thu Jan 25 00:43:20 2018

Panel 2: As I’ve mentioned before, the pattern of lights on the Demonwolf’s cage really isn’t meant to form a “face,” but occasionally it still does, regardless of my intent. Pareidolia ahoy!

Fri Jan 26 00:41:43 2018

Panel 2: Belatedly noticed that, yeahp, Emp’s supersuit is fully intact in this sequence. Yay?

Mon Jan 29 00:41:50 2018

Nice shot of a blushing Ninjette in panel 3, gotta say.

Tue Jan 30 00:41:34 2018

Panel 2: Shocking, really, that Ninjette would elect to slut-shame a (male) nurse so callously.

Wed Jan 31 00:41:49 2018

Keep panel 4’s line from the male nurse in mind, as it pays off roughly 126 pages later in this volume.

Thu Feb 1 00:43:07 2018

Enjoy what is likely one of our first looks at one of the Empverse's mysterious alien species. (Or races, or types, or phyla, or whatever the hell not entirely appropriate term you prefer.)

Fri Feb 2 00:41:46 2018

anel 3: Well, gosh, I’d plumb forgotten that this dude’s medical supranym was “Sgt. Surgery.”

Mon Feb 5 00:41:45 2018

Panel 2: The fact that this alien’s analogue for a liver is hissing at Emp amuses me to no end.

Tue Feb 6 00:41:56 2018

Panel 4: Potential plot point ahoy! (I did say “potential,” though, so this idle suggestion shouldn’t technically count as a SPOILER, right?)

Wed Feb 7 00:41:44 2018

Panel 3: A particularly winsome shot of Ninjette, here. Nicely done, 2008-ish Me!

Thu Feb 8 00:41:57 2018

Panel 1: Enjoy the brief return of Big Pouty Lips Emp, before said lips shrink back down in the succeeding panel.

Fri Feb 9 00:42:16 2018

Panel 1: Okay, gotta admit that references to THE L-WORD and GIRLS GONE WILD have not aged terribly gracefully during the intervening decade.

Mon Feb 12 00:41:39 2018

Panel 1: Gotta say, the word “etiolated” is arguably one of the Caged Demonwolf’s deepest vocabulary pulls.

Tue Feb 13 00:41:53 2018

Panel 3: Slightly cartoony “bigger head” proportions on Emp in this shot, as a stylistic flourish I used to employ at whim in years past.

Wed Feb 14 00:41:40 2018

Panel 2: A nice vintage pic of Big, Pouty Lips Emp here, gotta say.

Thu Feb 15 00:41:46 2018

Panel 5: Nice profile shot of Emp. Well done, Decade-Ago Me!

Fri Feb 16 00:41:38 2018

Re: this page: I wasn’t kidding about the slogan at the top of the page—“A sexy superhero comedy, except when it isn’t”—though this scene still falls short of future heights of “Big Emo.”

Mon Feb 19 00:41:30 2018

Not sure why the heck I never think to put a comforter or the like on Emp’s bed, which would be notably more visually interesting than the generically plain and visually bland sheets I usually draw.

Tue Feb 20 00:42:25 2018

Decade-Ago Me drew some decent facial expressions on this page, gotta say.

Wed Feb 21 00:41:43 2018

Panel 6: Once again, I drew a character’s mouth too close to the bottom of the page and, for not the first or even the fiftieth time, lips got clipped by the page trim. Oh, well.

Thu Feb 22 00:41:35 2018

Panel 2: I find myself oddly amused by the fact that I repeated the full caption (NON-VOCALIZED “READ MY LIPS” INTRA-COUPLE STEALTH COMMUNICATION MODE) each time this riff reappeared throughout the sequence.

Fri Feb 23 00:41:48 2018

Panel 1: Arguably most remarkable about this imaginary scenario is the fact that Mellow Mr. Monkey seems to be an eager participant in the festivities.

Mon Feb 26 00:41:51 2018

The cartoony “noseless” look of Emp and Ninjette, here, is a rare stylistic flourish for me. Kinda works, though, IMHO.

Tue Feb 27 00:41:44 2018

Panel 4: Props to Decade-Ago Me for “MRRRRUHH,” which I do still think is a pretty decent sound FX approximating an elephant’s trumpeting.

Wed Feb 28 00:41:50 2018

Panel 1: An unanswered question I’d not previously thought of: Does Emp’s supersuit actually have a distinctive smell of any sort? Or taste, for that matter? (I briefly recall thinking of writing a line for Thugboy that licking the hypermembrane’s surface feels like a milder version of putting one’s tongue on a 9-volt battery’s contacts; tingliness, ahoy!)

Thu Mar 1 00:44:55 2018

Panel 4: Okay, I admit that the name emblazoned on the little man’s canoe was a tad over the top, added seemingly just in case a reader—ANY reader—hadn’t picked up on the symbolism.

Fri Mar 2 00:41:46 2018

Slightly unusual smile on Emp, here. Pouty, though not quite full-on Big Pouty “Lippiness.”

Mon Mar 5 00:41:32 2018

Panel 4: Long-term plot point ahoy! PLOT POINT AHOY!

Tue Mar 6 00:41:53 2018

Panels 1 and 3: Note the rather more detailed than usual approach to rendering Emp’s supersuit-clad hands.

Wed Mar 7 00:41:37 2018

Panel 1: Long-term plot point ahoy! PLOT POINT AHOY!

Thu Mar 8 00:41:44 2018

Panel 1: The crow-themed fella’s war-cry of “CAWW! CAWW!” does still crack me up a fair bit, a decade later.

Fri Mar 9 00:41:47 2018

Panel 1: So many times have I, too, felt the urge to remonstrate, “No need to CAW at me…!”

Mon Mar 12 00:41:30 2018

Panel 2: Okay, must admit that I’m not 100% sure how the logistics of a card game with one player stationed 26 feet away would work.

Tue Mar 13 00:41:35 2018

Panel 3: Future plot point! FUTURE PLOT POINT AHOY! (Or is this too SPOILER-Y for me to flag?)

Wed Mar 14 00:41:39 2018

Oopsie: Looks like the number of legs on that office chair’s base seems to switch between 4 (in panel 3) and 5 (in panel 6), though maybe the fifth leg is out of sight in panel 3. (Maybe.)

Thu Mar 15 00:41:37 2018

Panel 2: Alas, we will never get to see what the heck Laserbrain’s powers would have looked like. Sorry ’bout that, LB.

Fri Mar 16 00:41:32 2018

Panel 2: This is a fairly modest example, but I’d best warn the more sensitive readers out there that frequent “panty shots” are part and parcel of the goddamn Maidman experience.

Mon Mar 19 00:41:30 2018

Panel 3: Another sudden appearance of super-long hair on Emp in this shot. Woo hoo!

Tue Mar 20 00:41:33 2018

Panel 5: An exceedingly picayune bit of narrative nitpickery, here, but the tail on the off-panel goon’s word balloon should’ve been pointing up and to the right, not downward. (Not a big deal, but still.)

Wed Mar 21 00:47:55 2018

Panel 2: Insert godawful broom-related pun here, as the g-d Maidman didn't bother to let fly with a quip.

Thu Mar 22 00:41:39 2018

Panel 2: Gotta say, one of my favorite things about the g-d Maidman’s character design is his exceptionally “flippy" bangs, which amuse me to no end.

Fri Mar 23 00:41:41 2018

Panel 6: Nope, Emp had definitely NOT heard about this news.

Mon Mar 26 00:41:37 2018

Panel 2: I do rather like the idea that “s***ting” Emp would supposedly be against the Maidman’s code.

Tue Mar 27 00:41:37 2018

This title-page illo represents a fairly obscure reference, but to avoid SPOILERS, I won’t address said reference until later on in the story. (I implore EMPOWERED print readers to kindly hold off on the SPOILERS about this episode, by the way.)

Wed Mar 28 00:41:48 2018

Panel 3: The name and origin of the bad guy at left is surprisingly grotesque, to the point I’m thinking of not telling y’all what gross-out incident of yesteryear inspired him. (Or her.) Well, we’ll find out tomorrow, folks!

Thu Mar 29 00:41:30 2018

Not fond of my choice to flop the direction that the three characters are facing in panels 1 through 3. Pretty sure that I did so to fit all of the characters into panel 2, but this still strikes me as an awkward decision; oh, well.

Fri Mar 30 02:41:36 2018

Uh oh!

Mon Apr 2 00:41:37 2018

Panel 1: Whoops! “What we have here is a failure to communicate,” if you will.

Tue Apr 3 00:41:32 2018

Panel 3: Ouch.

Wed Apr 4 00:42:58 2018

Panel 2: Ouch, again.

Thu Apr 5 00:41:33 2018

Panel 1: Ouch, a third time.

Fri Apr 6 00:41:41 2018

A rare page consisting entirely of shots from the doomed Katastrophe’s POV, which is definitely NOT the ideal perspective one would care to experience. Adios, hapless supervillains.

Mon Apr 9 00:41:30 2018

For the umpteenth time, I swear that the configuration of the lights on the carapace of the Caged Demonwolf’s alien cage wasn’t meant to convey a face, but dang if it doesn’t seem that way, huh? Pareidolia ahoy!

Tue Apr 10 00:41:36 2018

Panel 1: Unprecedented, limb-flailing Mellow Mr. Monkey action shot!

Wed Apr 11 00:41:46 2018

Panel 2: Enjoy another bounty of the black-matted picture frames in the background of Emp’s living room, a riff added to her apartment because my high-contrast-starved artist’s eye requires constant infusion of darker values.

Thu Apr 12 00:41:38 2018

Panel 5: You KNOW Ninjette must be having a rough time of things when that dark, swirly “emo background” appears around her.

Fri Apr 13 00:41:31 2018

Panel 4: This dueling trio of “…” ellipsis word balloons cracks me up, for some reason.

Mon Apr 16 00:41:21 2018

I’d assumed that the oversized pullover that Ninjette’s wearing was one of Emp’s comfier articles of clothing, but a commenter a few days back brought up the idea that this could be Thugboy’s shirt. WHOSE CLOTHES THIS?

Tue Apr 17 00:43:13 2018

Panel 2: Nice close-up shot of Ninjette, here. Decently done, Past Me, even if you should’ve backed off on the tight close-ups for this sequence.

Wed Apr 18 00:42:06 2018

Panel 4: Matters getting a bit tricky, here, as the Caged Demonwolf is presumably addressing the reader directly during this sequence. Then again, he is a cosmic being untrammeled by the fourth-wall limitations that bind lesser beings such as you or me.

Thu Apr 19 00:41:43 2018

Panel 3: Quite fond of the joyful Emp in this shot, even if I’m no longer down with the cartoonishly exaggerated “big head” proportions I used for this stylized image.

Fri Apr 20 00:41:40 2018

I do quite like the choice to go “all speedline” with this page’s backgrounds, as the lines’ randomly shifting directions give the reader the properly frenzied impression of Hurricane Elissa sweeping through the apartment.

Mon Apr 23 00:41:38 2018

Panel 4: Enjoy(?) one last cartoonishly stylized “noseless Emp” image, folks!

Tue Apr 24 00:41:33 2018

Yikes! Tough to come up with much to say about these Metatextual Emp title pages, let alone work up an additional somethin’ somethin’ for the hovertext. Hope this is good enough, folks!

Wed Apr 25 00:41:38 2018

Panel 3: Quite the shot of Emp, here. Provocative!

Thu Apr 26 00:41:46 2018

Panel 1: Quite the sideburns on ol’ Frank, here.

Fri Apr 27 00:41:26 2018

Panel 3: I rather like the goofy eyes on the partially visible Emp face at lower right.

Mon Apr 30 00:41:42 2018

Panel 3: I REALLY didn’t want to draw more distant shots of the Chinese restaurant’s interior, as this panel’s unusual and possibly desperate camera angle hints.

Tue May 1 00:41:34 2018

I definitely should’ve set this story in an environment that I actually wanted to draw (whatever THAT might be), as the reliance on close-up shots clearly shows that I did NOT care to depict this restaurant’s interior.

Wed May 2 00:41:29 2018

Another title-page image for which I can’t think of much in the way of “hover text,” unfortunately. Then again, I’m not sure how many readers even bother reading this stuff, or are even aware that it’s here in the first place.

Thu May 3 00:41:43 2018

Panel 4: Come to think of it, couldn’t Sistah Spooky use her eldritch powers to keep stray food off her clothing, akin to a “magic bib?” Bit of a lost opportunity, I’m afraid.

Fri May 4 00:41:30 2018

Behold, an early appearance of my still-favorite way to kick off a story: 4-5 slightly cryptic close-up panels on the first page (as seen in yesterday’s post), followed by a big, bold “splash page” or double-page spread.

Mon May 7 00:41:35 2018

Panel 4: Surprisingly difficult to find all that many decent reference photos of the night side of our planet seen from orbit, gotta say. Okay, “difficult” might be a stretch, but I’m still a bit startled by how dramatically day-side pics outnumber night-side images in my online searches.

Tue May 8 00:41:35 2018

Panel 4: Overdialoguing Alert! I do find Mindf**k’s rambling rather amusing, but that’s just too much damn text for one panel.

Wed May 9 00:43:15 2018

Panel 1: I do like the neologism “mindfriends with benefits,” gotta say.

Thu May 10 00:44:26 2018

Panel 1: Alas, I am no longer sure what particular Bad Word is censored in Spooky’s second balloon, but I think you can still grasp the tenor of what she’s saying regardless.

Fri May 11 00:41:38 2018

Panel 3: Ehh, something went wrong with Spooky’s hand in this shot, particularly the back of it. Hey, drawing hands is tough, folks—though not as tough as drawing feet, true.

Mon May 14 00:41:30 2018

Panel 1: Long-term readers will recognize that we again see the night side of the Earth from this vantage point during a key moment late in EMPOWERED vol.5.

Tue May 15 00:41:48 2018

Panel 4: Plot Point ahoy, quite possibly! Or am I just pulling your leg about this? Well, you’ll find out one way or another fairly soon, as we’re now heading into the second half of EMPOWERED vol.4.

Wed May 16 00:41:49 2018

As noted with the previous title page’s “hover text,” I’m glad to hear that folks do indeed read this stuff. In fact, gotta say that I’m definitely tempted to include LITERAL hover text of some sort in the comic itself. Come to think of it, how about an action scene of some sort taking place on or across giant hover text, akin to those title riffs from Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT? Hrmmm.

Thu May 17 00:41:30 2018

Panel 1: In the background, detailed but meaningless techy riffs ahoy! This stuff looks impressively “noodly,” but is a non-stressful (though mildly time-consuming) way to generate a generic superhero environment. Drawing a “real” backdrop would be much more stressful, though that might not take all that much longer to render.

Fri May 18 00:41:33 2018

Panel 4: Say, what’s up with that rope in the corner of the panel? Find out next time, folks!

Mon May 21 00:41:37 2018

Panel 5: Oh, that rascally Spooky!

Tue May 22 00:41:42 2018

Panels 2 and 4: I like the very different approach to cartoony Emp mouths in these two panels, with panel 4 showing a bit of that Yukito Kishiro BATTLE ANGEL ALITA “sucker mouth” flava.

Wed May 23 00:41:30 2018

Panel 3: Interesting to see Decade-Ago Me rolling out the cartoonishly stylized flourish of “big head” figure proportions on Emp, here; nowadays, as I’ve mentioned before, I often unintentionally err in the opposite direction, with Emp’s head appearing too small for the rest of her body.

Thu May 24 00:41:32 2018

Panel 4: Dagnabbit, once again I drew Emp’s mouth too g-d close to the bottom of the page, and it got clipped after the artwork was scanned, as was Manny’s mouth in the previous panel. Sorry about that, Emp.

Fri May 25 00:41:32 2018

njoy(?) a few more examples of the ol’ Big Pouty Lips on Emp, here, even though the artistic trend was ever-so-slowly starting to wane during volumes 4 and 5.

Mon May 28 00:41:29 2018

Panel 6: Those are some serious Big Pouty Lips on gagged Emp in this shot. Yikes!

Tue May 29 00:41:35 2018

Panel 2: As this might be unclear, I should probably clarify that Emp is (unsuccessfully) trying to say “‘Lucky’…?” through a mouthful of cloth.

Wed May 30 00:41:44 2018

Panel 1: Gotta say, I’m weirdly amused by the idea that cartoony “sweat droplets” like the ones around Emp and Manny, here, can actually show up on a video recording.

Thu May 31 00:41:30 2018

Panel 2: Note my beloved but utterly meaningless techy riffs on those screens in the background. What do they mean? Pretty much nothing, other than adding superficially impressive detail to the BG.

Fri Jun 1 00:41:28 2018

Some wonky distortion due to right-hand bias on DWARF’s mask in panels 2 and 3, alas. This stuff creeps into my drawing all the time, but is usually more subtle than this fairly straightforward and easily perceptible “one side of mask higher on cheekbone than the other” blunder.

Mon Jun 4 00:41:29 2018

Plenty of “Big Pouty Lips” Emp on this page, even though I kinda thought the visual riff started fading by this point in the series; ehh, maybe I was thinking of volume 5.

Tue Jun 5 00:41:36 2018

Panel 1: Well, Vista was a more apropos OS reference a decade ago, okay?

Wed Jun 6 00:43:08 2018

Panel 4: Just noticed the “smoldering anger” background riff around Emp’s teammates, here—and also noticed that Decade-Ago-Me’s necessary fudging of those characters’ heights, as getting the heads of towering Rivet, fairly tall Spooky, wee DWARf! and seated Emp into a single shot required considerable use of artistic license.

Thu Jun 7 00:41:54 2018

Who’s the lanky-looking dorky fella? You’ll find out shortly, folks!

Fri Jun 8 00:41:37 2018

Panel 4: Oddly, while dWARf’s walking pose at lower right seems a tad wonky to me, I still kinda like it, regardless.

Mon Jun 11 00:43:12 2018

Panels 3-5: I believe this is the first time that I showed Sistah Spooky’s unique, cloak-swirling approach to teleportation. *FWIPP FWIPP FWIPP*

Tue Jun 12 00:41:47 2018

Plenty of Big Pouty Lips Emp on this page even though, again, I’d SWEAR the stylistic riff was starting to fade away by this point in the series.

Wed Jun 13 00:41:52 2018

Panel 3: While I’m on the subject of lettering, I don’t like that tail on the off-panel Spooky’s word balloon angling down as it does, which kinda implies that Spooky is below her, or that someone of dWARf!’s height is speaking. Should’ve used a curved tail that ends up pointing straight left and off-panel.

Thu Jun 14 00:41:38 2018

Panel 4: In case you’d forgotten, those sound FX at upper right are from giant-scale alien organs being decanted from the vat in the background.

Fri Jun 15 00:41:36 2018

Panels 1 and 2: Behold the inconsistent mystery of Spooky’s mask, folks. Does it fully cover her nose when viewed in profile, or not? Sometimes yea, sometimes nay!

Mon Jun 18 00:42:45 2018

Panel 2: Hey, I actually remembered to draw the chevron thingie of the chest of dWARf!’s costume this time. Yay!

Tue Jun 19 00:41:41 2018

Panel 1: Behold, yet another background consisting of more of my thrillingly meaningless but superficially detailed techy riffs. Wheeee!

Wed Jun 20 00:41:35 2018

Panel 5: For reasons I cannot quite articulate, I find myself entirely too amused by Thugboy, Ninjette, and the Caged Demonwolf all having separate “….” word balloons, rather than a shared one.

Thu Jun 21 00:43:10 2018

Panel 1: As I mentioned yesterday, dig those big, black mattes on the picture frames hanging on the wall, which are another sign of my artistic craving for wide value ranges in my panels. Again, a pity I didn’t think to make the g-d couch dark, which would've added much deeper values to the setting.

Fri Jun 22 00:41:33 2018

Panel 3: As was later clarified in EMPOWERED vol.10, parts of Emp’s city do indeed feature futuristic-looking architecture, as you can (kinda) see with some of the wackier buildings in the distance.

Mon Jun 25 00:41:48 2018

Yeah, not fond of the wee character shots in panels 2 and 3, an approach clearly done to leave room for the barrage of word balloons.

Tue Jun 26 00:41:24 2018

Panel 4: For the bajillionth time, I should note that the pattern of lights on the Caged Demonwolf’s cage was not intentionally drawn to form an old-school emoji of a face. No, really!

Wed Jun 27 00:41:48 2018

Panel 1: Vaguely surprised that I never had the Demonwolf deploy the term “boobless booby” again in reference to Ninjette.

Thu Jun 28 00:41:41 2018

Panel 3: I do rather like the wee sound FX “SLOSHH” appearing by Ninjette’s beer bottle in this otherwise silent panel.

Fri Jun 29 00:41:24 2018

Panel 6: This Demowolf rant might—I emphasize MIGHT—constitute a bit of foreshadowing for a moment later on in the volume. Uh, SPOILER, arguably?

Mon Jul 2 00:41:54 2018

Panel 1: Ehh, gotta say that Thugboy’s hands are fair bit too large in relation to Emp’s toothsome rump.

Tue Jul 3 00:41:46 2018

Panel 3: Once again, the same shot of Emp’s supersuit on the floor that’s already appeared a few times in this story, but traced off and painstakingly redrawn each time with different dialogue. REALLY wish I’d planned ahead and just drawn this panel once, then pasted in different word balloons over it each time it recurred.

Wed Jul 4 00:41:46 2018

Panel 1: Yeahp, that’s a Heckler & Koch logo ballcap being worn by the unnamed comrade, perhaps foreshadowing Thugboy’s future tendency to wear firearm-oriented T-shirts.

Thu Jul 5 00:41:44 2018

Panel 4: Ouch.

Fri Jul 6 00:41:47 2018

Panel 1: Gotta say that I (very) briefly considered using the line “No saving throw!” here, but felt that would’ve confused the issue with Thugboy’s AD&D references—including the “STR: 18 (00)” T-shirt he’s wearing during this scene.

Mon Jul 9 00:41:44 2018

Might Thugboy’s antipathy towards “f***ing capes”—not to be confused with the fact that, well, he just f***ed a cape—wind up as a plot point later in this volume? Mmmmmmmaybe.

Tue Jul 10 00:41:46 2018

Hovertext take two! See, I originally wrote the first paragraph below as this page’s hovertext, but the sentence(s) ran a bit long, so I moved ’em down into the commentary proper. And so, here we are, as I write hovertext about hovertext, which I must admit adds a metatextual quality that’s entirely appropriate to accompany a Meta Emp comic page.

Wed Jul 11 00:41:33 2018

Panel 1: I do quite like the format of the “Question for the Caped” as an introductory riff; have to remember to use that again in future volumes.

Thu Jul 12 00:41:41 2018

Panel 3: Good thing that second word balloon is covering up the real supranym of the character I informally refer to as “Kirby Helmet Chick,” huh?

Fri Jul 13 00:42:06 2018

Panel 3: You’d best believe that the crab fella is photoreferenced. Lord knows what he would’ve wound up looking like if I tried to draw a crab’s underside off the top of my head.

Mon Jul 16 00:41:52 2018

Panel 1: The amusing bit about Green Gharial’s costume, here, is how g-d annoying that protruding headpiece would have to be for the wearer.

Tue Jul 17 00:41:43 2018

Not fond of the neologism “distressed damselicity,” which never recurred elsewhere in the series as I apparently soured on the term almost immediately.

Wed Jul 18 00:42:27 2018

Panel 2: Tremble before the majesty of the rarely seen Were-Giraffe by Night, visible at upper right in the background!

Thu Jul 19 00:41:50 2018

Panels 2 and 3: Note the rare usage of Emp thought balloons in both these panels. Rare indeed!

Fri Jul 20 00:41:40 2018

Panel 4: A question never to be answered: Who’s feeding Captain Katana, in the background of this shot? Having only swords for hands presents obvious logistical difficulties in this department.

Mon Jul 23 00:41:49 2018

Panel 2: Nice floral table setting in the foreground of this shot; well drawn, Decade-Ago Me!

Tue Jul 24 00:41:40 2018

Panel 3: Note that the fella in the background with the “A2Z” logo on his mask becomes a very minor plot point of sorts a few pages from now.

Wed Jul 25 00:41:42 2018

Panel 4: Behold, one of the earliest appearances of Ninjette exclaiming in untranslated Japanese, a riff that would recur with greater frequency later in the series. For those who can’t read hiragana, she’s saying, “nani?” (“What?”)

Thu Jul 26 00:41:37 2018

Panel 4: I leave it to the reader’s imagination as to what, exactly, Femifist’s “fisting powers” might entail.

Fri Jul 27 00:41:48 2018

Panel 3: I do quite like the overlapping “UH, OH” and “OH, **** ME” shared word balloons between The Goddamn Maidman and Emp. A fun dialogue flourish by Past Me!

Mon Jul 30 00:41:52 2018

Panel 3: Apparently, in the EMPOWERED universe, honor is an important thing amidst the hallowed ranks of the SuperWaiters. Good to know!

Tue Jul 31 00:41:53 2018

Panel 4: Ah, yes, yet another appearance of a favorite narrative shortcut of mine, which saves both space on the comic page and effort by the artist. I refer, of course, to the use of evocative sound FX to convey off-panel actions. “SHLORKK,” indeed!

Wed Aug 1 00:41:46 2018

For the record, my favorite “endosymbiotic alien pseudo-organ,” here, is the one that looks like a giant kidney.

Thu Aug 2 00:42:03 2018

Panel 3: Ouch!

Fri Aug 3 00:41:54 2018

Panel 2: Here’s a bit of ultra-obscure minutiae for you: Looks like I forgot to shade in the swirly pattern of gray pencil that’s usually seen inside a Lotus Node’s circular portal. Whoops!

Mon Aug 6 00:42:01 2018

Panel 4: Can’t believe I haven’t used the sound FX “SPLORCHH” since this panel, as I quite like it. (I just used the not dissimilar FX “SPLUTCHH” in EMPOWERED vol. 11, though.)

Tue Aug 7 00:42:21 2018

Panel 1: Mechzacoatl strikes! SHREEEE, indeed!

Wed Aug 8 00:41:42 2018

Panel 1: Aaaaaaand Mechzacoatl gets his metallic butt kicked yet again! Oh, well.

Thu Aug 9 00:41:54 2018

Panel 2: What’s this? Grudging respect for Emp from her teammates? OMG!!!!!!

Fri Aug 10 00:44:07 2018

Panel 1: The overlapping letters in “KLANGG” show a nice way to tightly compress a vertical sound FX; have to keep this in mind for the FX-intensive EMPOWERED vol. 11.

Mon Aug 13 00:42:06 2018

Panel 3: To be honest, seems a bit risky for Emp to have flung the sword that close to Ninjette, but this image made for a nice, vertically compact composition that got the point across clearly.

Tue Aug 14 00:41:49 2018

Panel 5: Big, Pouty Lips Emp ahoy! I think I was a tad premature in claiming that this visual riff started fading out circa this point in the series, as I definitely see more Big Pouty Lips recurring on occasion throughout the rest of the volume. Enjoy?

Wed Aug 15 00:41:46 2018

Panel 2: Needless to say, “SHRIPP” is not one of Emp’s favorite sound FX.

Thu Aug 16 00:41:38 2018

Panel 2: To be honest, Thugboy should probably have been placed on the left side of the panel and not the right, but this arrangement allowed for a clearer view of the multiple images of Ninjette.

Fri Aug 17 00:41:41 2018

Panel 5: Cue the sad trombone after the sudden transition from the stirring panel 4! Ouch, though I suspect few readers will feel terribly solicitous towards the health of the good Major.

Mon Aug 20 00:41:48 2018

Panel 2: To paraphrase SAM AND MAX: FREELANCE POLICE, “Where do you keep those big, razor-edged doilies, Max?” “None of your damn business, Sam!”

Tue Aug 21 00:41:38 2018

Panel 5: Super-long ponytail alert on Ninjette, once again! (Artistic license, folks.)

Wed Aug 22 00:41:54 2018

Panel 4: Ouch! That exposed brain on the hapless cape in the foreground at lower right is an unpleasant detail.

Thu Aug 23 00:43:14 2018

Panel 4: Dang those backseat shooters! (Though I do rather like Ocelotina directly addressing an issue that’s usually left unspoken in such contexts.)

Fri Aug 24 00:43:30 2018

Panel 3: Note that Ninjette kicked off her high heels before blazing into action. (Goodbye, Kozue's high heels, never to be seen again.)

Mon Aug 27 00:43:44 2018

Behold, the EMPOWERED page that launched a thousand ships! Or one ship, at least. (Or should that perhaps be ’ships with an apostrophe?)

Tue Aug 28 09:08:23 2018

Panel 1: This page is arguably overdialogued, but by this point in the story’s rush to its climactic act, I probably didn’t feel like I could disperse the critical text over more pages. Still, maybe I could’ve trimmed down a few balloons, at least.

Wed Aug 29 00:43:38 2018

Panel 1: Sound the “IT’S A TRAP!” alert for excessive trapezius mass in this shot of dWARf!

Thu Aug 30 00:43:27 2018

Panel 6: And whoops, there goes one of Captain Katana’s blades.

Fri Aug 31 00:41:17 2018

Panels 1 and 2: Behold the ominous, black, curvingly crosshatched “swirly background,” an expressionistic riff I only deploy when a character is seriously peeved. Look out, Fleshmaster/dWARf!

Mon Sep 3 00:41:21 2018

Panel 1: Ouch!

Tue Sep 4 00:42:28 2018

Panel 3: Ouch!

Wed Sep 5 00:42:13 2018

Panel 5: Not a bad Emp figure shot, really, but I still wish I’d tried to work up a more dramatic pose for her. A more twisting motion would’ve been preferable, or perhaps a good ol’ fashioned STREET FIGHTER-style uppercut pose.

Thu Sep 6 00:42:28 2018

Panel 1: I do quite like this panoramic panel’s image of Fleshmaster’s limp body bouncing away from the off-panel Emp. Well—or at least decently—done, Decade-Ago Me!

Fri Sep 7 00:41:27 2018

Panel 3: Not fond of my choice to align the holographic image’s outline with the panel borders, which makes said image look distractingly like an insert panel and not a part of the the artwork as such.

Mon Sep 10 00:41:24 2018

Panel 2: Comically exaggerated Big-Head Emp alert! Ah, yes, a decade-old cartoony stylistic flourish now wholly gone from my current-day artwork.

Tue Sep 11 00:42:20 2018

Panel 2: I do like the fairly whimsical idea of Manny’s mecha somehow handling the wee envelope in its notably thick-fingered paw.

Wed Sep 12 00:41:15 2018

Uh oh! THIS could be a problem.

Thu Sep 13 00:41:45 2018

Panel 3: Gotta say, I’ll miss this story’s notably Chun-Li-like “formal-dress hair ribbons” securing Ninjette’s ponytail.

Fri Sep 14 00:42:10 2018

Panel 2: I like the rather mysterious mustachioed face of the mecha-ish fellow visible just over the shoulder of the OTHER superheroic mecha at upper right.

Mon Sep 17 00:41:46 2018

Panel 2: I don't think it's much of a SPOILER to say that Emp's line about "problematic consequences" turns out to be correct a few volumes down the line.

Tue Sep 18 00:41:39 2018

Panel 2: Not a fan of that third word balloon's tail extending over Ninjette's arm in this shot.

Wed Sep 19 00:41:15 2018

Panel 1: Gotta say, Femifist doggedly continuing the Dan-Rather-style "this reporter" riff while being carried off on a stretcher amuses me perhaps more than it should.

Thu Sep 20 00:41:12 2018

Panel 3: Long-time readers of my oeuvre will perhaps be aware that I am arguably WAY too entertained by the word "brobdingnagian," which appears more than a few times in my previous work.

Fri Sep 21 00:44:22 2018

Panel 1: I'm vaguely startled to notice that I drew Mindf**k with dark eyebrows in her first appearance. Whoops! (Her eyebrows are blonde in most subsequent images, alas.)

Mon Sep 24 00:44:15 2018

As I've often said, the low-angled camera is the short-on-time artist's Very Bestest Friend, as no other shot is remotely as forgiving in terms of (faking) perspective drawing.

Tue Sep 25 00:42:25 2018

I quite like Emp's facial expressions on both these pages, but I'm much—nay, MUCH—less fond of how cartoonishly narrow I drew her shoulder width. REALLY not into that particular stylistic flourish nowadays, for better or worse.

Wed Sep 26 00:41:27 2018

Can say that I'm particularly thrilled about Emp switching the direction she's facing between panel 2 and panel 3, but I suppose the alternative would have gotten repetitive after a while.

Thu Sep 27 00:41:27 2018

Panel 8: Go figure, this "interview" was done too late to be squeezed into vol. 3, the book it was actually promoting. Still, always good to see the series getting some press, right?

Fri Sep 28 00:41:13 2018

Note that the introductory text and/or solicitation copy for every Empowered installment always uses the phrase "costumed crimefighter Empowered," just because I like a little foolish consistency now and then.

Mon Oct 1 00:42:28 2018

Enjoy the last EMPOWERED cover to feature an all-white background, as all subsequent volumes would boast full-color backdrops after this—er, except for the later EMPOWERED UNCHAINED, come to think of it. After a certain point, the white-BG approach began to seem repetitive and limiting for the series' covers, IMHO.

Tue Oct 2 00:41:24 2018

Those wee credits are pretty much unreadable on the page-width spread, aren't they? Alas, the double-page spread is no friend to the constraints of the webcomic format.

Wed Oct 3 00:41:10 2018

Say, it's Mindf**k with dark eyebrows again! Not sure when the hell her 'brows switched over to blonde, but I guess we'll find out together, won't we?

Thu Oct 4 00:44:30 2018

Panel 2: TBH, I think the fuller-sounding FX "WHOOOSH" would've been a better choice than "WHSHH," in this context.

Fri Oct 5 00:41:19 2018

If you can detect a slight textural pattern to this image's pencil rendering, that's because it was drawn on a very large piece of linen-finish cardstock, much like the title-page illo that kicked off this story.

Mon Oct 8 00:41:19 2018

Panel 3: For the record, I considered using the colorful phrase “big, blonde, racktastic gecko” as part of this chapter’s title.

Tue Oct 9 00:41:34 2018

Panel 1: Yeahp, Emp is clearly so swept up in the enthusiasm of the moment that she forgets to be self-conscious about her butt. Yay?

Wed Oct 10 00:41:20 2018

Panel 4: This isn’t really a case of the largely disappeared Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch I once used to complain about in earlier EMP volumes, but I’m still not fond of Ninjette’s attenuated torso in this shot. Oh, well.

Thu Oct 11 00:43:48 2018

Panel 3: So Emp didn’t wet herself “this time”…? Oof.

Fri Oct 12 00:41:34 2018

Panel 5: TBH, Ninjette would almost certainly mix up the shuriken art she paints on her fingernails, but I’ve rarely been able to make the variations clear when I try to depict that, as the nail artwork is so g-d tiny in almost all shots.

Mon Oct 15 00:21:16 2018

Panel 3: As I mentioned in EMP4 (that’s my Twitter-format abbreviation for volume numbers, BTW), I sure do miss the simpler form of “petals” I used to draw on these Lotus Node portals, as opposed to the fractal array of tinier and tinier points I depict nowadays.

Tue Oct 16 00:20:10 2018

Panel 2: I believe that, earlier on in the series, the alien symbols were partially based on a string of characters indicating the Culture’s language from the end of Iain Banks’ SF novel THE PLAYER OF GAMES. By this point, though, I was making up the symbols off the top of my head.

Wed Oct 17 00:21:08 2018

Note that my usual black-filled gutters between panels didn’t work terribly well in an outer space setting, so I had to use white lines to separate ’em.

Thu Oct 18 00:23:11 2018

Panel 3: Behold, the Emp version of the popular TV Tropes riff “Batman Can Breathe in Space.”

Fri Oct 19 00:20:41 2018

Panel 2: For the record, we do eventually learn the “supranym” for the fellow just barely visible at the far right edge of the panel, but it’s not revealed until well into EMPOWERED vol. 10.

Mon Oct 22 00:21:40 2018

Panel 3: Gotta say, that is NOT a complimentary camera angle for ol' Homunculoid.

Tue Oct 23 00:21:33 2018

Panels 3 and 5: Nice close-ups of Mindf**k, gotta say. Well done, Decade-Ago Me!

Wed Oct 24 00:20:21 2018

Overdialoguing ahoy, but believe me, the verbiage gets even heavier in the next few pages. "Sigh," as Emp would put it.

Thu Oct 25 00:23:50 2018

Potential plot points ahoy? Mayhap yea, mayhap nay.

Fri Oct 26 00:21:28 2018

Panel 1: Super-long hair alert on Emp, a stylistic flair of mine that appears seemingly at random.

Mon Oct 29 00:21:33 2018

Panel 1: Pretty nice close-up of Mindf**k in this panel, even though her eyebrows will eventually (and mysteriously) go blonde later in the series... Oops.

Tue Oct 30 00:24:58 2018

Symbolic damsel-in-distress imagery ahoy, folks! No. wait, I wound up using this line in the actual commentary below. Sorry for the duplicate hover text, folks.

Wed Oct 31 00:21:44 2018

Panel 2: TBH, I often leave off the "Oxford comma" (as seen here after "smacking") when writing vernacular dialogue, though I'm not sure that the Demonwof's speech patterns would actually count as "vernacular dialogue."

Thu Nov 1 00:20:09 2018

Panel 2: Admittedly, "a list of commendations as long as my dick" is one hell of a straight line. Present-day Emp might well have thrown it back at him, but vol.5-era Emp isn't quite there yet.

Fri Nov 2 00:20:16 2018

Panel 4: Just noticed that Havoc left off the "!" after "dWARf!," though I presumably did so to avoid the wonky punctuation "dWARF!?," as is so often seen in J-pop culture. (IMHO, the question mark should always come first, dagnabbit.)

Mon Nov 5 00:20:05 2018

The black-barred profanities on this page are a reminder why I stopped fully censoring "cuss words" some time ago, as the censored terms in question here vary between the "S-word" and the "F-word." (Nowadays, I black-block only the middle letters, adding a note of clarity that amusingly undercuts the point of the censoring in the first place.)

Tue Nov 6 00:20:04 2018

Gotta say, I'm not fond of a page consisting entirely of "talking head" close-ups. Oh, well.

Wed Nov 7 00:20:06 2018

Panel 4: The next time Capitan Rivet pounds the table (in EMPOWERED vol.10) we see its surface shattering under the impact. Presumably, he applied less force in this act of table-pounding.

Thu Nov 8 00:20:06 2018

Panel 3: And the Goddamn Maidman would certainly know about looks of grim resolve, wouldn't he?.

Fri Nov 9 00:20:09 2018

Panel 2: Enjoy(?) a 7-word alliteration combo from the World-Wrecking Wordsmith, as a mere taste of the long, ambitious combos lurking in the upcoming story "When Titans Fornicate!"

Mon Nov 12 00:20:46 2018

What’s this? Do I detect the French “cédille” accent mark underneath the word "soupcon"? Mais oui, mes amis!

Tue Nov 13 00:20:11 2018

Panel 3: “Poltroon” is an excellent derisive term for the Caged Demonwolf to use; I’ll have to keep it in mind for future reference.

Wed Nov 14 00:20:35 2018

Gotta say, “former sweetheart in the Sapphic style” is a quite decent turn of Demonwolf phrasing.

Thu Nov 15 00:20:03 2018

I find myself struck by the fact that Mindf**k has a single run-on sentence (strung out by ellipses) continuing over four panels, which might be a record for the series. (Or maybe not.)

Fri Nov 16 00:20:03 2018

Panel 8: Whoops! Also, “Uh, oh.”

Mon Nov 19 00:20:17 2018

Panel 4: Gotta say that I do quite like the phrase “emotionally waterboarding,” which certainly does seem an apt description of how Spooky’s treated Emp.

Tue Nov 20 00:20:03 2018

Panel 4: For some reason, I occasionally bungle the body angle of seated characters, which definitely happened with Spooky, here. She doesn’t really appear very well seated, to put it mildly.

Wed Nov 21 00:21:01 2018

Panel 2: So, apparently, the Demonwolf’s nigh-omniscience extends to gardening tips. Good to know, especially since I’d once planned to show that poor Emp was incapable of keeping even a mere houseplant alive.

Thu Nov 22 00:23:04 2018

Panel 2: A nice shot of Ninjette in the background, here. Low-rise jeans ahoy! (Y’know, I keep hearing that “high-rise” jeans are coming back into fashion, but the efforts have so far seemed to run aground on the reefs of the sentiment, “Hey, look, Mom jeans!”)

Fri Nov 23 00:23:15 2018

Panel’s 1 figurative-versus-literal riff with “friend of her bosom” and “fondler of her bosom” still amuses me a fair bit, I must admit.

Mon Nov 26 00:23:03 2018

Panel 1: Maybe—just MAYBE—this reference to a “happenstance dire” could be ominous, folks!

Tue Nov 27 00:23:04 2018

Who might the dude at lower right be? Find out tomorrow, folks!

Wed Nov 28 00:23:07 2018

Panel 2: Why, yes, of course the Caged Demonwolf uses the emphatically emphasized Chapelle-style “Kobe!” Why wouldn’t he?

Thu Nov 29 00:23:08 2018

Panel 1: Dang, I’d actually forgotten that this story’s disguise motif sets up a key scene later in the volume. Nice planning from Decade-Ago Me!

Fri Nov 30 00:23:07 2018

Panel 5: I do quite like “extreme” foreground shots of the Caged Demowolf’s carapace like this one; in fact, this undulating example is probably one of my favorite such images, period.

Mon Dec 3 00:20:00 2018

Panel 1: Oops, already used the Demonwolf vocabulary word “strumpet” two pages earlier. With notable exceptions—such as, say, “toothsome rump”—I try not to repeat terms too often. Oh, well.

Tue Dec 4 00:20:12 2018

Kinda tough to make out the word "MILIEU" in the caption at lower left, I'm afraid. Hope you'll pardon me for lacking the time or interest to open Photoshop and tweak the word's lettering to make it a wee bit clearer. (If I dared open such a Pandora's box of "wee corrections," I'd never stop making such tweaks.)

Wed Dec 5 00:20:02 2018

Panel 4: That’s an unusual cartoony squiggle of a mouth on Ninjette, gotta say.

Thu Dec 6 00:20:08 2018

Arguably the most remarkable part of the Sexy Librarian outfit is that it somehow induces short strands of hair over Emp’s forehead, when we’ve clearly seen that her hairstyle sports no such short strands. Mysterious!

Fri Dec 7 00:20:01 2018

Panel 2: Sound the “IT’S A TRAP!” alarm for excessive trapezius muscle mass on ol’ Thugboy, here! AHOOGA! AHOOGA! AHOOGA!

Mon Dec 10 00:19:55 2018

Panel 1: A rare bit of longer-form alliteration, here, given the four words in a row starting with the “CH” sound.

Tue Dec 11 00:20:19 2018

Panel 1: I’d best sound the “IT’S A TRAP” Alert for Thugboy’s (srsly) excessive trapezius muscle mass in this shot. Cue Admiral Ackbar!

Wed Dec 12 00:20:29 2018

Panel 1: Gotta say, I think the “Power Cosmic”-style reversed form “wisdom unassailable”—or possibly even “wisdom most unassailable”—would’ve worked better, here.

Thu Dec 13 00:20:06 2018

Panel 1: For one, an excessively short MALE foot, folks! (Feet are the g-d WORST, as I’ve often said before.) Enjoy?

Fri Dec 14 00:20:07 2018

Panel 1: To the right of the Sexy Librarian, enjoy the rarely glimpsed bookshelf in Emp’s bedroom, which I often forget is supposed to be there. Oops!

Mon Dec 17 00:20:42 2018

Panel 6: If you cannae read Japanese (hiragana) phonetic characters, she’s saying, “Hai, hai…”

Tue Dec 18 00:21:37 2018

Panel 3: Gotta give up for “much-vaunted fashion of the French,” which still amuses me perhaps more than it should.

Wed Dec 19 00:21:38 2018

Panel 2: I suspect that the “Red Sea” bit, here, may be an oblique reference to an old Robin Williams riff on the idea of porn dialogue delivered in a bombastically Shakespearean manner.

Thu Dec 20 00:21:46 2018

Panel 3: I rather like the obscure vocabulary word “erlking,” which I don’t think I’ve used any other time in the series.

Fri Dec 21 00:21:37 2018

Must admit, I’d entirely forgotten the visual joke of each lover’s pair of glasses flying off amidst their clearly kinetic throes of passion.

Mon Dec 24 00:23:03 2018

Panel 1: “Tissue-transparent trollop” is probably one of my favorite bits of alliteration from this story.

Tue Dec 25 00:21:34 2018

Panel 3: Ah, behold the good ol’ “squiggle mouth,” a cartoony little visual riff that will recur quite frequently in the volumes to come.

Wed Dec 26 00:21:40 2018

Panel 1: “Boilingly befevered bunnies” is a particularly strong bit of Demonwolf alliteration, IMHO. Panel 2’s “belathered bibliophile” isn’t too shabby, either.

Thu Dec 27 00:21:34 2018

Panel 4: “Again”…?

Fri Dec 28 00:21:36 2018

HV: Ah, behold the very first—but certainly not the last!—appearance of Mindf**k sporting a schoolgirl uniform, with a plaid skirt that uses a pattern borrowed from the school unis featured in Ken Akamatsu’s NEGIMA!

Mon Dec 31 00:21:38 2018

Panel 2: Belatedly noticed that, in this flashback, the top of dWARf’s head at lower right appears much higher than it should, given his diminutive height. Oh, well.

Tue Jan 1 00:20:12 2019

Panel 2: SPOILER-ish bit for long-time readers: Is the injury to Spooky’s right arm a bit of clever foreshadowing on my part? (No, it’s not, though this is an interesting coincidence.)

Wed Jan 2 00:20:11 2019

Panel 4: Yeahp, Mindf**k’s telepathic “neurosex” space clearly goes heavy on the shoujo-manga-style “flowers and petals” imagery.

Thu Jan 3 00:20:53 2019

Panel 2: Took somebody else to point out to me that Mindf**k’s defining facial expression is “the sad smile.”

Fri Jan 4 00:20:03 2019

Panel 2: Ah, the mysterious mountaintop that recurs a few times later in the series! Where might this peak be located? No idea, folks! Could be pretty much anywhere on Earth, given the superheroes’ access to Lotus Node portals and Spooky’s own teleportation powers.

Mon Jan 7 00:20:17 2019

Panels 1-3 feature some very strong shots of Young Spooky, gotta say. (Almost slipped up again and used her real name, which we don’t learn until the end of the volume. Oops!)

Tue Jan 8 00:20:10 2019

Cue the breakup, folks! “Sigh,” to quote Emp.

Wed Jan 9 00:22:31 2019

I still quite appreciate the progressive uh, “zoom-out” on the spacesuited Mindf**k on this page. Decently done, Decade-Ago Me!

Thu Jan 10 00:20:35 2019

Panel 1: In fact, I probably could’ve gotten away with the timeframe “TWO WEEKS AGO,” as opposed to “MONTHS,” but whatevs, folks.

Fri Jan 11 00:20:05 2019

A pretty decent shot of Emp, here, for whatever that’s worth. (Nothing else hovertext-y sprang readily to mind, alas.)

Mon Jan 14 00:20:07 2019

Panel 3: No great significance to this first scene taking place in the rain; just thought I’d try something a li’l different for a background setting, this time around.

Tue Jan 15 00:21:43 2019

Panel 1: I rather like this panorama of random audience members. Nicely done, Decade-Ago Me!

Wed Jan 16 00:20:29 2019

Panels 5 and 7: Enjoy a reappearance of the gradually less and less common visual trope of Emp’s Big Pouty Lips, folks!

Thu Jan 17 00:20:13 2019

Panel 2: Time to sound the “IT’S A TRAP!” alert for excessive trapezius muscle mass on ol’ faux-dWARF!, here.

Fri Jan 18 00:20:11 2019

Panel 6: I’m entirely too amused by the joke that, as crappy as Emp’s feigned Southern accent might be, it was apparently good enough to fool ol’ faux-dWARf! here, given that he refers to her as a “cracker.”

Mon Jan 21 00:20:05 2019

Panel 4: Removing the Ewoks from ROTJ seems a bit of a stretch, TBH—but then again, something unearthly is clearly afoot.

Tue Jan 22 00:20:37 2019

Panel 3: I do still like the joke of Syndablokk’s claps sounding out as “KLANKK.”

Wed Jan 23 00:20:07 2019

Plenty of Big Pouty Lips Emp on this page, even though we’re nearing the end of the “BPLE” era. (Er, at least I THINK so, but I might be mistaken in that assumption.)

Thu Jan 24 00:20:28 2019

Panel 2: Note that “Big Pouty Lips Emp" appears at random; she was thin-lipped in panel 1, Pouty in panel 2. (Note that “BPLE” tended to limit my options for facial expressions, hence its “on and off” appearances.)

Fri Jan 25 00:20:53 2019

Panel 1: Driving while piscine! (By the way, it only struck me now how g-d annoying it would be to have that g-d light bobbling up and down in front of your face all the g-d time.)

Mon Jan 28 00:20:10 2019

Panel 2: Just barely visible at the top of the panel is a (licensed) cosplayer for the Phallik, who I’d forgotten was included in the SuperHomeys Experience. Note that we never see a version of the blobby team member Protean (aka “Glorpp”), who might’ve presented some severe cosplay challenges. (Dang, this is one long-ass selection of “hovertext,” isn’t it?)

Tue Jan 29 00:20:01 2019

Panel 7: Ehh, a sports bra would’ve been a better choice, here, though perhaps they weren’t quite as prevalent when I drew this a decade ago (he wrote uncertainly, while not terribly interested in search-engineering up an answer)…?

Wed Jan 30 00:20:10 2019

In panels 2-5, behold the majesty of Emp’s ever-changing lip thickness: Thin! BIG ’N’ POUTY! Thin! BIG ’N’ POUTY! (As I’ve noted before, Big Pouty Lips limit facial expressiveness a fair bit, hence their “on and off” appearances.)

Thu Jan 31 00:20:10 2019

Panel 1: Behold, a rare sighting of Emp with unusually long hair, a stylistic flourish which recurs seemingly at random throughout the series.

Fri Feb 1 00:20:10 2019

Panel 3: Behold the majesty of a supervillain rocking the ol’ Dad bod!

Mon Feb 4 00:20:13 2019

Panel 2: Yeahp, traced off the previous page’s establishing shot of the van for this panel. I generally find such shot-repetition techniques (semi-)interesting in theory, but tiresome to draw.

Tue Feb 5 00:20:14 2019

Panel 3: Three successive VORPPs to one hapless mook seems a tad excessive, TBH, though perhaps Emp was zapping some other off-panel henchman we didn’t see earlier.

Wed Feb 6 00:20:10 2019

Got nothin’ for hovertext on this page, alas. (Hell, I barely have anything to say for the main commentary below, either.) Here’s hoping I think of something for tomorrow’s hovertext…

Thu Feb 7 00:20:09 2019

Panel 1: Ah, yes, KLUDD, another of my favorite sound FX cribbed from l’oeuvre de Frank Miller.

Fri Feb 8 00:20:20 2019

Panel 6: Here, a rare mention of a supervillain’s real name! (This is even rarer than the series’ already sparse revelations of superheroes’ civilian names.)

Mon Feb 11 00:20:18 2019

Panel 1: Not a huge issue, here, but Emp’s not really facing Anglerfish in this shot. Not sure why I went for a 3/4 view of her face rather than the more correct profile view, as I’m certainly fond of drawing such angles.

Tue Feb 12 00:20:22 2019

Panel 1: As I’ve often said before, the low camera angle is the harried artist’s best friend because, in concert with panel cropping as seen here, it allows you to slap foreground and background elements together without anyone being able to tell if the perspective is off. Yay!

Wed Feb 13 00:20:25 2019

Panel 3: And lo, thus ended Emp’s part-time career cosplaying as herself. Gotta say, might be amusing to see who replaced her as Fake Emp in the presumably still-ongoing SuperHomeys Experience…

Thu Feb 14 00:21:12 2019

Question: Did Ocelotina get her teeth fixed in order to display more feline-appearing dentition? Tough to tell, really, between the whimsies of a manga-influenced art style and the vagaries of a superhero universe. Wait—does this mean she’s rocking feline-looking canines? How very confusing.

Fri Feb 15 00:20:22 2019

Panel 1: Never did go out and register Ocelotina.com, needless to say.

Mon Feb 18 00:20:15 2019

Panel 2: As I’ve said before, those painted-on eyes wind up making Ocelotina’s cleavage look more like a messed-up owl than a cat, but that goofiness only adds to the amusement value for me.

Tue Feb 19 00:20:18 2019

Panel 1: Good thing that Ocelotina’s gloves have wee li’l claws on ’em, or she’d NEVER be able to find and peel the end of the tape along its roll. (Well, not a good thing for Emp, admittedly.)

Wed Feb 20 00:20:39 2019

Panel 4: Ocelotina’s repeated use of “NYAAAN”—the Japanese analogue for the English “MEOW”—does strongly hint that she’s a “weeb” of some sort. (Sez the guy who predates the existence of the pejorative term “weeb.”)

Thu Feb 21 00:20:18 2019

Panel 3: Let the Excessive Dialogue Alert sound! WAAAAY too much text in this panel, alas.

Fri Feb 22 00:20:17 2019

Panel 2: Another random image of Emp sporting the stylized florish of inexplicably super-long hair, just because I thought that would look more interesting spreading across the floor.

Mon Feb 25 00:20:13 2019

Panel 1: As will be acknowledged later in a metatextual Emp page, unwinding so much duct tape from around her hair must’ve been no fun whatsoever; however, that’s a real-world consideration that doesn’t really apply in this story’s less-than-strictly realistic depiction of duct-tape bondage, IMHO.

Tue Feb 26 00:20:15 2019

Panels 1 & 2: Yeahp, sound the alarm signifying “Emp’s excessively short feet” once more, a whimsical stylistic flourish that I actively try to steer the hell clear of nowadays.

Wed Feb 27 00:20:17 2019

Panel 1: “Ductankhamun-style”? Lordy loo, but Ocelotina certainly does let fly with the neologisms.

Thu Feb 28 00:20:27 2019

Panel 2: The intern weighs in with a rather obvious insight, while Ocelotina’s brother(?) films with a likely long-obsolete video camera. Oh, well.

Fri Mar 1 00:20:21 2019

Panel 2: A slightly wonky yet still striking expression on ol’ Ocelotina, here. Decently done, Decade-Ago Me!

Mon Mar 4 00:20:28 2019

Panel 3: “Boldly goed” amuses me perhaps more than it should, folks.

Tue Mar 5 00:20:25 2019

In panel 3, Emp is trying to say, “Gee, I wonder WHY they might think THAT.” In panel 4, “You THINK…?”

Wed Mar 6 00:20:28 2019

Panel 6: Emp is trying to say, “You make THAT much off this stuff…?”

Thu Mar 7 00:20:23 2019

Panel 3: An odd bit of trivia that just occurred to me: Of EMPOWERED’s major female characters, I’m reasonably sure that Ocelotina might be the only one who’s never been the subject of cosplay out in the real world.

Fri Mar 8 00:20:20 2019

I do like the oddly specific metatextual detail that Emp has to read off a printed-out statement from me, whereas previous Meta Emp pages seen to imply that I can speak to her directly.

Mon Mar 11 00:21:52 2019

Panel 3: Excessively petite feet alert on Ninjette, here. Again, a stylistic flourish that now bugs me almost as much as it apparently did a handful—or footful?—of readers.

Tue Mar 12 00:22:01 2019

Panel 1: NITPICKING ALERT! Looks like the katana on Ninjette's back disappeared in this panel.

Wed Mar 13 00:21:41 2019

Panel 3: Yikes, really screwed depicting the curve of that bench and their seating atop it. Not an easy task, folks.

Thu Mar 14 00:21:58 2019

Panel 3: Oof. I did NOT manage to pull off the poses of Ninjette and Thugboy seated atop that surprisingly difficult-to-draw park bench. Oh, well.

Fri Mar 15 00:22:00 2019

Panel 5: Not often that one sees speed lines in a makeout scene, but then again, most such scenes don’t involve a ninja.

Mon Mar 18 00:20:13 2019

Panels 3-5: Once again, speedlines in a makeout scene! Then again, as I mentioned on the previous page, what else would you expect in a makeout scene involving a ninja?

Tue Mar 19 00:22:16 2019

Panel 8: And there's our title for the story, folks! ("Problems with the Equipment," that is, in case you'd forgotten the earlier title page.)

Wed Mar 20 00:20:58 2019

I quite like the shot of Ninjette in panel 1, but don’t care for her image in panel 2. Can’t win ‘em all, folks.

Thu Mar 21 00:21:52 2019

Panel 1: For some reason, the image of the elements of the female ninja’s Thugboy’s disguise flying off into the distance amuses me to no end.

Fri Mar 22 00:23:20 2019

Panel 2: Presumably Ninjette is well-versed enough in kissing both boys and girls to be able to perceive the difference. (Ahem.)

Mon Mar 25 00:20:22 2019

Panel 4: For the record, in the book’s closing end-title spread, a flustered Metatextual Ninjette recalls this scene and insists that it was naught but fakery, as “ninjas have incredible nipple control.”

Tue Mar 26 00:20:22 2019

Panel 5: I quite like the As Yet Unnamed Kunoichi’s pose in this shot. The drawing of Ninjette worked out fine, but there’s something undefinable about the AYUK’s pose that I prefer.

Wed Mar 27 00:21:58 2019

Panel 4: A colorful description indeed of what the As Yet Unnamed Kunoichi would like to do. Vivid!

Thu Mar 28 00:20:27 2019

Panel 1: That’s a little too much expression in the As Yet Unnamed Kunoichi’s eyebrow—as I said, she’s supposed to be perpetually blank-eyed and expressionless—but I still like the shot overall.

Fri Mar 29 00:20:38 2019

Panel 1: A trait of this character that often goes unnoticed? Her bare face is always blank and emotionless, but she CAN show facial expressions when in disguise as someone else—Thugboy, for example.

Mon Apr 1 00:21:48 2019

Behold, the so-called “blush pattern” version of an embarrassed Emp’s mask, as opposed to the higher-contrast default version we usually see. In later volumes, I switched over to drawing the “blushing mask” iteration almost constantly, before gradually deemphasizing it in the upcoming EMPOWERED vol.11.

Tue Apr 2 00:21:48 2019

Panel 4: If I may quote Bill Murray from the end of STRIPES, “What the—?”

Wed Apr 3 00:21:51 2019

Panel 6: So, Thugboy’s just awakened from a nightmare, only to find himself plunged into a waking nightmare. Oops!

Wed Apr 3 06:20:30 2019

Panel 6: So, Thugboy’s just awakened from a nightmare, only to find himself plunged into a waking nightmare. Oops!

Thu Apr 4 00:20:50 2019

Panel 5: Without waxing too SPOILER-iffic, safe to say that Thugboy’s statement, here, looms large in the story to come.

Fri Apr 5 20:33:47 2019

Panel 1: Behold, the now-vanished, cartoonishly exaggerated riff of “big head, narrow shoulders,” as seen on this shot of Sistah Spooky, a stylistic flourish that is now entirely gone from my artwork.

Mon Apr 8 00:21:59 2019

Panel 4: Clearly, Major Havoc isn’t exactly agonizing over the loss of human—or suprahuman—life in this context.

Tue Apr 9 00:21:40 2019

Panels 1-2: I don’t think it’s a huge SPOILER to hint that Rivet might wind up being a tad off-base about which matter is more critical than the other.

Wed Apr 10 00:21:53 2019

Panel 3: Yeahp, the title of this penultimate EMPOWERED vol. 5 story, “Upon My Back, the Monkey of Worry,” is derived from Ninjette’s dialogue in this panel.

Thu Apr 11 00:20:51 2019

Panel 1: I might’ve once carped that we probably should see a hint of cityscape beyond the windows of Spooky’s room, here, but if you’ve seen just how far up the Superhomeys HQ towers in EMPOWERED vol. 10, it’s not unreasonable that we don’t see any background buildings in this shot.

Fri Apr 12 00:21:51 2019

Gotta say, I REALLY do not care for the slope of Capitan Rivet’s caped shoulders in panel 1, nor the similar caped-shoulders slope on Havoc in panel 3. Oh, well.

Mon Apr 15 00:20:25 2019

Panel 3: Behold, another example of why I wound censoring only the middle two letters of profanities later on in the series, as here Thugboy is switching between liberal uses of both the F-word and the S-word, with only context helping the reader figure out which one is which.

Tue Apr 16 00:21:53 2019

Lettering nitpickery ahoy: The text for “OH, CRAP..!” in Meta Emp #2’s balloon is too close to the outline of its word balloon (at left). Not sure why I didn’t have that fixed after the page was scanned in at Dark Horse.

Wed Apr 17 00:21:53 2019

Panel 1: Ehh, probably should’ve tacked in little cartoony head shots of Havoc and Emp adjoining their respective word balloons for extra clarity. Not a huge deal, but worth considering.

Thu Apr 18 00:20:30 2019

Panel 5: In the pages that will follow, the maze-like quality of the d10’s internal layout becomes a plot point of sorts. (Well, kinda.)

Fri Apr 19 00:21:41 2019

For the record, we DO eventually learn the supranyms of all these capes, but not until a certain panel in, um, EMPOWERED vol. 10. Feel free to guess away in the meantime, though, if you care to do so!

Mon Apr 22 00:21:52 2019

Panel 1: Turns out that drawing boring, real-life architecture like this warehouse is—wait for it—boring as hell. Go figure!

Tue Apr 23 00:20:19 2019

Panel 4: Another example of an annoying slope to Havoc’s caped shoulders and traps, which seems to be a recurring motif in the last bunch of pages. Just stop it, Decade-Ago Me!

Wed Apr 24 00:22:00 2019

Panel 1: Behold, an explored avenue of Mindf**k’s telepathy—she can, apparently, detect the presence of animals’ minds, though presumably she can’t actually read ’em. OR CAN SHE??????

Thu Apr 25 00:21:53 2019

Panel 2: Uh oh. Panel 3: Uh oh! Panel 4: UH OH!!!!

Fri Apr 26 00:20:57 2019

Panel 3: Getting that g-d glowing white band on Mindf**k’s visor to curve correctly was not only difficult a decade ago, it’s still difficult nowadays, as I screwed it up in a few recent drawings just as badly as I screwed it up here. Darn thing’s tricky as heck to draw, folks!

Mon Apr 29 00:20:12 2019

Huh: I’d forgotten the image of Phallik’s spearpoint being driven though his head, a detail which recurs later on in the series. I’d forgotten THAT was how the poor bastard wound up with the hole in his head!

Tue Apr 30 00:21:39 2019

Panels 6-7: To repeat myself from an earlier hovertext, “Uh oh.”

Wed May 1 00:22:09 2019

Panel 4: A rare sighting of Big Pouty-Lipped Emp! Enjoy, even as the once-common riff begins a slow drift into increasing infrequency.

Thu May 2 01:05:37 2019

Panel 1: Note: The “GRAVITY C” bit—meaning that the space station uses some odd form of artificial gravity—becomes a fairly important issue later on in the story.

Fri May 3 00:20:17 2019

Panel 6: Okay, things are REALLY not going so well right now.

Mon May 6 00:20:20 2019

Panel 5: As I’ve noted recently, it is REALLY g-d hard to get that glowing line on Mindf**k’s visor to wrap correctly, so I’ll try to avoid picking on Decade-Ago Me too much for screwing it up (as happened here).

Tue May 7 00:21:22 2019

Panel 3: Not a huge deal worthy of the dreaded Overdialoguing Alert, really, but I could’ve gotten away with just one Willy Pete word balloon here.

Wed May 8 00:20:14 2019

Panel 2: I’d love to use some other sound FX for ominous rumbling than the often-used “RMBB,” here, but danged if I’ve ever thought of one that would past muster with the inscrutable algorithm in my head that determines which sound FX (of very, VERY few) are acceptable to my ear—or EYE, technically.

Thu May 9 00:20:52 2019

Panel 3: Note that I skipped showing the stage of Mindf**k jamming her ponytail up into the helmet as she put it on, but jeez, nitpickers, I didn’t have all day to show every detail of the process.

Fri May 10 00:20:52 2019

Panel 1: I quite like the difference in orientation on this panel’s sound FX, with the vertical stack of the letters in “SKREEEK” arguably helping to convey the downward collapse of the overhead bulkhead.

Mon May 13 00:20:17 2019

Panel 5: What’s this, in the panel’s upper right corner? Could it be… a minor plot point? PERHAPS!

Tue May 14 00:20:23 2019

Panel 2: And the “blush mode” version of Emp’s mask kicks in! (Well, for this page, at least; the normal, higher-contrast version of her mask reappears on the very next page.)

Wed May 15 00:21:01 2019

Panel 5: Enjoy a brief return of the slowly, ever so slowly fading visual trope of Big Pouty Lips Emp, folks!

Thu May 16 00:20:16 2019

Here, you can see just how paranoid I am about repeating camera distance (of character size, same thing) in any given comic page, given that every shot carefully shows Emp and Mindf**k from a different distance.

Fri May 17 00:20:10 2019

Panel 2: Ehh, I’ll give Decade-Ago Me a pass, as drawing the night side of the Earth in pencil is tricky at best. Plus, its surprisingly tricky to find good photoreference of the darkened hemisphere, compared to the bajillion images one can find of the far more photogenic day side.

Mon May 20 00:20:47 2019

Panel 3: Ehh, not the Overdialoguing Alert end of the world, here, but I could’ve cut this back to three word balloons instead of six.

Tue May 21 00:21:53 2019

Panel 1: I’m fond of that one long lock of Emp’s hair pointing straight downward as an indication of the suddenly intensified (artificial) gravity.

Wed May 22 00:20:23 2019

Panels 1 & 2: I’m not 100% sure how clear it is to readers that we’re seeing the same shot in both panels, given that the background is largely obscured by speedlines. Oh, well.

Thu May 23 00:20:20 2019

Panel 5: I was about to note that I was surprised I didn’t use INCEPTION’s key number 528491, only to realize that this story's creation actually predates that movie by a few years.

Fri May 24 00:20:11 2019

Volume 5 Page 178

Mon May 27 00:20:21 2019

Panels 4-6: Enjoy an ULTRA-rare Big Pouty Lips Emp scene in which I’m actually trying to convey a change in facial expression; normally, that collagen-tastic riff doesn’t lend itself to very much expressiveness.

Tue May 28 00:20:15 2019

Wow! Nothing at all is occurring to me for today’s hover text! I got nothin’, folks! Hope you’ll excuse this unfortunate lapse.

Wed May 29 00:20:27 2019

Panel 5: Y’know, I would’ve sworn the Big Pouty Lips Emp visual riff had begun to fade out by this point in the series, but it’s popping up with a VENGEANCE in this story.

Thu May 30 00:21:07 2019

Really having a rough week with the ol’ hover text, folks. (Well, a rough morning, as I’m writing most of this week’s commentaries at once.) Again, I got nothin’ short and pithy to add re: this page. UGHHH.

Fri May 31 00:20:26 2019

Panel 5: Gotta say that this Mindf**k close-up worked pretty well, IMHO. (Whoops, almost screwed up and used her real name, which doesn’t get revealed in this story.)

Mon Jun 3 00:20:35 2019

Panel 5: Note that Mindf**k did not fail to notice the appealing poutiness of Emp’s lips, hence the involuntary blurting of said adjective. (She’s only human, after all.)

Tue Jun 4 00:20:52 2019

Panel 4: A harrowing panel for Emp, but one of my better drawings of our tearstricken heroine from this sequence, IMHO.

Wed Jun 5 00:20:11 2019

Panel 2: “One-and-a-half” survivors, huh? Hrmm.

Thu Jun 6 00:20:29 2019

Panel 1: Here’s a favorite EMPOWERED lettering trick of mine, in that we see a single “!” reaction word balloon shared between three different characters, each with their own distinctive tail on said balloon pointing to them.

Fri Jun 7 00:20:22 2019

Panel 3: Occurs to me that I rarely use the “O” as seen here (“O puritanical mindprude”), as I think I usually have the Demonwolf bellowing “Oh (blank)” with an H to start off many of his prounouncements.

Mon Jun 10 00:20:19 2019

Panel 1: And, oops, Mindf**k just blurted out Emp’s real name! TBH, doesn’t seem like Spooky remembers it in the short term (heat of the moment, etc.), though she does know her as “Elissa” later on in the series.

Tue Jun 11 00:20:23 2019

Panel 1: To possibly belabor the obvious, the “him” that Mindf**k is referring to in this panel is her batsh**t-crazy brother.

Wed Jun 12 00:20:17 2019

One of my favorite pages from vol.5, gotta say.

Thu Jun 13 00:20:42 2019

Inking this image’s double-page spread took me g-d FOREVER, as I recall. Note also that this a rare fully inked EMPOWERED page (or pair of pages, anyway).

Fri Jun 14 00:21:03 2019

Note the slight tilt to this five-panel layout, which to my eyes adds an additional degree of visual interest to a grid-patterned page like this.

Mon Jun 17 06:08:38 2019

Panels 4-5: An oddity, here, as I belatedly realized that this might be one of the few times that we ever hear the sound FX of Spooky’s platform shoes a-clackin’. (I did it here to emphasize the fact that she was walking away from Emp and El Capitan.)

Tue Jun 18 00:21:06 2019

Panel 1: Those, uh "tremble lines" along Spooky's lower legs can be tricky at times. How many layers of 'em should you use? How long (or short) should each wavy line be?

Wed Jun 19 00:20:22 2019

Panel 3: A panel that still holds up well, gotta say, as that is emphatically NOT a face you want to be looking into under these circumstances.

Thu Jun 20 00:20:19 2019

Panel 3: NOT a promising development for Emp.

Fri Jun 21 01:54:48 2019

Panel 2: Once again, this cartoonishly big-headed Emp shows the very different set of figure proportions I once preferred; nowadays, I don’t go this route even as a stylized artistic flourish.

Mon Jun 24 00:20:19 2019

Panel 1: I’d swear that Spooky’s ersatz locs were once based on photoreference, but they’d apparently drifted way off-model by this point in the series.

Tue Jun 25 00:20:24 2019

Panel 1: Now, that might seem like some unusually shiny rebar wrapped around Emp’s head, but I should note that the Homeycrib’s construction presumably wouldn’t use conventional materials; mayhap that’s a special (shiny) alloy of some sort.

Wed Jun 26 00:20:28 2019

Panel 2: This panel seems a rather odd time for Decade-Ago Me to going quite so cartoonishly stylized with Spooky’s “big-headed” proportions, but what can I say? My artistic motives and choices from a decade ago often seem inscrutable to Present-Day Me.

Thu Jun 27 00:20:40 2019

I rather doubt that the contrails left by the d10’s reentering debris would’ve lasted quite this long, but I hope you’ll forgive a li’l dramatic license.

Fri Jun 28 00:20:30 2019

Must admit, the ’Jette line about ninjas having “incredible nipple control” still amuses me perhaps more than it should.

Mon Jul 1 00:20:27 2019

In the commentary, dig that nice accent mark over the O in Ginobli, which I’m afraid is not supported by the font and/or formatting used in this webcomic’s commentary. Oh, well.

Tue Jul 2 00:20:42 2019

Pencils and inks on the back-cover illo by me, colors by my buddy Ryan Kinnaird.

Wed Jul 3 00:21:17 2019

Why, look, it’s Spooky’s Infernal Service Provider, a-lurking in the background! Whatever could THAT rascal be up to? And why, oh why is Emp holding an ersatz FedEx envelope?

Thu Jul 4 00:21:53 2019

Whatever could the meaning of that blonde wig and visor thingie be, folks? WHAT COULD IT MEAN????? (A question that will not, alas, be answered for quite a few months yet.)

Fri Jul 5 00:20:23 2019

At the risk of waxing SPOILER-iffic, the reason why Emp’s “toothsome rump” (per the Caged Demonwolf) is featured prominently in this intro page is that the story was originally entitled—and I kid you not—“Leave My Butt Alone, You Freak!”

Mon Jul 8 00:20:40 2019

In case the reference I’m making with this page isn’t obvious enough, worry not, as it becomes even more obvious two pages later.

Tue Jul 9 00:20:26 2019

Panel 2: Not sure if you can make out the lettering on that ingot, but it reads “Impregnium X,” which is the Empverse’s equivalent of a functionally invulnerable alloy along the lines of Marvel’s adamantium.

Wed Jul 10 00:20:25 2019

Panel 2: You can look forward, folks, to eventually finding out the supranym for that fella in the background, the one with “A-O” emblazoned on his chest. (His “nom de cape” is a pun that not everyone seemed to grasp, I’m afraid.)

Thu Jul 11 00:21:06 2019

Panel 1: Must admit, I do still find the literally breaking “BREAKING” in “EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN” amusing.

Fri Jul 12 12:32:51 2019

Panel 2: In Valkyrie Eleison’s second word balloon, I’m not sure if the use of the word “LIVE” twice in the same sentence was intentional or not.

Mon Jul 15 00:20:39 2019

Panel 3: What’s this? Could this be one of the “one and a half” survivors mentioned by Syndablock back at the end of vol.5? (Well, yes, of course it could, and obviously IS.)

Tue Jul 16 00:20:17 2019

Panel 1: Here, “40% T.B.S.A.” stands for “40% of the burn victim’s total body surface area.”

Wed Jul 17 00:20:15 2019

Panel 4: Ouch; a pretty damn harsh detail, gotta say.

Thu Jul 18 00:20:18 2019

Panel 2: Major Havoc at his arguably “Major-Havoc-iest,” folks!

Fri Jul 19 00:20:58 2019

Panel 2: …Or maybe not.

Mon Jul 22 00:20:13 2019

Panel 1: Big Pouty Lips ahoy—though the adjective “Pouty” might be a bit inappropriate for a character so overcome by emotional shock and grief.

Tue Jul 23 00:20:24 2019

Panel 2: SYMBOLIC, YO

Wed Jul 24 00:20:16 2019

Panel 1: Apparently, quite a few bodies are being autopsied on a regular basis at the ol’ Suprahuman Treatment Wing, if the facility boasts three (3) different autopsy rooms.

Thu Jul 25 00:20:24 2019

Looks like that one “CHOOM” sound FX from the previous page covered a great deal of damage being wreaked by the rampaging Phallik.

Fri Jul 26 00:21:07 2019

Panel 1: I find myself weirdly bugged by the fact that Emp’s (right) shoulder isn’t visible in this shot. Why leave that out, Decade-Ago Me?

Mon Jul 29 09:11:14 2019

Panel 3-4: Must admit, the little, ah, bounce on Emp in both these panels amuses me perhaps more than it should.

Tue Jul 30 04:55:26 2019

Panel 3: Man, I'd really wish I could still letter this small. Alas, my present-day tools—and eyesight—don't allow for the use of such wee fonts.

Wed Jul 31 00:22:34 2019

Panel 6: I do rather like the subtle visual riff of Phallik's raised eyebrow visible in his face paint—or whatever the hell that graphic motif is supposed to represent.

Thu Aug 1 03:21:05 2019

Panel 2: I do rather like the reasonably dynamic posing and foreshortening in this panel, gotta say. Decently done, Decade-Ago Me!

Fri Aug 2 00:20:37 2019

Panel 1: We're still in the era before I began only partially censoring "cuss words" to aid in greater clarification of which profanities are being spouted, though in this specific example I believe my intent was pretty obvious.

Mon Aug 5 00:20:26 2019

Gotta say that the spear-based action storytelling in this page holds up pretty well.

Tue Aug 6 00:20:27 2019

Panels 1-2: Pretty good shots of Capitan Rivet in both these panels. My compliments to Decade-Ago Me!

Wed Aug 7 00:20:20 2019

Panel 3: What the heck is causing such a goshdarn ruckus, might you ask? Worry not, as you'll have an answer by Friday—though, in truth, that answer will raise a whole 'nother bunch of questions.

Thu Aug 8 00:20:29 2019

Panel 3: If I might paraphrase a line from MST3K's immortal POD PEOPLE, "My spear's all bendy-wendy!"

Fri Aug 9 00:20:37 2019

"WTF?!!!!" might you well ask at this point. Well, I did warn you earlier that this volume boats some genuinely weird crap…

Mon Aug 12 00:20:26 2019

Panel 1: Note the continued "bendiness" of Phallik's spear, which I find oddly amusing.

Tue Aug 13 00:20:29 2019

Panel 2: Phallik's really not having a good day, is he?

Wed Aug 14 00:26:28 2019

Panel 1: I definitely prefer the largely silent and dialogue-free approach that Decade-Ago Me used for this scene, rather than having Emp think or speak her thoughts allowed about WTF might be going on.

Thu Aug 15 00:20:38 2019

Panels 1-2: Once again, we see the sudden transition in Emp's mask between high-contrast standard mode (panel 1) and the more emotional "blushing mode."

Fri Aug 16 00:22:08 2019

Um, YIKES!

Mon Aug 19 00:21:01 2019

Panel 2: Prepare yourselves for occasional lapses in scale between Giant Size and normal-sized characters, folks, as I didn't exactly to knock myself out trying to figure out precise relative figure proportions during his scenes.

Tue Aug 20 00:20:41 2019

Panel 1: More Phallik beard appreciation! Then again, that does represent some uncannily durable and presumably magical form of facial hair.

Wed Aug 21 00:20:41 2019

Panels 1-4: Gotta say that I really like Decade-Ago Me's choice of using rather minimalistic dialogue for this sequence. Well done, D.A.M.!

Thu Aug 22 00:20:31 2019

Panel 3: Come to think of it, Deathmonger could've just had Giant Size try to stomp on Emp, but you have to admit that winging this gigantic skull at her shows a bit more supervillain-worthy panache.

Fri Aug 23 00:20:43 2019

Panel 4: Hold on, Emp! (Otherwise, this would wind up being a rather shorter series than planned.)

Mon Aug 26 00:20:43 2019

Panel 3: Behold, a rare panel where I show a character against a nighttime backdrop without inserting a white outline around ’em. Yay?

Tue Aug 27 00:20:51 2019

Panel 1: I normally use KRAK KOOM as the sound FX for a peal of thunder, which seemed entirely appropriate for a dramatic act of giant-scale teleportation.

Wed Aug 28 00:20:39 2019

What the heck is going on in the lower left corner of this illustration? GASP!

Thu Aug 29 00:21:23 2019

Interesting that I was vacillating between fully and only partially censored obscenities on this page; later on, I would switch over to partial “black-blocking” at all times.

Fri Aug 30 00:22:13 2019

Panel 3: Gotta say that “MEPHITIC” constitutes one step of alliteration too far, as I think the sentence would read better without it.

Mon Sep 2 00:21:08 2019

Panel 4: “Pert-bottomed puddinghead” does have a certain ring to it, gotta say.

Tue Sep 3 00:20:32 2019

Panel 3: And how, ’Jette! And HOW!

Wed Sep 4 00:20:56 2019

Panel 2: Nice shot of Ninjette, here. Yay!

Thu Sep 5 00:20:52 2019

With panels 4 through 6, time to sound the dreaded Overdialoguing Alert! Ouch, Decade-Ago Me.

Fri Sep 6 00:20:49 2019

Akk, forgot to write any g-d hover text for this page. DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!!! (Perhaps I should add more exclamation points to fill out this space, like so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Mon Sep 9 00:20:51 2019

Panel 1: Ah, dig those black-matted picture frames in the background, added because I can’t live without intense values on a comic page.

Tue Sep 10 00:21:07 2019

Panel 1: A pretty cute shot of NInjette that still holds up well, save perhaps for her too-short, truncated-looking little feet. (Drawing feet is tough, folks!)

Wed Sep 11 00:20:38 2019

Panel 3: The oddly wide space between the words MUCH-VAUNTED and LOINS bugs me to no end. (Er, unless this was fixed for the digital version, as I’m writing this while looking at a first-printing “dead tree” edition. UPDATE: Yes, it was indeed fixed!)

Thu Sep 12 00:21:01 2019

Panel 1: Gotta admit, STRUMPET AND SWAIN is a rather catchy turn of phrase.

Fri Sep 13 00:20:50 2019

Panel 1: Behold, more of those black-matted picture frames on the wall, akin to the ones in the living room. (I crave dark values as a background element, clearly.) You might well ask, what imagery might those frames contain? I wouldn’t be able to tell you, as we’ve never seen any of them up close, nor are we ever likely to. Oh, well.

Mon Sep 16 00:22:01 2019

Panel 4: That’s an especially cute shot of Ninjette, gotta say. VERY well done, Decade-Ago Me!

Tue Sep 17 00:20:41 2019

Panel 2: Big-Pouty-Lipped Emp, ahoy! (Ehh, can’t think of anything else for the ol’ hover text today.)

Wed Sep 18 00:20:17 2019

Panel 1: That’s a photoreferenced flamingo head, you’d best believe, but the feathers still didn’t quite work out the way I might’ve liked. Oh, well.

Thu Sep 19 00:22:12 2019

These first-person shots from the late Robotomy’s perspective are definitely a point of view that one would NOT care to experience. (Kinda scraping the bottom of the ol’ barrel with my “hover text” efforts this week, gotta say.)

Fri Sep 20 00:20:30 2019

Panel 3: Don’t forget ol' Deathmonger, folks! “DM” will loom very large indeed in this volume’s overall narrative.

Mon Sep 23 00:20:39 2019

Gotta admit, I never asked the Special Guest Artist what the heck the dialogue on this page meant. Hope it’s not TOO nasty, if you happen to be able to read Mandarin Chinese…

Tue Sep 24 00:20:27 2019

Panel 2: Um, YIKES, Kirby Helmet Chick.

Wed Sep 25 00:20:36 2019

Gotta say, there is something truly hilarious about the idea of Willy Pete, the most, uh, “hands-on” bad guy in the Empverse, being the kinda supervill who “likes to watch.”

Thu Sep 26 00:20:34 2019

Panels 3-5: Toyed with the concept of using small sound FX for this “Spooky magically puts on a happy face” sequence, but they just seemed too distracting and extraneous, as I recall.

Fri Sep 27 00:20:41 2019

Panels 1-4: Jesus, lay off the g-d “reflection squiggles” in the mirror's glass, Decade-Ago Me.

Mon Sep 30 00:20:44 2019

Panel 6: And how!

Tue Oct 1 00:20:49 2019

Panel 5: Clearly, not EVERYBODY views capes with awe and adulation.

Wed Oct 2 00:22:14 2019

Panel 4: Not really a huge fan of drawing backwards baseball caps, but this is a nice change of pace from Thugboy’s usual, long-haired look.

Thu Oct 3 00:20:40 2019

Panel 3: Who’s this? Panel 4: WHO’S THIS????

Fri Oct 4 00:20:36 2019

Panel 1: For the record, AM 1250 was the frequency of a local sports-talk radio station I used to listen to while working circa the mid-2000s, before multiple FM sports-talk stations began broadcasting out of the Boston market starting in 2009.

Mon Oct 7 00:20:47 2019

Panel 1: Not sure how the “mastermind by committee” bit—an analogue, I assume, for football’s “running back by committee” concept—would work in this context, but it’s an amusing term nonetheless.

Tue Oct 8 00:20:36 2019

Panel 4: I do rather like Maidman’s use of the term “gossip-prone goofcapes.”

Wed Oct 9 00:20:55 2019

Panel 2: REALLY should've edited this word balloon down to a terser, less text-intensive truncated version. (A number of easy edits spring to mind readily, a decade too late.)

Thu Oct 10 00:20:35 2019

Panel 1: I’ve only now realized that the “Camera Guy” must be very g-d tall indeed, considering how towering that Emp’s unnamed captor (and carrier) would have to be. (More likely the Camera Guy is flight- or hover-capable, come to think of it.)

Fri Oct 11 00:20:31 2019

Panel 4: Lord knows I do love to draw extreme close-ups for my characters’ eyes at times, even though my generally cartoony art style is notably ill-suited for such views… Oh, well.

Mon Oct 14 00:20:37 2019

Panel 1: I did consider a plotline about the Infernal Service Provider's "guaranteed happiness" program, believe it or not.

Tue Oct 15 00:20:29 2019

Panel 2: I quite like the term “plastic sorcery” (as opposed to surgery) for Spooky’s magical transformation. Too bad I’d forgotten said term until rereading this page!

Wed Oct 16 00:21:06 2019

Panel 3: An early appearance of the “crooked-lip” visual riff I use quite often in the volumes to come. (Or have I already been using it, by this point? Not sure.)

Thu Oct 17 00:20:52 2019

Panel 3: Okay, so maybe “NERVEBALLS?” wasn’t one my better (telepathic) dialogue ideas.

Fri Oct 18 00:20:32 2019

Panel 1: A rare attempt at a different approach to shading characters in this shot, folks!

Mon Oct 21 00:20:41 2019

Panel 1: Gotta say, I do like the three successive parenthetically blurted adverbs in Mindf**k’s first thought balloon.

Tue Oct 22 00:20:53 2019

Panel 4: Every now and then, the orientation of that g-d open, presumably glowing line across Mindf**k’s visor gets away from me, as it definitely did in this panel’s slightly askew image of the g-d thing.

Wed Oct 23 00:20:36 2019

Panel 1: After cranking out commentaries on this webcomic serialization for, I think, four years now, gotta say that I’ve contemplated somehow featuring a literalized version of “hover text” within the comic itself.

Thu Oct 24 00:20:42 2019

Re: the rightmost chica in the envelope: As we’ll see later on in the story, drawing a tooth-brushing character will prove surprisingly difficult.

Fri Oct 25 00:20:33 2019

Panel 5: I quite like that crisscrossing line pattern on the shower door. No idea where I might’ve cribbed that visual riff; who knows, maybe I actually came up with it myself!

Mon Oct 28 00:20:32 2019

Panel 1: Dang, but the Goshdarned Maidman must’ve been in one hell of a messy fight…

Tue Oct 29 00:20:33 2019

Panel 4: The phrase “angel of death-y” still amuses me perhaps more than it should.

Wed Oct 30 00:20:39 2019

Panel 2: Though they’ve not yet been seen, the Empverse does feature several suprahumans with SWAMP-THING-style unearthly control of vegetation. (One of them miiiiight just be ported over from a very, very strange DCU pitch I once worked on.)

Thu Oct 31 00:20:37 2019

I’m not thrilled that the last two word balloons, here, read right to left, but I think the flow is nonetheless reasonably clear to the reader.

Fri Nov 1 00:20:34 2019

Panel 6: Uh oh! Not an unauthorized Lotus Node! Yikes!

Mon Nov 4 00:21:00 2019

Panel 3: “BRACE FOR SHENANIGANS” might be a frequently sounded alert in the Empverse, come to think of it.

Tue Nov 5 00:20:52 2019

While UNIBROW’s supranym has been revealed via his helpfully and prominently labeled costume, rest assured that you will soon learn the other folks’ superhero names shortly.

Wed Nov 6 00:20:48 2019

“Plutonium Blonde” and “Gnumetal” (pardon the missing umlaut) are my fave supranyms out of this cluster, gotta say.

Thu Nov 7 00:20:58 2019

Panel 3: Well, THAT’S not very nice, Plutonium Blonde. (Then again, as we’ll see, she at least has a few more reasons for being bitter and snarky than most purveyors of casual cruelty to Emp.)

Fri Nov 8 00:21:45 2019

Panel 3: What this? A bit of intuition on Capitan Rivet’s part? Intriguing!

Mon Nov 11 00:21:39 2019

Panel 4: Yeahp, Spooky is indeed “indisposed” at the moment.

Tue Nov 12 00:21:41 2019

Ehh, beyond the inevitable Overdialoguing Alert, I’m also not fond of this page’s shots almost entirely consisting of close-ups. Change up that camera distance, Decade-Ago Me!

Wed Nov 13 00:21:11 2019

Panel 6: You, uh, might want to keep poor ol’ Tommy Tokamak in mind, folks, as he plays a significant role later on in this very chapter.

Thu Nov 14 00:20:54 2019

Panel 1: Okay, not the strongest resemblance to Bill Pullman, must admit. (I might be able to do a little better nowadays, though I’m not entirely sure about that.)

Fri Nov 15 00:21:08 2019

Panel 4: Who might Maidman be referring to? Find out next week, webcomic readers! (Though you can probably guess, of course.)

Mon Nov 18 00:21:10 2019

Panel 2: Rubbernecker’s arguably sarcastic line about decaying happening before “FOREVER” amuses me perhaps more than it should, folks.

Tue Nov 19 00:20:49 2019

Panel 3: In an image in EMPOWERED vol.11, I inexplicably misspelled the message on Strapping Buck’s belt plate as “FEER THE DEER.” Puzzling!

Wed Nov 20 00:20:46 2019

Panel 1: Yeah, not a pleasant scene for poor Tommy Tokamak, folks. “Harsh realm,” as characters in my early DIRTY PAIR stories used to say.

Thu Nov 21 00:20:46 2019

Strong shots of Crispy Critter Phallik in both panels 1 and 3, gotta say. Well done, Decade-Ago Me!

Fri Nov 22 00:22:25 2019

Panel 2: I don’t think I’ve never done a full-body image of ol' Gnumetal (pardon the missing umlaut); kinda curious what that would look like, must admit.

Mon Nov 25 00:21:31 2019

Man, some days—or some pages, at least—I just got nothin’ in terms of content for the ol’ hover text. This, needless to say, is one of those days, and one of those pages. My apologies, folks!

Tue Nov 26 00:22:07 2019

Panels 2 & 4: Daaaaamn, but that’s some serious “big head, narrow shoulders” figure proportions on Emp in these shots—or “Popsicle Emp,” as one friend put it, a tad unkindly.

Wed Nov 27 00:22:27 2019

Panel 3: Those “glitter FX” around the lightning stroke are rendered with white-out applied by brush over the artwork. (VERY tough to avoid smearing ‘em, though, when you’re whiting out dozens of the g-d things at a time.)

Thu Nov 28 00:23:02 2019

Panel 7: An early appearance of Emp’s “two loose braids” hairstyle, a visual riff which recurs from time to time later in the series, mostly notably in the opening flashback from EMPOWERED vol.11.

Fri Nov 29 00:21:41 2019

Panel 4: Gotta say, “SHWIPP” would’ve been a better sound FX for Emp withdrawing the suit from the envelope. “SHLPP,” to my ear—or eye, as in reading—sounds more wet and gooshy, thanks to that “L” sound.

Mon Dec 2 00:21:22 2019

Ehh, this page wound up way too heavy on close-up shots for Present-Day Me’s taste, even though neither Past nor Present Me would be all that enthused about drawing the backgrounds that medium or long shots would necessarily entail.

Tue Dec 3 00:20:42 2019

Y’know, I’m beginning to think that the big head, narrow shoulder “popsicle Emp” figure proportions that I’ve occasionally discussed in these commentaries might’ve actually peaked during this volume, after not being all that prevalent earlier in the series.

Wed Dec 4 00:21:20 2019

Panel 4: Lemme tell you, drawing that g-d $100 bill was NO FUN WHATSOEVER. Hope you folks like it!

Thu Dec 5 00:21:23 2019

Panels 2-3: Wow, the lettering’s getting REALLY dinky on this page. (Alas, I’m no longer capable of lettering quite so small, as I mentioned yesterday.)

Fri Dec 6 00:21:08 2019

Panel 2: Enjoy Emp’s goofy-ass CRT monitor, which was already more than a tad anachronistic a decade ago; definitely NOT a far-thinking choice on my part, back when I first introduced the g-d thing in vol.1.

Mon Dec 9 00:21:27 2019

Panels 4 and 8: Without warning, Big Pouty Lips Emp reappears! (Note that the ol’ BPLs aren’t terribly expressive, which is why Emp’s mouth switches rapidly between different cartoony depictions on this page’s panels.)

Tue Dec 10 00:20:47 2019

Yeahp, that’s presumably supposed to be a caped Empverse iteration of Keith Olbermann and his “Worst Person in the World” bit, also presumably airing on HeroNet.

Wed Dec 11 00:21:23 2019

Panel 1: Gotta say, that “one loose strand” of hair hanging down over Emp’s left eye is a “throwback” visual riff now almost entirely discarded from current-era EMPOWERED drawings.

Thu Dec 12 00:20:57 2019

Panel 4: Huh. Looks like I was PROFOUNDLY mistaken months ago when I claimed that Emp’s Big Pouty Lips started to fade out of use during this era of EMPOWERED.

Fri Dec 13 00:21:07 2019

Panel 6: The “MINIONS MUST WASH HANDS” sign still amuses me to end, gotta admit.

Mon Dec 16 00:20:41 2019

Panel 1: Wow, that is a primo example of the "big head, narrow shoulders" look of the occasionally recurring "popsicle Emp" visual riff.

Tue Dec 17 00:20:38 2019

Panel 1: Aeron (REGISTERED TRADEMARK) chairs were quite the big office-furniture deal a decade ago, though I don't think they're quite so popular nowadays. (Not really sure, as I don't work in an office.)

Wed Dec 18 00:21:03 2019

Panel 3: Ouch!

Thu Dec 19 00:27:02 2019

Panel 1: Again, gotta love how those supposed cat's eyes painted on Ocelotina's chest wind up making her cleavage look rather like an owl.

Fri Dec 20 00:21:04 2019

Panels 2-3: Note the sudden change in the appearance of Emp's mask, as it shifts over to "blush mode" in panel 3.

Mon Dec 23 00:21:34 2019

Panel 6: Ehh, not quite sure if that’s supposed to be high school freshman Emp, or college freshman Emp. (Probably the former, but can’t recall Decade-Ago Me’s intentions.)

Tue Dec 24 00:21:04 2019

Panel 2: There’s that occasionally recurring visual riff of “underbitey Emp” again, which comes and goes in this era of EMPOWERED seemingly at random.

Wed Dec 25 00:21:02 2019

Panel 2: Supposedly, the “y” spelling of “manyfold” (as opposed to “manifold”) is permissible in some rare contexts; ehh, what can I say, folks? I’m oddly fond of that spelling, rarely used or not.

Thu Dec 26 00:21:40 2019

Panel 4: Note the wording of “MOST supervillains aren’t big into the scene”, which is a tad ominous. “MOST”…?

Fri Dec 27 00:21:00 2019

Panel 7: Really, safe to say that very few Empverse supervills are able to accept constructive criticism.

Mon Dec 30 00:20:36 2019

Time for a rare “Every Emp Panel Pouty-Lipped” page, folks! Enjoy?

Tue Dec 31 00:21:12 2019

Panel 4: Not to wax too SPOILER-y, but a future EMPOWERED volume will reveal an actual reason for Emp’s perpetually “MMPH”-ing status.

Wed Jan 1 00:20:21 2020

Panel 5: This panel’s riff courtesy of an acquaintance of mine active in the, ah, BDSM community, who asked, “How come you’ve had Emp complain about the drooling?” Naive lad that I was, I didn’t know what she was talking about. Yikes!

Thu Jan 2 00:20:36 2020

Panel 3: Very tough to indicate automobile carpeting AND define the shape of the car trunk Emp’s trapped inside; those lengthy hatching and crosshatching lines attempting to convey the sides of the trunk don’t quite work, IMHO. Oh, well.

Fri Jan 3 00:21:53 2020

Panel 5: So, what happens when Emp cries really, really hard? Find out next week, webcomic readers!

Mon Jan 6 00:20:43 2020

Panel 1: Underbite-y Emp ahoy!

Tue Jan 7 00:20:25 2020

Panel 4: Overall, I don’t mind Emp’s dialogue, here, but there’s just too dang much of it for one panel.

Wed Jan 8 00:20:28 2020

Panel 4: Should’ve rolled with only two word balloons in this panel; stuffing three of the g-d things in a single, small panel is usually a bad idea, and this particular example is no exception.

Thu Jan 9 00:20:19 2020

Panel 2: Nice up-angled close-up of Ocelotina, gotta say. Decently done, Decade-Ago Me!

Fri Jan 10 00:20:27 2020

Panel 1: Ah, just imagine the sights that Intern Billy (at upper left) has surely seen during his time in Ocelotina’s wacky little operation…

Mon Jan 13 00:20:26 2020

Panel 2: Arguably, might be time to sound the “IT’S A TRAP!” Excessive Trapezius Muscle Mass Alert with this panel’s shot of Thugboy.

Tue Jan 14 00:20:30 2020

Panel 1: As ever, Thugboy’s commitment to wearing sunglasses at all times, a holdover from the earlier, wackier days of the series, still amuses me perhaps more than it should.

Wed Jan 15 00:20:52 2020

Panel 4: Super Pouty-Lipped Emp in this panel, followed by the completely different, non-pouty mouths in panels 5 and 6. (Emp Pouty-Lippedness is a temporary but recurring riff, clearly.)

Thu Jan 16 00:20:47 2020

Gotta admit, I find the concept of super-chatty mid-coitus Emp peculiarly amusing. (Your Mileage May Vary, as they say.)

Fri Jan 17 00:20:52 2020

Man, it’s especially tough to think up “hover text” for title-page illos like this. Nothing’s springing readily to mind, alas; just as well this is the last such chapter-break page in the book.

Mon Jan 20 00:20:34 2020

Panel 2: I quite like Ninjette’s pose in this shot, gotta say. Well done, Decade-Ago Me!

Tue Jan 21 00:20:35 2020

Panel 6: “…Y’know, if I were, um, dead,” is a tad on-the-nose, TBH, but I feel this admitted lack of subtlety works decently in the panel’s context.

Wed Jan 22 00:20:53 2020

Panel 2: Ah, such nice, wee lettering, of a font size that my eyesight and low-res drawing tools have conspired to prevent me from ever producing again.

Thu Jan 23 00:21:06 2020

Panel 1: Ehh, given that the previous page’s Ninjette roundhouse kick was flowing right to left, that wig probably shouldn’t have dropped off to land in Oyuki-chan’s left hand. (Oh, well.)

Fri Jan 24 00:20:51 2020

Panel 1: Time for another appreciation of the neat, clean, precise and very, very small lettering I was producing for this volume. I envy your superior eyesight and higher-resolution pencils, Decade-Ago Me.

Mon Jan 27 00:20:48 2020

Panel 2: Gotta love the way F**king Oyuki-chan whooshes outta Emp’s line of sight in this shot.

Tue Jan 28 00:20:37 2020

Panel 3: Behold, one of my all-time-favorite pagecount-preserving shortcuts—that is, the shot in which off-panel action is conveyed solely by sound FX.

Wed Jan 29 00:20:43 2020

Panel 4: As we’ll see, getting “neuronecroreamed” is clearly a bad scene indeed.

Thu Jan 30 00:20:39 2020

Panel 1: Note the still-cracked walls in the background, here, which serve as blatantly overt symbols of Spooky’s mental and emotional states.

Fri Jan 31 00:20:50 2020

Panel 4: Must admit, can’t recall if I ever actually showed the Caged Demonwolf doing his own version of the SEINFELDian “Yadda, yadda, yadda.”

Mon Feb 3 00:20:54 2020

Panel 2: Pretty sure I screwed up the “avulsed tissue” line in the first draft and wrote “evulsed” instead, but perhaps I am mistaken. The “avulsed” bit, even if originally misused as “evulsed,” is lodged in my head because, along those very lines, a friend of mine suffered substantial loss of tissue to his arm in a motorcycle accident back in the 90s. ’Twas quite the scar, to put it mildly.

Tue Feb 4 00:21:07 2020

Panel 6: The wonky, out-of-alignment vertical text stacking on Emp’s last word balloon bugs me to no end, gotta admit.

Wed Feb 5 00:21:41 2020

Panel 4: Dang, hope you folks appreciate the lettering on that g-d text message, as trying to hand-latter mixed-case fonts like this is remarkably difficult.

Thu Feb 6 00:20:41 2020

Panel 2: Behold, a very familiar park bench, as seen in vols. 3 and 5! (Sorry, don’t feel like looking up the page numbers where it’s appeared before.) As always, VERY easy to screw up the drawing of a sitting pose on the g-d thing; Lord knows why I didn’t go for something easier. (Oh, well.)

Fri Feb 7 00:20:58 2020

Panel 1: We’ll (indirectly) learn this Superdead hero’s supranym shortly, but would you webcomics readers care to guess what those “GS” initials stand for? (UPDATE: Whoops, forgot that name was already mentioned by Maidman a few weeks back. Well, you can still guess, if you want.)

Mon Feb 10 00:20:51 2020

Panel 4: Presumably, Spooky used further divination spells to suss out the whole bit with Deathmonger’s lair and its apparent landline back to the surface.

Tue Feb 11 00:20:51 2020

Panel 6: Say, what’s that indistinct shape looming oh-so-softly in the background? MYSTERIOUS!

Wed Feb 12 00:23:32 2020

Panel 4: “Uh oh” indeed!

Thu Feb 13 00:21:06 2020

Panel 2: To repeat yesterday’s hover text, “Uh oh” indeed!

Fri Feb 14 00:20:59 2020

I’m quite fond of this page layout still, even if it is a tad crowded and busy. Still works for me, regardless!

Mon Feb 17 00:21:14 2020

Panel 3: Folks, enjoy a rare scene of Ninjette in action with her hair loose; in fact, we’ll see a fair bit more of such imagery in the upcoming webcomic serialization of EMPOWERED vol.7.

Tue Feb 18 00:20:51 2020

Panel 4: “GCHOK” is a fine sound FX coined by my late friend Toren Smith for all the cleaving-by-katana mayhem in the English translation of Horoaki Samura’s manga BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL.

Wed Feb 19 00:30:38 2020

Panel 5: Really not a fan of the way I depicted the arc of the chain-wrapped skull, but Decade-Ago Me likely felt that the panel’s shape and size required such a compromise.

Thu Feb 20 00:20:38 2020

Panel 1: TBH, I probably should’ve burned more pagecount to clarify further the wildly varying scales between Emp and the hulking Size Queen (and her detached skull)—but, by this late point in the book, I no doubt felt that I was running the F outta pages.

Fri Feb 21 00:20:48 2020

Volume 6 Page 176

Mon Feb 24 00:20:45 2020

Not 100% sure that a deer’s evulsing eye would look like that, but I didn’t feel like doing the (gruesome) research to make sure.

Tue Feb 25 00:20:51 2020

Panel 1: Bulge-intensive Maidman panty shot ahoy!

Wed Feb 26 00:20:48 2020

Got nothin’ whatsoever for the ol’ hovertext today, folks! Your regularly scheduled hovertext service will resume tomorrow.

Thu Feb 27 00:20:40 2020

Panel 1: Gotta say that the unusual lighting on this shot worked out quite well. Nicely done, Decade-Ago Me!

Fri Feb 28 00:20:45 2020

Panel 5: Not sure that the ol’ Big Pouty Lips are a great choice for this particular shot, but there they are, folks!

Mon Mar 2 00:25:31 2020

Panel 1: Only now does it occur to me that, based from this statement, Deathmonger clearly must follow (or at least be familiar with) superhero fantasy leagues.

Tue Mar 3 00:24:46 2020

Panel 2: Only now does it occur to me that the use of the familiar phrase “friendly neighborhood _____” might indirectly imply that Spider-Man exists (if only as fiction) in the Empverse.

Wed Mar 4 00:21:09 2020

Panel 1: Bitchin’ close-up of the ol’ Infernal Service Provider, gotta say. Nicely done, decade-ago me!

Thu Mar 5 00:20:41 2020

Panel 5: To quote the Demonwolf from the end of vol.1, “…AND EVEN THE DREAD ‘C-WORD’ OF WHICH THE LEGENDS WHISPER.”

Fri Mar 6 00:21:05 2020

I very much like the shot of Spooky in panel 3, but dislike the way I drew her face in panel 4. (Can’t win ’em all, folks.)

Mon Mar 9 00:20:52 2020

Panel 1: In the context of a each-page-stands-alone-for-a-day webcomic, I’d have preferred to see Spooky’s face fully in this shot. In EMPOWERED’s native format as a 200-page book, though, I have no problem with this partial view.

Tue Mar 10 00:20:48 2020

Panel 4: Spooky’s drool(!) really sets this shot apart, gotta say. EXTREME, yo.

Wed Mar 11 00:20:49 2020

Panel 4: That makes three down—or “three up,” given that they’re being hung upside-down.

Thu Mar 12 00:20:57 2020

Panel 5: I do like the wee but creepy detail of Phallik’s decapitated head visible beside the crater.

Fri Mar 13 00:20:51 2020

Panel 1: *OMINOUS HAIR DANGLES OMINOUSLY*

Mon Mar 16 00:20:32 2020

Enjoy the white-out-slathered majesty of a veritable blizzard of glitter FX on this page, folks!

Tue Mar 17 00:20:44 2020

Panel 1: In a shocking reversal from the conventional practice of D&D, this time around THERE’S NO SAVING THROW FOR THE DM.

Wed Mar 18 00:20:40 2020

Panel 2: A rough day for the ol’ Deathmonger, folks!

Thu Mar 19 00:20:19 2020

Panel 4: Enjoy some speed lines drawn with a French curve, folks! (I generally prefer to use such curved lines as they add a wee bit more interest than straight speed lines.)

Fri Mar 20 00:20:42 2020

Panel 2: Or, to quote Screenwriter Guy and Studio Guy from the fine YouTube series PITCH MEETING on Screen Rants: “Whoops!” and “Whoopsie!”

Mon Mar 23 00:20:39 2020

Panel 6: Such is Emp’s dedication to whimsical phrasing—or mine, as a writer of dialogue—that she uses the neologism “nuke-y” in the midst of life-threatening peril.

Tue Mar 24 00:20:40 2020

Panel 1: Equal-opportunity “butt shots” ahoy!

Wed Mar 25 00:20:54 2020

Panel 5: Gotta say, I like the way that Decade-Ago Me depicted the destruction of the vault containing Tommy Tokamak in this panel.

Thu Mar 26 00:21:11 2020

Panel 2: Whoops! Also, I should say that I have a REALLY tough time hand-lettering mixed-case fonts like this, so I hope you enjoy the effort.

Fri Mar 27 00:20:49 2020

Panel 5: I do rather like the goofily profane (well, obscene, technically) phrase “princessly f**king behind.”

Mon Mar 30 10:08:36 2020

Panel 1: Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you EMPOWERED vol. 7’s plotline!

Tue Mar 31 00:11:08 2020

Panel 4: Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you EMPOWERED vol.8’s plotline!

Wed Apr 1 08:39:21 2020

Panel 3: Backstory on that T-shirt is that, perhaps not surprisingly, Thugboy knows somebody in Blackwater.

Thu Apr 2 00:18:00 2020

Strapping Buck acCENtuates the positive! Keep on looking on the bright side of undeath, good sir—albeit with only one eye, now!

Fri Apr 3 07:49:37 2020

I did, in fact, draw a sketch of a 14-heads-tall bishonen version of Thugboy for a (fujoshi) friend, but the illo seems to have been lost forever; oh, well.

Mon Apr 6 09:20:26 2020

Yeahp, Makro is a bit of a “five-head,” though that big M on her forehead disguises that fact to a degree.

Tue Apr 7 00:31:59 2020

Yeahp, Ninjette’s feet are undeniably too short. What can I say, folks? Exaggeratedly truncated feet on female characters was a cartoonishly stylistic flourish of my artwork a decade ago.

Wed Apr 8 11:37:20 2020

Re: Emp’s pose: For reasons unknown, I seem to have EXTREME g-d difficulty drawing the correct hip tilt and torso orientation of a woman lying on her side.

Thu Apr 9 01:03:17 2020

Note that drawing numerals on a clock face—whether in Roman form or otherwise—can pose a surprisingly difficult artistic challenge, as this slightly wonky-looking example might hint.

Fri Apr 10 00:12:07 2020

Whoops, forgot to prep any "hover text" for this commentary. My bad, folks! I blame the quarantine. (Just kidding, as my freelancer's existence is little changed from my usual socially distanced routine.)

Mon Apr 13 03:17:20 2020

Panel 4: Lettering that g-d stenciling on the white phosphorus grenade was no fun whatsoever, as I recall.

Tue Apr 14 03:17:57 2020

Panel 1: The chica at upper left was always referred to as “Badass Sundress Waif” in my notes for the volume, by the way.

Wed Apr 15 03:17:28 2020

Panel 2: My lack of high-level ab-rendering skills, as seen here, would eventually drag me in the direction of taking up life-drawing again roughly a decade hence.ter.

Thu Apr 16 03:17:29 2020

Panel 1: Stand by for more Wet Bathtub Ninjette later in EMPOWERED vol.7, folks!

Fri Apr 17 03:17:56 2020

Emp in Ninjette’s familiar shorts AND sporting her “shurikenipasties”? Lordy loo!

Mon Apr 20 03:17:31 2020

Panel 3: In the foreground at left, enjoy the Ayakami I’ve dubbed “the Badass Sundress Waif,” folks!

Tue Apr 21 03:17:36 2020

Panel 2: The “OOH”-mouthed Noh mask on that ninja in the background cracks me up still, gotta say.

Wed Apr 22 00:02:53 2020

Panel 2: Wellp, so much for “the thrill of the hunt,” huh? Volume’s over, folks!

Thu Apr 23 03:17:56 2020

Panel 2: Enjoy a rare look at an Ayakami ninja’s unmasked face, folks!

Fri Apr 24 03:19:12 2020

Panel 3: Behold, anti-fukiya (blowgun) fukiya fire! That is, AFF instead of AAA (Anti-Aircraft Artillery).

Mon Apr 27 03:18:13 2020

Panels 3-4: Take a long gander (ahem) at the blocky, “ALL CAPS” lettering on Ninjette’s shorts, folks, as we’ll eventually see a different, mixed-case version later on—or, temporally speaking, EARLIER on—in this very volume.

Tue Apr 28 03:18:11 2020

Panel 4: Come think of it, the Noh mask worn by the Badass Sundress Waif is probably my among all the Ayakami. Congrats on your good taste, Waif!

Wed Apr 29 03:18:01 2020

One again, forgot to write hovertext ahead of time for this page. Whoops! How aboput: Yeahp, Ninjette's feet are too small in panel 1, as often happened in this era of my drawing isiosyncrasies.

Thu Apr 30 03:18:08 2020

Panel 3: Note the order of the five shuriken around Ninjette’s collar, which has been fixed in stone for quite a few volumes now. I can draw that precise sequence of the g-d things—6-pointer, 8-pointer, 3-pointer, curving 4-pointer & diamond 4-pointer—in my sleep now.

Fri May 1 03:18:08 2020

Panel 1: Good thing that, as we’ll see, Ninjette has more than one set of her trademark outfit on hand. The question might be, exactly how many sets does she have? (Answer: UNKNOWN)

Mon May 4 03:18:57 2020

Panel 2: For the record, Ninjette’s under-her-breath exclamation (upon viewing The Goddamn Maidman’s panty-flashing state of costume damage) is “ara” in Japanese hiragana.

Tue May 5 03:17:40 2020

Panels 4-6: Yeahp, it would seem that monogamy would’ve been a bit of a challenge for a free spirit like Daisy.

Wed May 6 03:18:19 2020

Panel 5: Note the small “PINGG” sound FX at lower right, which (SPOILER ALERT) is the now-familiar sound of a Lotus Node portal appearing.

Thu May 7 03:18:26 2020

Nothin’ springs to mind for this page’s hovertext, I’m afraid. My insincerest apologies for this interruption in hovertext service, folks.

Fri May 8 03:17:36 2020

The lettering in panel 1’s caption, which wonkily struggled to imitate a typeset or digital font, was a g-d nightmare. (Might as well have had Dark Horse replace it in production.)

Mon May 11 03:17:40 2020

Panel 3: Hope you’ll forgive the technicality that most of the the fellas in the background couldn’t actually get a good view of Ninjette’s behind from the angle I depicted.

Tue May 12 03:17:41 2020

Panel 3: Showing the (very) tight close-ups of all those male eyes around Emp was a rather neat—and effective—approach to depicting her self-consciousness.

Wed May 13 01:16:03 2020

Panel 2: Big Pouty Lips on The Goddamn Maidman in this shot!

Thu May 14 03:18:13 2020

I am occasionally tempted to just write “INSERT HOVERTEXT HERE,” as I often can’t think of anything short and to-the-point for this feature.

Fri May 15 03:17:54 2020

Panel 1: Dueling codpieces, more or less!

Mon May 18 00:06:33 2020

Panel 2: Big Pouty Lips ahoy!

Tue May 19 03:17:43 2020

Panel 1: Verra nice shot of Spooky’s Infernal Service Provider, gotta say. Well done, Decade-Ago Me!

Wed May 20 03:17:42 2020

Panels 4 & 6: Note the mildly interesting use of the same Emp profile mirrored between these panels.

Thu May 21 03:17:34 2020

Interesting visual riff on the interlocking strands of Emp’s flowing hair; the open gaps where the strands overlap aren’t something that I normally draw—or erase, as the case may be.

Fri May 22 00:34:57 2020

Volume 7 Page 42

Mon May 25 00:13:37 2020

Panel 1: Enjoy another rare view of the room in Emp’s apartment located between her bedroom and the bathroom, previously seen only when someone is using her tragically anachronistic PC and its truly unfortunate CRT-based monitor.

Tue May 26 00:36:18 2020

Panel 3: “Superboobs!”

Wed May 27 03:17:30 2020

Panel 3: In case you hadn’t heard the term before, “live blade” means a blade with an actual sharpened edge, as opposed to the unsharpened ones of a replica weapon—or a real weapon that’s blunt-edged by design, like the hachiwara on this page.

Thu May 28 00:07:35 2020

Panel 2: “Awe-inspiring abomination” is one of the rarer Caged Demonwolf titles that, I think, has never been repeated elsewhere in the series—as opposed to some of the other frequently appearing appellations such as “Blazing-Eyed Devilgoat” and so on.

Fri May 29 03:18:53 2020

Panel 1: For some reason, the Caged Demonwolf futilely commanding “HALT!” in the background amuses me to no end.

Mon Jun 1 00:25:48 2020

Panel 1: Ah, I’d forgotten another technological anachronism: That CRT TV beyond Emp and Ninjette. Whoops! (In fact, I still have one kicking around, as Playstation 2 games—which I still indulge in from time to time—look like absolute garbage on my modern-era TV.)

Tue Jun 2 03:17:43 2020

Panels 1 and 2: Extra-long Emp hair flowing everywhere!

Wed Jun 3 00:12:51 2020

Panel 2: “Callipygian entity of overwhelmingly orbiculate character” is possibly my favorite line from this scene, gotta say.

Thu Jun 4 00:10:54 2020

Panel 2: I do quite like Emp’s expression in this panel, which definitely hints that she’s becoming aware at some level that she’s ridiculously hawt.

Fri Jun 5 00:28:19 2020

Panel 1: In fact, with the previous page I was talking about exactly such an Emp expression; I’d entirely forgotten that Thugboy covers the same topic on the very next page! (Oh, well.)

Mon Jun 8 03:17:50 2020

Panel 1: Nice profile shot of Emp. Well done, (roughly) Decade-Ago Me!

Tue Jun 9 00:19:04 2020

Panel 1: I do quite like this panel’s “behind behind” riff in Ninjette’s dialogue.

Wed Jun 10 03:18:20 2020

Plenty of Big Pouty Lips Emp on this page, folks! (This stylistic riff persisted much later into the series than I remembered, must admit.)

Thu Jun 11 03:18:14 2020

Panel 1: Technically, Emp’s head should be cranked around much further to be looking back over her shoulder at Thugboy, but ehh, artistic license ahoy, folks.

Fri Jun 12 03:18:42 2020

Panel 1: I never saw the 2010 film THE FIGHTER, so I had no idea that The Heavy’s song “How You Like Me Now” was apparently featured heavily in the movie—to the point of being “driven into the ground,” as noted by a friend of mine who had seen the David O. Russell joint. Oh, well.

Tue Jun 16 03:17:59 2020

Panel 3: Naked Emp butt ahoy! SHOCKING!

Wed Jun 17 03:17:25 2020

Panel 1: Another techy anachronism from a decade ago that hasn’t aged terribly well is, of course, the corded microphone on the karaoke set-up. (Oh, well.)

Thu Jun 18 00:05:29 2020

Definitely too much dialogue on this page, but I was no doubt hot—or HAWT?—to wrap this conversation up as quickly as possible to avoid burning up too much pagecount on it.

Fri Jun 19 03:17:58 2020

Panel 4: Oops, indeed!

Mon Jun 22 00:23:07 2020

Panels 4-5: Subtle!

Tue Jun 23 03:17:55 2020

Ehh, time to sound the dreaded Overdialoguing Alert, folks, as there’s just too much dang text on this page, which I admit is an ever-present danger with the logorrheic Caged Demonwolf’s speechifying. (Oh, well.)

Wed Jun 24 03:17:34 2020

Panel 1: Y’know, I have no idea whether “avalanchine” is an actual adjective, or another Demonwolf neologism. UPDATE: An actual adjective, looks like! (Also the handle of a big-deal esports player, it would seem.)

Thu Jun 25 00:33:21 2020

Panel 1: Not a big fan of drawing those shelves in the background, which might contain either books or DVDs—then again, hard to tell which they might be, as we almost never see Emp reading OR watching anything.

Fri Jun 26 00:07:09 2020

Panel 1: For some reason, I like how the image of the Badass Sundress Waif standing atop her fellow shinobi’s shoulders worked out. Nicely done, Decade-Ago Me!

Mon Jun 29 00:17:55 2020

Panel 7: Ouch! (With further “ouches” in store for this particular Ayakami, as we’ll see in tomorrow’s page.)

Tue Jun 30 00:37:29 2020

Panel 4: With Ninjette’s eyes and forehead-band shuriken, an early appearance of the visual riff of “highlights trailing white-out streaks to indicate motion.”

Wed Jul 1 00:38:01 2020

Panels 1 and 5: Ouches for Ninjette!

Thu Jul 2 00:02:55 2020

Panel 4: Here, another example of WAY-too-short, unintentionally truncated feet—or foot, singular, here. (Oh, well.)

Fri Jul 3 00:06:53 2020

Panel 5: Ouch! Good thing the Ayakami (as mentioned a few pages back) rock the pain-suppressing ninja art of “shinyo mekkyaku sureba hi mo mata suzushi no jutsu,” right?

Mon Jul 6 00:18:05 2020

Panel 4: Ahem.

Tue Jul 7 07:17:26 2020

Panel 1: Yeahp, “PHUTT” is the official Empverse sound FX for a blowgun being used.

Wed Jul 8 07:18:52 2020

Panel 1: How did Ninjette fend off the effects of the dart’s drug? Find out tomorrow, folks!

Thu Jul 9 00:43:27 2020

Panel 4: Okay, the concept of a ninja tweeting unwarily seems more than a tad unlikely, but what the hell, given the sheer wackiness inherent to the Empverse.

Fri Jul 10 00:42:18 2020

Volume 7 Page 77

Mon Jul 13 00:17:44 2020

Panel 4: A particularly nice shot of Yukiko-chan, gotta say. Nicely done, Decade-Ago Me!

Tue Jul 14 00:17:21 2020

Panel 4: Oyuki-chan comes perilously close to showing an actual facial expression in this panel. Gasp!

Wed Jul 15 00:17:28 2020

Go figure, turns out that baboon faces are very, very tricky to pull off successfully.

Thu Jul 16 00:17:34 2020

Panel 3: Excessively Petite Feet Alert on Ninjette in this shot, alas.

Fri Jul 17 00:18:22 2020

Panel 1: Another L-shaped panel, here, with that “arm” extending over to the upper right; as mentioned (often) before, this is a riff I cribbed from Frank Thorne’s 70s run on RED SONJA for Marvel.

Mon Jul 20 00:17:41 2020

Panel 1: I’m truly if not inordinately fond of “techy backgrounds” like this one, as they’re not all that time-consuming or stressful despite their perceived high(-ish) level of detail, due to the fact that I can crank out such meaningless panoramas of techiness in my sleep.

Tue Jul 21 00:17:25 2020

Panel 2: Another L-shaped panel, folks; as you might recall, this is a riff I’ve borrowed from Frank Thorne’s high-panel-count shenanigans on Marvel’s 70s-era RED SONJA.

Wed Jul 22 00:17:55 2020

Panel 2: Gotta say, trying to draw American money can be surprisingly difficult; then again, I’m sure that drawing, say, modern Canadian bills—yeah, those polymer ones with the transparent sections—would be even trickier.

Thu Jul 23 00:34:11 2020

Panel 1: Judging from the blood spurting from the punched supervill’s mouth, that uppercut has GOTTA hurt. (I might well have rolled with mere saliva spraying from his mouth, but probably felt that blood would be easier to see.)

Fri Jul 24 00:17:33 2020

Panels 3-4: I vaguely recall contemplating the idea of the as-yet-unseen bad guy barking “CATCH!” at Emp from off-panel.

Mon Jul 27 00:18:59 2020

Panel 2: SUPERNOOB!!!!!! Imagine if that weren’t just a pejorative label, but an actual cape’s supranym! (Or DON’T imagine that, if you find it too much of a burden to do so.)

Tue Jul 28 00:17:31 2020

Panel 5: Decent enough baboon face in this shot, despite the fact that I find such particular animal faces oddly difficult to depict in an aesthetically satisfying manner.

Wed Jul 29 00:17:31 2020

Panel 1: Big Pouty Lips ahoy! (Jeez, I don’t think this visual riff starts fading until EMP vol.8, which is later in the series than I thought.)

Thu Jul 30 00:17:14 2020

Panel 4: As noted previously, this fella’s Syndablokk fandom is so pronounced that he sports “S.B.” on both his T-shirt and phone. ROCK that fandom, dude.

Fri Jul 31 00:17:34 2020

Panel 4: In case you’d forgotten from last week—and how could you, dear readers?—these supervills call themselves “The Terrible Trey.” (UPDATE: Oops, I’d forgotten that their team name appears in panel 2. Please ignore this hovertext, folks.)

Mon Aug 3 00:17:13 2020

Panel 1: Gotta say, I do still like the “BAD GUYS ON BOARD” sticker in the rear window of the Treymobile.

Tue Aug 4 00:17:22 2020

Panel 2: Admittedly, rocking that “TTREY” license plate might not make the Terrible Trey the most difficult group of bad guys to track down.

Wed Aug 5 00:17:05 2020

Panel 5: I do rather like the rarely seen visual riff of Emp’s hand being partially visible within the VORPP’s flash.

Thu Aug 6 00:18:01 2020

Panel 4: Here, behold the sight of not just Big Pouty Lips as seen in panels 1 & 2, but cracked, messed-up-looking Deathly Hungover Big Pouty Lips.

Fri Aug 7 00:17:05 2020

Panel 5: This panel definitely calls for the dreaded Excessive Font Size Alert, I gotta say.

Mon Aug 10 00:19:23 2020

Panel 4: What might the letters “GG” on the headpieces of those bad guys stand for, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine (or possibly better), as I don’t recall ever bothering to figure that out.

Tue Aug 11 00:18:54 2020

Panel 2: A “doctor of mad science” is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a thing in the Empverse, if you’ll pardon the use of the increasingly tired phrase “a thing”.Panel 2: A “doctor of mad science” is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a thing in the Empverse, if you’ll pardon the use of the increasingly tired phrase “a thing”.

Wed Aug 12 00:17:49 2020

Panel 4: “Double ughh,” indeed.

Thu Aug 13 00:18:07 2020

Panel 5: Emp’s “….” unspoken dialogue would’ve worked better, I think, if I’d placed the word balloon AFTER the off-panel bad guy’s speculation re: Emp’s alleged kinkiness.

Fri Aug 14 00:17:51 2020

Panel 2: The “CG” on the unnamed supervill’s hat could theoretically stand for “Cowgirl,” but that’s obvsly way too g-d boring to actually be the case. What do YOU think her supranym might be, webcomic readers?

Mon Aug 17 00:17:08 2020

Panel 4: Indeed, the “distress cake” doesn’t sound tasty in the slightest.

Tue Aug 18 00:17:20 2020

Panel 2: Behold, another “L-shaped panel,” a panel-design riff cribbed from Frank Thorne’s 70s Marvel run on RED SONJA—as I’ve mentioned from time to time here, and explained in considerably more detail on my Patreon.

Wed Aug 19 00:18:49 2020

Whoops, forgot to prep hovertext for this page! Golly gee, is my face ever red!

Thu Aug 20 00:17:18 2020

Panel 2: With the “WHOOOSH,” here, I’m not sure why I don’t do the space-saving “overlapping Os” lettering riff more often in my sound FX nowadays.

Fri Aug 21 00:17:10 2020

Panel 1: That’s one big VORPP, wouldn’t you say?

Mon Aug 24 00:17:29 2020

Who might the blonde chica at lower right be? Never fear, webcomic readers, as you’ll find out the answer within a week or two.

Tue Aug 25 00:17:17 2020

Panel 4: The ever-problematic Havoc is not the most politely spoken of superheroes even when sober, as the “Tranny up” bit drunkenly blurted here might hint.

Wed Aug 26 00:18:48 2020

Panel 3: “Session 25” of the Willy Pete after-action report, huh? Be glad I didn’t put you folks through very many of the other 24 sessions, webcomics readers!

Thu Aug 27 00:17:09 2020

Panel 5: Havoc & Rivet’s sotto voce conversation will take a while to pay off later in the series, but it WILL eventually pay off, more or less.

Fri Aug 28 00:17:14 2020

Panels 1 and 3: Enjoy(?) the rare appearances of old-style thought balloons, folks!

Mon Aug 31 00:17:13 2020

Panel 5: I do rather like the term “SUPERSCIENCE SEMI-OMNISCIENCE,” gotta say.

Tue Sep 1 00:17:19 2020

Panel 3: LOOK OUT, Obnoxious Hairband SchoolGirl from Spooky’s Crappiest Memories!

Wed Sep 2 00:17:30 2020

Panel 1: An especially cute shot of Schoolgirl-Uni Mindf**k here, must admit. Well done, Decade-Ago Me!

Thu Sep 3 00:17:09 2020

Panel 2: We never do get to see the “superlawyers” mentioned by Rivet, alas; I had some very specific ideas for ’em that were derived from an old concept I worked up for DIRTY PAIR a long time ago.

Fri Sep 4 00:17:16 2020

I rather like the shot of Ninjette untying her ponytail in panel 1, gotta say. Nicely done, Decade-Ago Me!

Mon Sep 7 00:17:10 2020

Panel 3: Note that over in the right corner is the vaguely FRPG-looking, helmeted dwarf character who’s been appearing in the background of cape crowd scenes off and on since EMPOWERED vol.6.

Tue Sep 8 00:17:17 2020

Panel 4: I’m oddly fond of Emp’s “good deedering” phrase, even if it IS pushing the outer limits of her usual cutesiness-oriented dialogue affectation.

Wed Sep 9 00:17:11 2020

Panel 1: That squarish critter up on the balcony is, I think, my oblique homage to bonus character “Tofu” from RESIDENT EVIL 2. (Wonder if Capcom included him in the recent updated version?)

Thu Sep 10 00:18:13 2020

I quite like the Ninjette profile shot in panel 1; her profile shot in panel 3, rather less so. (Oh, well. Can’t win ’em all, folks.)

Fri Sep 11 00:17:21 2020

Volume 7 Page 122

Mon Sep 14 00:17:23 2020

Panel 1: Maybe, Spooky. Just maybe.

Tue Sep 15 00:17:27 2020

Panel 4: Suspicious Big Pouty Lips Alert, folks!

Wed Sep 16 00:17:12 2020

Panel 3: Behold, a rare—if only partially visible—view of the other side of Emp’s bedroom!

Thu Sep 17 00:17:32 2020

Panel 1: Extra-long Emp Hair Alert (albeit in the context of a disguise’s wig)!

Fri Sep 18 00:17:45 2020

Volume 7 Page 127

Mon Sep 21 00:17:27 2020

Panel 2: For some reason, I find “To f**king wit” to be one of F**king Oyuki-chan’s more amusing obscenity-spiced phrasings.

Tue Sep 22 00:17:28 2020

Panel 3: Short-Haired Younger Ninjette Alert! (Also, Nekkid Ninjette Alert, too.)

Wed Sep 23 00:17:23 2020

Panel 1: Yikes! F**king Oyuki-chan breaks out “the dreaded ‘c-word’ of which the legends whisper,” per the Caged Demonwolf.

Thu Sep 24 00:17:25 2020

Panel 6: No saving throw for poor ol’ Badass Sundress Waif’s neck in this panel, alas. (Or maybe she just failed said saving throw, obvsly.)

Fri Sep 25 00:18:44 2020

Panel 1: Another fairly rare example of “overlapping-O” lettering in my sound FX, which is something I only rarely do nowadays.

Mon Sep 28 00:17:31 2020

Volume 7 Page 133

Tue Sep 29 00:18:16 2020

Panel 1: Whoops, I only now noticed the debris fragment stuck in Ayakami Karen’s lower belly. Ouch!

Wed Sep 30 00:19:03 2020

Panel 2: Lollipop Figure Proportions Alert, here, which is a cartoony, big-headed artistic flourish especially odd to see on F**king Oyuki-chan, who’s cannically one of the taller women in the main cast.

Thu Oct 1 00:17:35 2020

Panel 3: “Just like you always WERE”…? Uh, oh.

Fri Oct 2 00:17:34 2020

Panel 1: TBH, this mnemonic projection of Mindf**k probably should’ve had her anger and real thoughts leaking through her telepathic dialogue, but I thought this approach worked better dramatically. If you care to wax No-Prize-ish in Decade-Ago Me’s defense, perhaps this iteration of Mindf**k has a less readable and transparent stream of consciousness.

Mon Oct 5 00:17:35 2020

Time to sound the inevitable “Excessively Petite Feet Alert” on Ninjette, here. This wasn’t a deliberate artistic choice on Decade-Ago Me’s part, but one of a number of unplanned stylistic idiosyncrasies I’d developed over the years. This kinda thing would, in turn, lead to my semi-recent interest in life drawing—not because I have any interest in drawing “realistically” as such, but because I was interested in breaking myself out of stylistic ruts and wallowing in unthinking repetition.

Tue Oct 6 00:17:21 2020

Panels 2 & 4: A puzzling artistic choice, here, to show an upshot on couch-bound Ninjette ands a downshot on the standing Thugboy. Perhaps Decade-Ago Me was trying for a counter-intuitive camera-angle choice?

Wed Oct 7 00:17:21 2020

Panels 2-3: Ninjette, noticing!

Thu Oct 8 00:18:31 2020

Panel 4: Note that, IMHO, Ninjette wouldn’t really be likely to sleep in her self-logo’d shorts, given that the shuriken(s) on each side would dig into her hips. Perhaps she uses some form of ninjutsu mental-focus skill to ignore the discomfort?

Fri Oct 9 00:17:35 2020

Panel 4: Awwwwwkward!

Mon Oct 12 00:17:19 2020

Panel 5: BIg-Pouty-Lipped Emp Alert! Also, a Mellow Mr. Monkey alert!

Tue Oct 13 00:17:14 2020

Panels 2-4: Amusing to see that, for Emp’s place, I’m regurgitating interior layouts from several different apartments I’ve lived in. Oddly, those wood-louvered closet doors, in particular, were spotted in two different apartments from Days Gone By(e).

Wed Oct 14 00:17:14 2020

Panel 2: I quite like this shot of Ninjette—as, apparently, does an involuntarily appreciative Thugboy, judging by his comical sweat droplets. (Note also that a smirking Ninjette seems well aware of this issue.)

Thu Oct 15 00:17:14 2020

Panel 3: Sound the Lollipop Figure Proportions Alert (with Emp, at least) in this shot, even though this isn’t an especially pronounced example of the whimsical “big head, smaller body” stylistic flourish.

Fri Oct 16 00:17:11 2020

Would've preferred "THIS NAPALM'S 4 U," but I believe that Decade-Ago Me didn't have enough space to fit "NAPALM'S" on that bottle's label.

Mon Oct 19 00:17:24 2020

Panels 1-2: If I may quote “the BURN NOTICE guy” from the personal-favorite, high-tension highway ambush scene in SICARIO, “Gun! Gun left!” (Yes, I know the actor’s actual name, but “BURN NOTICE guy” amuses me, for some reason.)

Tue Oct 20 00:17:48 2020

Panel 2: “Fire-facialed f**kstick” is a fairly remarkable turn of phrase, gotta say. Interestingly done, Decade-Ago Me!

Wed Oct 21 00:17:34 2020

anels 3-4: I quite like this wordless exchange between Ninjette and Emp, a welcome flourish in an otherwise rather talky sequence.

Thu Oct 22 00:17:35 2020

Panels 2 & 4: Super-Duper-Pouty Lips on Emp in these shots, folks! Golly! (Panel 5’s Emp lippage is marginally less Pouty, though.)

Fri Oct 23 00:17:38 2020

Panel 1: Nice close-up on Emp, here, even if it does lean pretty far in the direction of Extra Poutiness. (Only now have I noticed that “poutiness” is only one letter removed from the plural “poutines.” Fries, Cheese Curds & Gravy Alert?)

Mon Oct 26 00:18:08 2020

Panel 3: Why, there’s only one use of the word “F**KING” in Oyuki-chan’s first word balloon; how very decorous and restrained of her!

Tue Oct 27 00:18:54 2020

Panel 6: “Stapler…?” Ouch!

Wed Oct 28 00:17:28 2020

As I’ve noted many times before, I swear that the Caged Demonwolf’s oddly face-like arrangement of “:O”-ish lights is wholly unintentional. Pareidolia ahoy!

Thu Oct 29 00:17:39 2020

Panel 4: I do still like the Demonwolf’s “RACK-LACKING RACONTEUSE” riff, gotta say.

Fri Oct 30 00:17:38 2020

Fo0lks, enjoy another view of Emp's bathroom, based fairly closely on the bathroom from my long-ago San Francisco apartment. (Believe it or not, in the early 90s, cartoonists could still afford to live in the Bay Area.)

Mon Nov 2 00:17:37 2020

Panel 3: “BEGGING FOR BEFOULMENT” is certainly a memorable turn of phrase on the Demonwolf’s part.

Tue Nov 3 00:17:23 2020

Panel 3: Note Ninjette’s semi-mystical shinobi “drinking jutsu" at work, as she effortlessly pops off a bottle cap that was NOT meant to be twisted off. NINJA MAGIC AHOY

Wed Nov 4 00:17:27 2020

Panel 1: “Hrmm,” indeed.

Thu Nov 5 00:17:31 2020

I don’t think I need to tell you what “chimpo an’ tama” mean in Japanese, as I believe the terms are all too clear in context.

Fri Nov 6 00:17:31 2020

Panel 3: To put it mildly!

Mon Nov 9 00:17:40 2020

Panel 3: “Poignant” is the watchword for this week’s sequence (perhaps surprisingly enough).

Tue Nov 10 00:17:40 2020

Panels 2 & 4: IIRC, I did actually photograph a series of melting ice cubes on a bathroom counter as reference for these two shots. Dedication, folks!

Wed Nov 11 00:17:26 2020

Panel 1: Note the conveniently placed word balloon at right. (Or IS it conveniently placed, really, from the reader’s POV?)

Thu Nov 12 00:17:41 2020

Panel 3: Bit of ambiguity with that bit about “if sloppily,” gotta admit.

Fri Nov 13 00:17:21 2020

Panel 4: The drop-out of the line art where Ninjette’s chin meets her knee is a notably rare visual riff in my work, gotta say. (But DO I “gotta say,” really? Perhaps I should drop that largely meaningless tag phrase.)

Mon Nov 16 00:17:36 2020

Panel 2: Gotta admit, “….” is as good a response as any to what Ninjette just heard.

Tue Nov 17 00:17:26 2020

Panel 3: Ninjette’s expectant expression in this shot amuses me perhaps more than it should. Nicely done, Decade-Ago Me!

Wed Nov 18 00:21:55 2020

Panels 1-2: I’m oddly fond of those rather overly viscous streams of spurting blood, gotta admit.

Thu Nov 19 00:17:33 2020

Panel 4: For some reason, the recurring riff of Oyuki-chan performing varied gestures with that severed hand cracks me up to no end.

Fri Nov 20 00:17:30 2020

Panel 2: Jeez, watch the “dreaded C-word” (per the Caged Demonwolf way back in vol.1), F**king Oyuki-chan. Yikes!

Mon Nov 23 00:18:06 2020

This shot arguably shows that Emp might be taller than Ninjette, at least when sitting down; then again, the latter might have longer legs than the former, so they might still be the same height when standing.

Tue Nov 24 00:17:21 2020

Panel 2: SHHHH, Ninjette, or that announcing fella who trademarked the phrase will overhear you!

Wed Nov 25 00:17:31 2020

Panel 2: No idea where the hell I picked up the sound FX “THAPP” (as it seems not quite bombastic enough for me to have borrowed from “l’oeuvre de Frank Miller”) but it certainly is one of my ongoing favorites.

Thu Nov 26 00:17:34 2020

Panel 1: LET THE EXPERIMENTATION COMMENCE!

Fri Nov 27 00:17:31 2020

Panel 1: We probably should be seeing the lower edges of Emp’s mask protruding below the blindfold’s bottom edge, but ehh, whatevs.

Mon Nov 30 00:17:51 2020

Panel 5: I rather like Ninjettte's rueful and (VERY) wide-mouthed smile in this shot.

Tue Dec 1 00:17:47 2020

Panel 1: A rare sounding of the "Too-Petite Feet Alert" for Emp, this time; usually, that honor goes to Ninjette (in this volume, at least).

Wed Dec 2 00:17:48 2020

Panel 2: Figurative Image Emp must clearly rock some mad spraypainting skillz to be able to letter that message across her own behind!

Thu Dec 3 00:17:30 2020

Big Pouty Lips ahoy in panels 5 & 6, folks! Enjoy, as I'd swear the riff starts to fade away starting with EMP8. (Well, maybe.)

Fri Dec 4 00:18:10 2020

Panel 4: Would've broken out the "profile cheat" to show Ninjette's face in this shot, but that would've been pushing the cheat too far even for Roughly Decade Ago Me's cartoony art style.

Mon Dec 7 00:17:36 2020

Panels 1-2: I'm quite fond of silent, solely expression-based reaction shots like these. No need for an Overdialoguing Alert, needless to say!

Tue Dec 8 00:17:31 2020

Note that, with the EMPOWERED vol.12 page I'm drawing today, I get to draw the Demonwolf uncaged. Yee haw!

Wed Dec 9 00:17:59 2020

Panel 3: Come think of it, "S**T: LOST" is a caption that could be used repeatedly throughout this series.

Thu Dec 10 00:18:13 2020

Panels 2-3: Ehh, shouldn't have gone for two word balloons in each panel. (Tap the Overdialoguing Alert for a quick beep, but not a full-on sounding of the alarm.)

Fri Dec 11 00:17:48 2020

Panel 2: Lollipop-Head Figure Proportions Alert, folks! (Probably did this just b/c Eight-ish Years Ago Me thought it looked cuite.)

Mon Dec 14 00:17:17 2020

Volume 7 Page 188

Tue Dec 15 00:17:51 2020

Panel 4: For some reason, Emp's bemused, pouty-lipped expression in this shot cracks me up.

Wed Dec 16 00:17:37 2020

Panel 2: A very rare hint that Ninjette realizes she miiiight have a bit of a drinking problem.

Thu Dec 17 00:17:29 2020

Panel 4: And there's the line that this chapter's title ("Of Vocabulary Words and F**ked-Up One-Upsmanship") is partially derived from.

Fri Dec 18 00:17:43 2020

Panel 5: A rare use of long word-balloon tails, here, which I avoid like the plague in almost all other contexts.

Mon Dec 21 00:17:30 2020

Yeahp, definitely a cartoonishly narrow set of shoulders in relation to her head in that first shot of Emp. (Not a riff I use much, or ever, nowadays.))

Tue Dec 22 00:17:26 2020

I don't think it's a huge SPOILER to hint (or, well, state outright) that this chapter's title is derived from a line of dialogue in EMP7's climactic story.

Wed Dec 23 00:17:24 2020

Big Pouty Lips ahoy, folks, in the first Emp image at least. Enjoy? Enjoy!

Thu Dec 24 00:17:20 2020

Huh. Only now occurred to me that, nowadays, I rarely draw that one loose strand of hair over Emp's left eye with much consistency, a visual riff which used to be a staple of her chara design.

Fri Dec 25 00:17:27 2020

Panel 8: I'm quite fond of my GLUKK GLUKK GLUKK sound FX, but must admit that it's not as good as the DOOK DOOK DOOK sound FX that Tony Millionaire used for Drinky Crow.

Mon Dec 28 00:17:44 2020

Forgot the g-d hover text this week, folks! (Then again, judging by the entry on the webcomic software, the proper form seems to be "hovertext," as one word.)

Tue Dec 29 00:17:32 2020

Forgot the g-d hover text this week, folks! How about this: HOVER TEXT! HOVER TEXT! HOVER TEXT! HOVER TEXT!

Wed Dec 30 00:17:45 2020

Forgot the g-d hover text this week, folks! Oh, hover text, you can definitely be an inconvenience at times.

Thu Dec 31 00:17:50 2020

Forgot the g-d hover text this week, folks! How awkward.

Fri Jan 1 00:17:26 2021

Whoops, forgot to do hover text this week! "Oh, f**king dear," to quote Oyuki-chan. Now I'll have to go back some other day and tack it on, as I've blown way past my available worktime for this stuff.

Mon Jan 4 00:17:25 2021

Panel 5: Yeahp, there's the cartooony riff of "Big Head, Smaller Body" on Emp once again. Enjoy it, folks, as soon this flourish will fade away from my work..

Tue Jan 5 00:17:35 2021

Panel 1: Well, if you have the Ayakami pain-blocking jutsu in effect, why NOT leave that shuriken embedded in your eye, I suppose...

Wed Jan 6 00:17:50 2021

Panel 1: Oyuki-chan's shuriken-shaped pupils never fail to amuse me. Contact lenses or ninja magic? YOU DECIDE!

Thu Jan 7 00:18:11 2021

Panels 6-7: Note that Oyuki-chan had those shuriken pupils (whether acquired via contacts or ninja magic) even as a teen.

Fri Jan 8 00:18:22 2021

Panel 3: Ninjette's father, folks!

Mon Jan 11 00:17:59 2021

Panel 3: Had a REAL rough time with depicting Ninjette's age in this scene; she's supposed to be in her mid-teens, but looks WAY too young in, say, this panel. (Oh, well.)

Tue Jan 12 00:18:07 2021

Panel 4: Nothing like a good silhouette shot to A) add some welcome, high-contrast values to a panel and B) save the harried artist a good deal of worktime.

Wed Jan 13 00:17:51 2021

Panel 1: I quite like this shot of Young Ninjette and Oyuki-chan, gotta say. Nicely done, Decade(-ish) Ago Me!

Thu Jan 14 00:18:07 2021

Panel 1: A surprisingly cute shot of F**king Oyuki-chan, who's not often depicted "cutely."

Fri Jan 15 00:18:08 2021

Panel 7: That teeny sound FX ("SPRTT") from Masahiro-kun's spurting neck wound still cracks me up, gotta say.

Mon Jan 18 00:18:52 2021

Panel 6: Gotta like how Masahiro-kun's mask coincidentally sports a relevant expression for this sequence.

Tue Jan 19 00:31:04 2021

Panel 1: Gotta like the fairly tricky foreshortening on that down-angled view of Ninjette-gardbed Yukiko-chan.

Wed Jan 20 00:27:30 2021

Ouch! A "fiery shock and awe dealie" indeed, as Ninjette put it earlier.

Thu Jan 21 00:20:11 2021

Panel 5: Cue the Rogue class's "Sneak Attack" ability! ROLL FOR DAMAGE!

Fri Jan 22 00:18:18 2021

Panel 3: Once again, Masahiro-kun's mask coincidentally displays a situationally relevant expression.

Mon Jan 25 00:17:51 2021

Panel 3: Too-Petite Ninjette Feet Alert!

Tue Jan 26 00:18:07 2021

Panels 4-5 hold up as especially strong images on an incongrously expressive F**king Oyuki-chan, gotta say. Nicely done, Past Me!

Wed Jan 27 00:27:12 2021

Panel 5: As I've noted before, my GLUKK GLUKK GLUKK is a fine drinking sound FX, but sadly inferior to Tony Millionaire's DOOK DOOK DOOK from his DRINKY CROW comic.

Thu Jan 28 00:18:03 2021

Ninjette is truly a sloppy drunk in this shot, given that she's accidentally pouring beer over herself. Yikes!

Fri Jan 29 00:18:33 2021

Yeah, really wish I'd planned the book out better, so I could've actually drawn a 100-page ninja fight. (Oh, well.)

Mon Feb 1 00:18:39 2021

Enjoy(?) the rather exaggeratedly "big-headed" figure proportions of Ninjette Emp here, folks, as the next few volumes journey into the era of a differently proportioned Emp.

Tue Feb 2 00:17:47 2021

Mindf**k ahoy! But HOW???????????

Wed Feb 3 00:17:48 2021

Sistah Spooky cosplay ahoy!

Thu Feb 4 00:18:09 2021

METATEXTUAL EMP ALERT!

Fri Feb 5 00:18:10 2021

EYEGLASSES WITH FRECKLES ALERT!!!!!

Mon Feb 8 00:17:54 2021

Panel 3: No idea whatsoever as to what image was supposed to be on Courtney’s T-shirt.

Tue Feb 9 00:17:53 2021

Panel 1: The name “Jerome” might seem familiar to long-time readers… (Or, alas, not.)

Wed Feb 10 00:17:44 2021

Panel 3: Note the ominous glint in Unnamed Art Teacher's Eye.

Thu Feb 11 00:19:03 2021

Panel 1: Why, I'd entirely forhotten the whimsical element of Jerome/ King Tyrant Lizard's skull-emblazoned underwear. Golly!

Fri Feb 12 00:18:00 2021

Panel 2: Gotta say, I do quite like the neologistic phrase "capeformed us." Nicely done, 2012-3 Me!

Mon Feb 15 00:17:59 2021

Panel 3: Note that the memorial image of Mindf**k is a holographic dealie of some sort and not a 2D graphic, or we'd see it as a flattened image.

Tue Feb 16 00:18:08 2021

Panel 2: Will Pete in close-up (via the camera lenses of the late cape Robotomy), which is of course a view that you would NOT want to experience.

Wed Feb 17 00:18:50 2021

Panel 3: Why, I'd entirely forgotten (as opposed to PARTIALLY forgotten) that the word balloon tails of Fractaloctopus have little suckers on 'em.

Thu Feb 18 00:18:25 2021

Panel 3: Ah, yes, an oblique FREE WILLY reference, which will surely never grow old.

Fri Feb 19 00:18:29 2021

Panel 2: Ah, I'd forgotten about the use of "Mind-F-word" as a means to render her supranym broadcast-friendly. Nice!

Mon Feb 22 00:17:49 2021

Panel 2: "Fiercely fulminant foodstuffs" is a nice bit of Demonlupine alliteration, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Tue Feb 23 00:18:09 2021

Panel 1: Ehh, really wish I'd worked up a different g-d sofa for Emp's apartment living room. (Oh, well.)

Wed Feb 24 00:17:53 2021

Panel 1: I do quite like the "O LIPPY LAMBKIN" riff from the Demonwolf, gotta say.

Thu Feb 25 00:31:33 2021

Panel 4: An interesting and rather unusual close-up on Ninjette, I should note. NOTED!

Fri Feb 26 00:29:37 2021

Panel 4: “Hrmmm…” indeed.

Mon Mar 1 00:18:33 2021

Panel 2: Shuriken toenail art ahoy!

Tue Mar 2 00:18:38 2021

Panel 1: Ninjette calling the Demonwolf "my lord and master" (minus the glove in her teeth)? Gosh!

Wed Mar 3 00:18:13 2021

Panel 1: Time for the "Too-Petite Ninjette Feet Alert," folks! (Feet are THE WORST to draw, to put it mildly.)

Thu Mar 4 00:17:49 2021

Bit of a Big Pouty (Lower) Lip feel to this shot of the normally thin-lipped Ninjette.

Fri Mar 5 00:18:55 2021

Panel 3: Enjoy another fleeting apearance of the exaggeratedly cartoony "Big Head, Narrow Shoulders" artistic riff, folks, as soon this tendency will disappear from my artwork.

Mon Mar 8 00:17:59 2021

Panel 2: Gotta say that I do like the Demonlupine neologism “flakeling” a fair bit.

Tue Mar 9 00:17:53 2021

Panel 2: I do quite like 'Jette's rather plaintive expression in this shot, gotta say.

Wed Mar 10 00:17:53 2021

Panel 1: Enjoy a rare 7-part, full-on alliteration chain in the Demonwolf's D-centric word balloon, folks!

Thu Mar 11 00:17:59 2021

Panel 3: Bit of a Big Pouty Lip feel to Ninjette here, which I occaaaaaisonally did for profile shots of this normally thin-lipped character.

Fri Mar 12 00:18:05 2021

Panels 2-3: I quite like the transition between 'Jette facial expressions in this sequence, gotta say.

Mon Mar 15 00:18:19 2021

Gotta say that I really like all of the Ninjette facial expressions on this page, though I am notably less fond of the last one (in panel 5) for some reason.

Tue Mar 16 00:18:17 2021

Ninjette's expression in panel 4 is a personal favorite, gotta say.

Wed Mar 17 00:17:58 2021

Panel 2: Unlike the perpetuially beer-drinking Ninjette (as seen on the previous page), note that Emp is a wine drinker, though apparently skewing towards "merloting," as she put it earlier.

Thu Mar 18 00:18:03 2021

Panel 1: Note that, in most of these Superdead group shots, we only see Rubbernecker's head and stretchy neck; Lord knows where the heck his torso and limbs might be lurking.

Fri Mar 19 00:18:16 2021

Panel 2: An interesting look at the views of Daisy Cutter re: sex vs. attention-getting! (Though perhaps not both at the same time, apparently.)

Mon Mar 22 00:17:57 2021

Panel 1: Not being an idiot—or a complete idiot, at least—I just pasted in the original SUPERDIRTY JOBS intro panel from vol.6

Tue Mar 23 00:17:54 2021

With panel 1's "FSSHH" and panel 3's "RMBB," you can see the "jagged-ended" approach to lettering sound FX that I began using circa vol.8. Yay!

Wed Mar 24 00:18:06 2021

Panel 3: Folks, let's give a round of applause for the ol' "silhouete shot," another one of the harried, time-crunched comic artist's best friends!

Thu Mar 25 00:18:20 2021

Panels 2-4: Problematic!

Fri Mar 26 00:19:29 2021

Panel 2: Hey, there’s another bottle of “HEROFUEL,” as glimpsed briefly in the previous “San Antonio lava wranglers” SUPERDIRTY JOBS sequence. Take note, folks!

Mon Mar 29 00:18:04 2021

Panel 1: Yeahp, 'tis undeniuably true that very few supervills could claim to rock Willy Pete's level of "crazytown."

Tue Mar 30 00:18:21 2021

Panel 2: "Lucky cape, to see all the awesomeness in person" is definitely an unusual take on Emp's experience from the end of vol.5.

Wed Mar 31 00:18:04 2021

Panels 4-5: Very positive working relationship between these two supervills, gotta say, as K-Boom clearly appreciates "T's" sense of humor.

Thu Apr 1 00:18:08 2021

Panel 1: I used an up-angled shot here to emphasize the gargantuan scale of the background beastie(s) even more. Basic, yet effective!

Fri Apr 2 00:18:10 2021

Panels 1-3: Super-"Flippy" Bangs Alert on "this little maid" throughout this sequence, folks! (For some reason, this specific aspect of Maidman's character design amuses me to no end.)

Mon Apr 5 00:18:13 2021

Panels 3 & 5: FLIPPY BANGS ALERT! (This whimsical aspect of Maidman's chara design still amuses me to no end.)

Tue Apr 6 00:18:40 2021

Panel 1: The Goddamn Maidman knows all, folks!

Wed Apr 7 00:20:25 2021

Panel 4: I wasn't kidding when I wrote in yesterday's hovertext that the Goddamn Maidman Knows All, folks!

Thu Apr 8 00:18:10 2021

Gotta say that I've always liked how well the image of the d10 burning up on reentry worked out. Nicely done, Past Me (both here and way back in vol.5 when this scene first occurred)!

Fri Apr 9 00:18:06 2021

Wellp, got nothin' for today's hover text, and only a few minutes left to the time I allotted for this post, so this is all you'll get today, I'm afraid.

Mon Apr 12 00:18:01 2021

Note that the late Mindf**k is one of very few characters to refer to Emp as "Elissa." (That's "Elissa Megan Powers," in case you'd forgotten.)

Tue Apr 13 00:17:58 2021

Panel 3: Ah, the eternal mystery: What might that lettering on Mindf**k's spacesuit (across her collarbones) say? I've always depicted the text as indecipherable blocks, as far as I can recall.

Wed Apr 14 00:07:17 2021

Panel 2: Y'know, I rather like the abbreviation "'cept" (for "except"), but I don't think I ever used it again (or before, for that matter) in my dialogue.

Thu Apr 15 01:29:46 2021

Panel 1: Gotta love the idea of using speedlines in a sex scene, huh? SO KINETIC, FOLKS

Fri Apr 16 00:18:47 2021

Alas, one can only wonder what the Top 11 of Emp's Most Winsomely Embarrassing Midcoital Statements might constitute.

Mon Apr 19 00:18:22 2021

Panel 1: With her pronunciation of "requiah," Emp is presumably slipping back into her Godawful Attempt at a Southern Accent for a moment.

Tue Apr 20 00:18:22 2021

Panel 5: I experience EXTREME difficulty in hand-lettering pesudo-typeset fonts like the one seen on "EXTREME COLD ADVISORY," which is why I switched to looser, more organic fonts in later volumes.

Wed Apr 21 00:18:08 2021

Panel 4: I quite like Emp's slightly uncertain pouty face in this shot, gotta say.

Thu Apr 22 00:18:21 2021

No pencils on this page, folks; this is a high-contrast, all-Sharpie-marker affair!

Fri Apr 23 00:18:10 2021

Pretty solid drawing on that cop car, save for the fact that it looks a tad weird unless you realize it's facing to the right and not the left.

Mon Apr 26 00:18:04 2021

Panel 1: *HIGH-CONTRAST, "HARSH B&W" SEQUENCE ENDS*

Tue Apr 27 00:26:07 2021

Enjoy that tilty, slanted first "action panel" at upper left (not that the much larger panel 2 is any less of an "action panel," of course).

Wed Apr 28 00:18:27 2021

Panel 4: Enjoy yet another "L-shaped panel," folks, as cribbed from Frank Thorne's RED SONJA page layouts.

Thu Apr 29 00:18:17 2021

Panel 4: Behold, yet another L-shaped panel, thanks again to Frank Thorne's whimsical and high-density page layouts!

Fri Apr 30 00:17:59 2021

Panel 1: I rather doubt that UniBrow's dialogue could possibly be heard by Emp over that earsplitting "FZZAKK" sound FX, but who knows?

Mon May 3 00:18:05 2021

Panel 2: Big Pouty Lips Emp Alert! (I'd SWEAR the riff started dying out by this point, but it appears a few more times in this sequence alone.)

Tue May 4 00:19:31 2021

Another Big Pouty Lips Alert! (And to think, we had such an Alert yesterday as well!)

Wed May 5 00:17:54 2021

Panel 2: While I quite like my sound Fx "CHONKK," safe to say that the word's now more commonly used to reference especially "thicc" cats or dogs in video clips nowadays. CHONKK!

Thu May 6 00:17:51 2021

Panel 1: To quote "Studio Guy" from the great Pitch Meeting videos on YouTube: "Whoopsie!"

Fri May 7 00:17:51 2021

Panel 2: Another example of a lettering flourish that I quite enjoy, in which dialogue (here, "NOOOOO") extends off-panel and is cut off by the page's borders.

Mon May 10 00:18:13 2021

Panel 4: I do still like the Emp neologism "whelmed" a fair bit.

Tue May 11 00:18:58 2021

Big Pouty Emp Lips Alert for panel 3, folks! WEE OOO WEE OOO WEE OOO

Wed May 12 00:17:58 2021

Panel 1: The Superdead are, it seems, fond of watching cat videos on YouTube, but aparently the novelty's run out in recent weeks.

Thu May 13 00:17:58 2021

Panel 1: Yeahp, Rivet stood up quickly enough to trigger a "WHOOSHH" sound FX. Dramatic!

Fri May 14 00:18:14 2021

Panel 1: Gotta say, Capitan Rivet is one helluva good typist given that his huge, Kirby-esque metal fingers are a tad less than ideal for the task.

Mon May 17 00:18:03 2021

Panel 3: Behold, a possibly ominous—or at least significant—“HMM…” from Spooky, here.

Tue May 18 00:18:15 2021

Panel 2: Unibrow alert!

Wed May 19 00:17:56 2021

Tartan(?) pattern on those schoolgirl-uni skirts borrowed from Ken Akamatsu’s manga NEGIMA!, as I recall.

Thu May 20 00:17:55 2021

Panel 1: Profile cheat ahoy! Panel 2: Profile cheat ahoy!

Fri May 21 00:17:56 2021

Can't paste in the hovertext I wrote for this page, alas. My apologies.

Mon May 24 00:18:22 2021

Panel 4: Behold, the line of dialogue that provided this chapter's "Oh, Hell Yeah" title. Wheeee!

Tue May 25 00:18:09 2021

Yeas, folks, as a diehard semi-colon enthusiast, with this story title I finally managed to put one into an EMPOWERED story title. Yay!

Wed May 26 00:18:34 2021

My apologies, webcomic readers, for not raising that big cluster of word balloons (on the right) up from the bottom of the page, which its lower edge is juuuuust about touching. BEGONE, FOUL TANGENCIES!

Thu May 27 00:17:58 2021

Panel 1: Enjoy a (very) rare full-figure shot at this size, folks! With feet and everything!

Fri May 28 00:17:46 2021

Panel 2: Sound the Excessively Petite Feet Alert, folks!

Mon May 31 00:17:56 2021

Panel 2: Yeahp, trying to hand-letter analogues for typeset fonts (such as LIVE FEED here) is maddeningly difficult for me. ughh.

Tue Jun 1 00:18:16 2021

Panel 2: Big Pouty Lips Alert! Panel 3: Slightly Bigger and Poutier Lips Alert!

Wed Jun 2 00:18:32 2021

Panel 5: I quite like this shot's image of Spooky and her swirling cape. Nicely done, 2013-Era Me!

Thu Jun 3 00:18:34 2021

Folks, enjoy a rarely seen 4-panel grid layout. Golly!

Fri Jun 4 00:18:25 2021

Not like Panel 5 Spooky can deny panel 4 Emp's assertion, needless to say.

Mon Jun 7 00:17:52 2021

No g-d hovertext today, folks, as the site's software just disappeared my first draft of said text.

Tue Jun 8 00:18:29 2021

Volume 8 Page 100

Wed Jun 9 00:18:50 2021

Panel 6: Not a fan of this shot, alas, as I desperately struggled to cram a vertically oriented profile shot into a wee, cramped horizontal panel. Oh, well.

Thu Jun 10 00:21:09 2021

NO TIME FOR HOVERTEXT TODAY, FOLKS

Fri Jun 11 00:18:05 2021

AND NO TIME FOR HOVERTEXT TODAY, EITHER, THANKS TO SOFTWARE & PC PROBLEMS; SORRY, FOLKS

Mon Jun 14 00:18:09 2021

Panel 3: Not bad draping on Spooky's cloak, which is something I rarely explore with her costume for some reason.

Tue Jun 15 00:18:07 2021

Panel 2: At far right, enjoy a (very) rare EMPOWERED appearance by a thought balloon, folks!

Wed Jun 16 00:18:32 2021

Panel 1: Enjoy the cartoony visual flourish of "big head, narrow shoulders" on Emp here, as in successive volumes that riff will give way to a very different recurring approach.

Thu Jun 17 00:18:33 2021

Panel 1: K-Boom's "explosion headpiece" still cracks me up, gotta admit.

Fri Jun 18 00:24:07 2021

Panel 1: As I've noted before, GLUKK GLUKK GLUKK is a fine "drinking sound FX" of my own invention, but nowhere near as good as the truly iconic DOOK DOOK DOOK sound FX from Tony Millionaire's DINKY CROW.

Mon Jun 21 00:18:25 2021

Panel 1: Alas, ne'er will we hear more about these supervills' Kickstarter schemes.

Tue Jun 22 00:19:20 2021

Panel 2: T-stick's cute face takes a hit! Panel 4: T-stick's cute face takes a hit again! Ouch!

Wed Jun 23 00:18:12 2021

Panel 3: "Nice knots, noobs!" amuses me to no end, for some reason.

Thu Jun 24 00:19:22 2021

Panel 3: Big(gish) Pouty Lips Alert! (Not QUITE as big as I occasionally drew, but definitely pouty.)

Fri Jun 25 00:18:36 2021

That's an oddly cute silhouette shot of Emp in panel 5, though you'll note it features another appearance of the big ol' "Lollipop Head" artistic flourish that I used to trot out occasionally.

Mon Jun 28 00:21:11 2021

Panel 1: Alas, looks like the supposed "nightmare-suppressing powers" of Emp's childhood stuffed animal Mellow Mr. Monkey once again are failing to come through in the clutch.

Tue Jun 29 00:18:04 2021

Panels 3 & 6: Big Pouty Lipped Emp Alert (though panel 6 is a tad less Big & Pouty)!

Wed Jun 30 00:19:05 2021

Panel 2: As mentioned before, I have a LOT of trouble attempting to imitate a typeset font by hand, though this panel's "LIVE FEED" worked out okay(-ish).

Thu Jul 1 00:18:21 2021

Ehh, probably a bit too much dialogue crammed into panels 2 & 3, but I don't find this egregious enough to sound the dreaded Overdialoguing Alert.

Fri Jul 2 00:19:30 2021

I quite like that close-up of Young Spooky in panel 4, gotta say. Nicely done, 2013-ish Me!

Mon Jul 5 00:19:47 2021

Gotta say that I still like all the faces of Young Spooky drawn on this page.

Tue Jul 6 00:19:57 2021

Welcome (again) to Object 524, folks!

Wed Jul 7 00:18:08 2021

Behold, the only time I like to use long, thin, pointy word-balloon tails—namely, when establishing character positioning in a (very) long shot.

Thu Jul 8 00:18:22 2021

Panels 2-3: Spooky's cloak gets all funky. Wheeeeee!

Fri Jul 9 00:18:41 2021

The funkiness of Spooky's cloak continues! (I really should do more with this visual riff in the future.)

Mon Jul 12 00:18:05 2021

Panels 4 & 5: Sound the very, very rarely heard "Dual Profile Big Pouty Lips Alert," folks!

Tue Jul 13 00:18:14 2021

Panel 5: I do rather like the neologism "GEEZERCAPES," gotta say.

Wed Jul 14 00:18:21 2021

Behold, my beloved "stack of 5 panoramic panels" page layout, which most often sets up a subsequent dramatic, full-page shot (which, SPOILER ALERT, is absolutely the case this time).

Thu Jul 15 00:18:00 2021

Enjoy my patented Mostly Meaningless Ultra-Tech Background Detail on this page, folks!

Fri Jul 16 00:18:08 2021

Panel 1: I'm oddly fond of this shot of Spooky, gotta say. Panel 2: I'm oddly fond of this shot of Emp as well.

Mon Jul 19 00:18:18 2021

Panel 2: Mindf**k is (er, was) a kung pao enthusiast, it seems; I'd forgotten that.

Tue Jul 20 00:17:30 2021

Panel 5: Not sure if that's a serving of "kung pao san yan"—or three flavors of kung pao (usually shrimp, pork & chicken, locally)—or just kung pao shrimp.

Wed Jul 21 00:17:35 2021

Panel 3: I rather like this Big Pouty Lips profile shot of Spooky, even if she looks arguably too young in said shot.

Thu Jul 22 00:17:48 2021

Panel 5: Trying to indicate a distant woodland background in pencil is... tricky, to put it mildly.

Fri Jul 23 00:17:35 2021

Panel 1: Exceptionally nice rendering of Spooky's cape in this shot. Well done, 2013 Me, you magnificent bastard! ("I read your book," to complete the quote from PATTON.)

Mon Jul 26 00:17:49 2021

Say goodbye to the alien arsenal inside Object 524, folks! Time for a new and even more ominous setting.

Tue Jul 27 00:17:48 2021

Whoops, the software just ate my first take on today's hovertext. (Don't feel like writing it again, alas.)

Wed Jul 28 00:17:42 2021

Panel 6: Tomorrow, stand by for an explanation of how I rendered Hell's, uh, "front door."

Thu Jul 29 00:17:42 2021

The li'l motes of light trailing off the Vorpal Sword are a rather neat way to indicate movement, however slow it might be. Nicely done, 2013 Me.

Fri Jul 30 00:17:42 2021

Panel 2: Will our heroines indeed need to "evac in a hurry," folks? Your guess is as good as mine! (Well, not really, of course, given that I finished this story eight years ago.)

Mon Aug 2 00:18:51 2021

Panel 2: The Sketchup 3D model for the Vorpal Sword was definitely earning its money with this shot.

Tue Aug 3 00:17:40 2021

Panel 2: "CHOOM" is one of my favorite sound FX, though I should note that I more often use the variation "KCHOOM" for explosions and the like, alternating with other faves "WHKOOM" and "BKOOM.""

Wed Aug 4 00:17:34 2021

Panel 2: So, what IS down there? Find out tomorrow, folks!

Thu Aug 5 00:18:08 2021

Panel 3: Gotta love Spooky's none-too-concerned attitude about the whole "is this really Hell?" issue.

Fri Aug 6 00:18:46 2021

Panel 4: And there's that "white centerline with black borders" format I use for gutters in high-contrast sequences. Wheeeee!

Mon Aug 9 00:17:49 2021

No hovertext today, folks; software problems again.

Tue Aug 10 00:20:18 2021

Once again, can't paste in the hovertext I wrote for this page. (Software issues, ahoy.)

Wed Aug 11 00:17:33 2021

Will the webcomic software allow pasting-in today? Let's find out together, folks! UPDATE: The sotware's working properly. Yay!

Thu Aug 12 00:17:54 2021

Panel 2: The curve of that that g-d white stripe on Mindf**k's visor thingie is really, REALLY easy to screw up, as you can (unfortunately)see here.

Fri Aug 13 00:17:43 2021

Panel 6: Behold the magnificence of the Sudden Silhouette Shot, the time-constained, behind-deadline artist's Bestest Friend(TM)!

Mon Aug 16 00:18:11 2021

Panel 4: Yeahp, like Emp (as we've seen in earlier installments), Mindf**k drools in her sleep.

Tue Aug 17 00:18:12 2021

As you can see from panel 1's caption, I have A GREAT DEAL OF DIFFICULTY in hand-lettering "typeface-like" fonts.

Wed Aug 18 00:17:42 2021

Ehh, argably a bit too much text in Panel 1, though not enough to deserve the dreaded Overldialoguing Alert.

Thu Aug 19 00:17:53 2021

Panel 1: Briefly considered having Emp blurt, "SAY WHAT--?", but only briefly.

Fri Aug 20 00:17:57 2021

Panels 3 & 4: Gotta love those silent reaction shots, folks!

Mon Aug 23 00:17:42 2021

Panel 6: Not sure where I first picked up the "!" riff 25-odd years ago, but I prrrrrrobably borrowed it from l'oeuvre de Kenichi (GUNSMITH CATS) Sonoda.

Tue Aug 24 00:17:45 2021

Panel 3: BLORPP is another one of my favorite recurring sound FX (not to be confused with Protean's former supranym GLORPP, of course).

Wed Aug 25 00:17:59 2021

Panel 1: As I so often note in this series' commentaries, "Ouch!"

Thu Aug 26 00:17:42 2021

Panel 1: 'Tis my sad duty to sound the Excessively Petite Feet Alert on poor Emp in this shot. (Oh, well.)

Fri Aug 27 00:17:46 2021

Panel 3: I quite like the idea of Emp's legs "ragdolling" as she's being pummeled, but 2013 Me couldn't quite pull off the execution to 2021 Me's satisfaction. (Oh, well.)

Mon Aug 30 00:18:00 2021

Panel 1: Not a big fan of putting a page's first word balloon so low in its first panel, but in 2013 Me's defense, the vertical composition didn't allow me many options.

Tue Aug 31 00:19:43 2021

Panel 2: What might "cubicle security" represent in this context? A good question, hypothetical questioner!

Wed Sep 1 00:17:38 2021

Panel 1: Behold, the single, most ominous occurrence of the sound FX "BLORPP" in my entire comics career, folks!

Thu Sep 2 00:17:37 2021

Went very big on the flying intestines in panel 1's shot of Spooky taking her revenge, gotta say. Ickiness ahoy!

Fri Sep 3 00:17:50 2021

Panel 2: Note the loop of Infernal Service Provider intestine sizzling down in the corner, which I'd completely forotten about in the 8 years since I drew this page.

Mon Sep 6 00:17:29 2021

Panel 2: Gotta say that the ol' ISP still speaks quite well for having only half a head.

Tue Sep 7 00:18:03 2021

SAY HELLO TO HELL's "CUBICLE SECURITY," FOLKS!

Wed Sep 8 00:18:14 2021

Panels 1-2: Whiteout-generated "sparkle FX" ahoy, folks!

Thu Sep 9 00:17:39 2021

Got nothin' for this hovertext, I'm afraid, and need to submit this post before I break for dinner. Sorry 'bout that, hovertext enthusiasts.

Fri Sep 10 00:18:20 2021

Panel 4: Thanks for the help, 3D model of the Vorpal Sword supplied by my bud Ryan Kinnaird!

Mon Sep 13 00:17:45 2021

Panel 3: A verra nice shot of Spooky about to unleash her powers, if I do say so myself (as opposed to someone else saying that).

Tue Sep 14 00:17:51 2021

Panel 3: The "TAKKA TAKKA TAKKA" bit with the keyboard still amuses me perhaps more than it should.

Wed Sep 15 00:17:58 2021

Panel 3: Ah, yes, behold the extra-cartoony "wiggly lips" visual riff I break out on occasion.

Thu Sep 16 00:18:55 2021

Panel 1: I'm still fond of the "SOCIAL HUMILIATION TORTURE PORN" phrase that 2013 Me coined for this panel. Nice!

Fri Sep 17 00:20:17 2021

Panel 4: I quite like this drawing of Spooky in action, gotta say. (Yes, I MUST say that.) Nicely done, 2013 Me!

Mon Sep 20 00:18:16 2021

Wow, got NOTHIN' for today's hovertext commentary, folks. NOTHIN', I say!

Tue Sep 21 00:18:02 2021

Panel 2: Really like the way this shot worked out, gotta say.

Wed Sep 22 00:29:57 2021

Panel 1: I quite like the "drapey cape" in this shot of COUNTER-FACTUAL Spooky. Nice!

Thu Sep 23 00:18:39 2021

Panel 4: Ouch!

Fri Sep 24 00:18:10 2021

Panels 2-3: Hasty healing spell ahoy!

Mon Sep 27 00:17:41 2021

Panel 3: I'm oddly fond of using the literal "GASP" in spoken dialogue, gotta admit.

Tue Sep 28 00:17:55 2021

Panel 4: Ouch!

Wed Sep 29 00:17:43 2021

Panel 4: High contrast ahoy!

Thu Sep 30 00:18:23 2021

Ouch!

Fri Oct 1 12:17:51 2021

Panel 1: Enjoy another appearance of familiar sound FX "THAPP," folks.

Mon Oct 4 00:18:27 2021

You tell her, Emp! Win that argument even while facing death!

Tue Oct 5 00:17:46 2021

Panel 5: Flagging optimisim ahoy!

Wed Oct 6 00:18:05 2021

Enjoy a few more appearances of the oft-heard sound FX "CHOOM", folks!

Thu Oct 7 00:18:24 2021

Panel 3: "Abandon sword" still cracks me up, gotta say.

Fri Oct 8 00:18:15 2021

Panel 4: TBH, the scale is WAAAAAY off on that anomalously small "biodrone" that Emp is THAPPing from, but I erred on the side of clarity for this shot.

Mon Oct 11 00:17:37 2021

Panel 1: "BKOOM" is one of my favorite explosive sound FX, though not repeated quite as often all my all-time fave "WHKOOM."

Tue Oct 12 00:17:45 2021

Will the webcomic software allow pasting-in today? Let's find out together, folks! UPDATE: Nope!

Wed Oct 13 00:17:50 2021

Panel 3: Might Emp be forgetting something important about said hole in the roof of Hell? Mmmmmmaybe!

Thu Oct 14 00:19:19 2021

Panel 2: "Uh oh," indeed!

Fri Oct 15 00:17:34 2021

Panel 1: To quote Ryan Long's Studio Guy from the great PITCH MEETING YouTube videos, "Whoopsie!"

Mon Oct 18 00:17:31 2021

Panel 5: "AAA--!" indeed! Oops!

Tue Oct 19 00:17:38 2021

Panel 4: Well, whatever the Heck could THIS be?

Wed Oct 20 00:17:28 2021

Alas, that "FWHOOSH" sound FX strikes me as a tad too small. (Oh, well.)

Thu Oct 21 00:18:52 2021

Panel 1: Arguable appearance of the Excessively Petite Feet riff here, I gotta say. SOUND THE ALERT!

Fri Oct 22 00:17:45 2021

Panel 1: Nice fade-out with the BG detail at the top of the panel; a flourish cribbed from manga, IIRC.

Mon Oct 25 00:17:23 2021

Panel 4: Random silhouette shot, just for the hell of it!

Tue Oct 26 00:17:36 2021

Panel 1: Why, I'd entirely forgotten the neologism "mnemosphere," which I don't think I've ever used since.

Wed Oct 27 00:17:21 2021

Panels 1-2: That g-d white stripe on Mindf**k's visor dealie has been a constant source of g-d frustration for me, as its curve is VERY easy to screw up.

Thu Oct 28 00:17:54 2021

Enjoy a semi-rare 4-panel grid page layout, folks!