Emerald City Comic-Con update: As of today (April 7, 2016), I'll be set up at ECCC's Artist Alley, table Y-01, for all your signing and sketching needs! Note that Hiveworks and, seemingly, most of their webcomics creators will be at the convention as well, so feel free to swing by and say hi to any or all of us if you're attending the show!

Note that Thugboy’s T-shirt in panel 1 does declare him to be “STR: 18(00),” as opposed to “INT: 18” or “WIS: 18,” characteristics which might have proved more useful in navigating this high-level relationship challenge. In truth, this scene might have posed so difficult a trial as to be comparable to safely negotiating the legendarily onerous module Tomb of Horrors; that is to say, extraordinarily unlikely that Emp and Thugboy were gonna emerge unscathed from this scenario. (I should immediately extend my apologies to Empowered readers who never played AD&D and, hence, might well have no idea about the RPG geekery in which I was just indulging.) 

Panel 2’s view of Emp brings up an interesting point: Sometimes, the fact that she’s wearing such a skintight and mercilessly, even surreally revealing “hypermembrane” can undercut the storytelling effect I might be trying to achieve. As seen in this very panel, Emp’s “toothsome rump”—as the Demonwolf would dub it—inarguably draws focus from what would otherwise be an emotionally charged image. Problem is, Emp’s supersuit-clad butt looks like, well, what it looks like; I’ve no means of playing down the, ah, prominence of her behind when it’s in view. The only way to get around this unavoidable fact is not show her butt at all—and along those lines, showing her either A) from the hips up or B) turned sideways to the camera would’ve been better and less distracting pose choices for this panel.

I’m also displeased that Emp’s oddly balanced pose kinda sucks, as it fails to take the more visually interesting—and marginally more, ahem, “realistic”—approach of showing her putting weight on one leg or the other. An odd choice, I have to admit. (Might be that I thought a more unbalanced, weight-shifted pose would’ve looked even more distractingly bootylicious.)

Note also that panel 2 is drawn in 1-point perspective—which I normally try to avoid—in an attempt to convey that the shot is from Thugboy’s POV. A defensible choice, but I’m still not entirely comfortable with it; a “over-the-shoulder” shot using 2-point perspective and Thugboy’s head and shoulder in the foreground framing an image of Emp might’ve worked better.

-Adam Warren