I had worked out the dialogue for this particular page in my head years before I ever put pencil to paper, as for some time I’d been noodling away at the speech whilst cardio hiking in the woods and/or zoning out after work to beers and Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition. Same deal with key dialogue scenes like Spooky’s self-lacerating rant at the end of Empowered vol. 5, or the “what I should’ve done” soliloquy at the climax of Empowered vol. 8, or the verbal curbstomping of the final Ashley at the end of Empowered and Sistah Spooky’s High School Hell. (Odd that Spooky gets a lot of these key dialogue moments, but there you go.)

In fact, I spent so much time crafting this page’s part of the Demonwolf soliloquy that I can still recite the dialogue from memory. Not the most useful of party tricks, I admit, but there you go (to repeat a meaningless tag phrase).

Next week on the webcomic, we wrap up the story “Deflowered and Dispassionate” as Empowered vol.7 begins rolling downslope toward its exceedingly violent finale. (The next page addresses the reason for the Blazing-Eyed Devilgoat’s sudden honesty, which you might be able to guess ahead of time.)

Today’s Patreon update: Probably another dose of Vintage Con Sketches, from the late-90s/early-2000s era when I was cranking out a ton of ’em.

-Adam Warren