We continue serialization of the 2013 one-shot Empowered: Nine Beers with Ninjette, now featuring artwork on the story's primary narrative by Guest Artist Takeshi Miyazawa. Enjoy, dear readers!
Behold, our first (and, so far, only) B&W Guest Artist story! Takeshi was comfortable working in monochrome as his various manga efforts and this page's screen-tones testify, so I figured, why not? I might also have elected to do so in order to bring his page rate on this project a bit closer to his regular mainstream rate, as we obvsly didn't have to reserve a big chunk of the budget to pay a separate colorist.
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon postsâextensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much moreâremains available for Patrons' perusal.
-Adam Warren
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Today, we conclude my introductory scene from the 2013 one-shot Empowered: Nine Beers with Ninjette, which is setting up a main story by Guest Artist Takeshi Miyazawa that kicks off tomorrow.
Panel 2 is specifically referencing Emp's drunken disaster from early on in Empowered vol. 3, but her dialogue here tends to suggest that she's unwisely tried again to keep up drink-for-drink with Ninjette, presumably with similarly disastrous results.
Panel 5: I quite like this side-view shot of Emp, even if the image is employing what I've dubbed "the profile cheat" that technically means that she's staring off into space rather than addressing 'Jette directly. (Note that the profile cheat works decently enough with cartoony art styles like this, but works rather less well with more realistic art styles.)
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
We continue my introductory scene from the 2013 one-shot Empowered: Nine Beers with Ninjette, which is setting up a main story by Guest Artist Takeshi Miyazawa.
On panels 2 & 3, note the white lines added inside the page's black-line gutters, which works nicely to keep the interior art from accidentally merging with said gutters. This effect is really g-d tricky to pull off by hand, as opposed to being handled digitally; that means I had to use white-out on any inks touching the border and erase any pencil art doing the same, probably with the use of an eraser shield, which is quite the old-school analog drawing tool. (Then again, I myself could be considered an "old-school analog drawing tool.")
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon postsâextensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much moreâremains available for Patrons' perusal.
-Adam Warren
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We continue my introductory scene from the 2013 one-shot Empowered: Nine Beers with Ninjette, which is setting up a main story by Guest Artist Takeshi Miyazawa; unlike most of the previous one-shots collected in the Empowered Unchained anthology, you won't see further drawn-by-me pages popping up during that narrative.
Panel 4: Gotta say that I do like the Emp-ism "less shame-y and more shameless" a fair bit, folks. Nicely scripted, 2013 Me!
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
Note that this story from the Empowered Unchained anthology, Nine Beers with Ninjette, was originally titled in sequence after the one-shot Ten Questions for the Maidman, as I once conceived some crackpot scheme of naming all the Guest Artist stories with "countdown"-numbered titles. Yeah, that didn't happen.
Next week on the webcomic, we wrap up my introductory sequence before kicking off the main story with Guest Artist Takeshi Miyazawa's fine (B&W) artwork. Yay?
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
As with most of these one-shot covers, I drew the Emp overlay figure while Guest Artist Takeshi Miyazawa handled the rest of the artwork and his frequent collaborator from back in the Marvel day, Christina Strain, tackled the colors. Hilariously enough, she sent me a work-in-progress Photoshop file of her colors for the cover, which is something I'd never seen before; upon opening the PSD and being barraged by the spectacle of dozens upon dozens upon dozens of layers, I thought my head was gonna explode like Belloq's at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Note that Christina sensibly abandoned the comics field in favor of a successful career in screenwriting.)
Tomorrow, we kick off the narrative of Nine Beers with Ninjette with an introductory sequence drawn as well as written by me.
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon postsâextensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much moreâremains available for Patrons' perusal.
-Adam Warren
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Here's
my final "Angry Hoodie College Emp" flashback page closing out 2013's one-shot Empowered:
Animal Style, folks. Tomorrow on the webcomic serialization of the anthology collection Empowered Unchained, we move on to the next Guest Artist one-shot, okay? (The next one up is easily my favorite from the entire book, mainly because the story is far and away the best narrative I wrote for this volume.)
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
Here's the final color page of 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, with artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos. Tomorrrow, we wrap up the story with a closing page drawn as well as written by me.
Panel 1: Not sure if this was an unwanted proofreading correction or not, but those two initial "WHUHH" word balloons were supposed to be left unpunctuated, as they were setting up Maul Bunny's "WHAT THE F**K" as a vocal stammering effect; for extra clarity, the two "WHUHH" also should've been connected to the third balloon, which was a clear blunder on my part when I set up the lettering guides. (Oh, well, yet again.)
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon postsâextensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much moreâremains available for Patrons' perusal.
-Adam Warren
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Here's one of the final two color pages of 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, with artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos.
BTW, gotta say that I really like Guru eFX's warm-schemed colors on this page, from that subtle sunrise BG and initial "glow FX" in panel 1 to the lushly apocalyptic imagery in panels 3 and 4. Well done, lads (not that any of 'em are likely to be reading this commentary)!
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
Here's another page from 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, featuring final artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos.
Panel 5: Ehh, this dialogue riff doesn't quite work as intended due to the weekend-long gap between story pages. The limitations of the webcomic serialization format strike yet again, folks!
Speaking of which, next week Animal Style's story wraps up before making way for the next one-shot from the Guest Artist anthology collection Empowered Unchained.
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
Here's another page from 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, featuring final artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos.
Panel 1: Note that the Guest-Artist-drawn stories only rarely feature very much in the way of "damsel in distress" imagery, with this scene being a notable exception.
Note also that I almost never show Emp's bare feet, as she usually retains "low socks" no matter how badly shredded her supersuit gets; as discussed in passing in the prose experiment I Am Empowered, as the enigmatic hypermembrane loses surface area, it reallocates dwindling resources to maintain minimal coverage of 1) her mask; 2) her gloves & "socks"; and 3) her "bikini areas" north and south, in that order (IIRC),
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon postsâextensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much moreâremains available for Patrons' perusal.
-Adam Warren
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Here's another one-page flashback return from "Angry Hoodie College Emp," drawn by me mainly to fill out the 2013 one-shot Empowered: Animal Style's pagecount and also to riff on narrative elements in the main story.
As mentioned in passing in the prequel prose experiment I Am Empowered, the "AG" on College Emp's hoodie refers to "Action Girl," clearly a long-time superheroine fave of hers, given that Age 4 Emp wore similarly logo'd underwear in a flashback seen way back in Empowered vol. 5.
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
Here's another page from 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, with final artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos.
Interestingly enough, just occurred to me that this page's gutters, which feature thick black borders framing a smaller interior space filled in with red, are based on a riff done in 2005's miniseries Iron Man: Hypervelocity by artist Brian Denham; both of these projects were colored by Guru eFX, hence the continuation of the approach.
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon postsâextensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much moreâremains available for Patrons' perusal.
-Adam Warren
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Here's another page from 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, with final artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos.
Panel 1: Yeahp, we just skipped right over a dramatic and theoretically climactic fight scene between Emp and Maul Bunny; I did so mainly for pagecount purposes, but also for a whimsical change of pace.
Panels 3-6: LOOK OUT, EMP
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
Here's another page from 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, written by Yrs Truly with final artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos.
Next week on the webcomic serialization, brace for the final battle between superheroine and leporine mecha!
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
In case you're just joining us, this is another page from 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, with final artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos.
Panels 5-6: The "wall o' text" riff works okay to convey the obnoxious flavor of the Teknofetish holodisplay pop-ups, but I still should've cut the text down quite a bit to aid readability; after all, I've gritted my teeth at many such annoying pop-ups with far less text on numerous occasions.
And yeahp, the "BREEP" sound FX in previous pages were indicating these grating "dialogue boxes" appearing before the various Animal Style mecha pilots.
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon postsâextensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much moreâremains available for Patrons' perusal.
-Adam Warren
Aaaaaand we're jumping right back into the cape-on-mecha action with this page by Guest Artist John Staton, with fine coloring by Guru eFX. (And don't forget the lettering by Nate "Blambot" Piekos.)
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
Man, I screwed up big-time when I presumably asked for "teeny-font" lettering from ace letterer Nake "Blambot" Piekos for this sequence to convey that Emp was muttering under her breath. Horrendous choice on my part, sad to say; in retrospect, I clearly should've asked for broken-outline "whisper balloons" with a full-size font inside 'em. (Oh, well.)
Here's a close-up of the great artwork that Guest Artist John Staton drew for the post-apocalyptic SuperHomeys display:
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12, I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. However, my vast archive of years of Patreon postsâextensive Empowered previews, work-in-progress updates on developmental projects such as fantasy comics The Chaste and the Chained and The Last Party, vintage con sketches, work stages on covers, "damsel in distress" commissions, life drawings & much, much moreâremains available for Patrons' perusal.
-Adam Warren
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Here's my initial page-rough "thumbnail" for this page from 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, with final artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos:
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren
Here's my initial page-rough "thumbnail" for this page from 2013's one-shot Empowered: Animal Style, with final artwork and fine mecha designs by Guest Artist John Staton, sweet colors by Guru EFX, and ace lettering by Blambot's Nate Piekos:
Todayâs Patreon update: Originally done as a means of scratching out
more worktime to complete the long-gestating Empowered vol. 12,
I've switched over to a Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday Patreon posting schedule that
won't feature the fixed content format I previously used. So, who knows what
today's post might feature? Could be Life Drawing or Distressed
Damsels content (both of which are featured at least three times per
month), or something in the Work Stages, Vintage Con Sketches or Design
departments, or possibly something entirely new, such as updates on
fantasy test projects The Last Party and The Chaste
and the Chained. Golly!
-Adam Warren