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Description
Behold, the title-page spread from the upcoming 4th volume of EMPOWERED, my "sexy superhero comedy" published by Dark Horse Comics. Believe it or not, our heroine's nekkidness depicted here is, in fact, an actual plot point during one of the book's stories... No, really! (I dare not say more, lest I inadvertently spoil said plot point for observant readers.)

Have to admit, I'm already living in (mild) dread of having to do vol. 5's title page, as the "Emp lies either prone, supine or on her side underneath the EMPOWERED logo" riff I use for these title pages is starting to get a tad stale... Anyhoo, you can see what I mean by taking a look at similar pages from previous volumes elsewhere in me gallery:

EMPOWERED vol. 1: [link]

EMPOWERED vol. 2: [link]

EMPOWERED vol. 3: [link]

As I drew this image well (or, more accurately, WAAAAAY) before the rest of the book was finished, I was deliberately very conservative about what story elements I depicted to surround Emp; everything I depicted here had already appeared in the mere handful of stories I'd managed to finish.

I felt that I had to take this approach because of a mishap that occurred with the EMPOWERED vol. 3 title page (again, [link] )... There, I drew an element from a story that wound up not making it into the volume at all: specifically, Thugboy's helmet from his days as a Witless Minion for supervillain Spartan 3000, as seen at far left of that illo. Worse yet, the back-cover illo for vol. 3 [link] ALSO is a visual reference to this unused story, which was supposed to be a wacky riff about "cosplay sexplay," if you will. (For what's it's worth, this story will prolly run in EMPOWERED vol. 5.) Not that anyone seems to have noticed this mishap... but, hey, it sure annoys ME.

So, yeah, after finishing EMPOWERED vol. 4, the book's stories featured all kinds of elements that would've been great for this illo... Single Action's "Colt Navy plasma revolver," the footwear worn by Captain Goofy Boots (not his real name), platters of exotic foods from the Caped Justice Awards, the elephant and the little man in the canoe from the beginning of the volume, and so on. Alas, though, when I drew this title page, I hadn't yet drawn ANY of those things... Oh, well.

Anyhoo, EMPOWERED vol. 4 is finally slated to hit the shelves on Oct. 29th, after being delayed considerably by the fact that I had to simultaneously labor on a gargantuan and Sisphyean task that what might be (somewhat inadequately) termed "home repair"... In fact, said gargantuan task is still ongoing; as soon as I post this piece, I'm headed outside to toss stuff into what will soon be the 8th(!) filled dumpster of the summer. Still, I managed to turn around roughly 179 pages of EMPOWERED during the last 3.5 to 4 months of intermittent manual labor; that's not unimpressive (he said with somewhat feigned modesty), but that production rate was nowhere near impressive enough to prevent EMPOWERED 4 from shipping a month and a half late. (FWIW, EMP vol. 5 will have a far more forgiving schedule, I'm happy to report.)

Here's the solicitation copy for EMP 4:

Costumed crimefighter “Empowered” is briefly overjoyed to find herself in the running for one of the superhero community’s annual Caped Justice Awards (or “Capeys” )—only to discover that her nomination was merely a cruel joke by her obnoxious superpeers. But when the masked masses face a cataclysmic reckoning on the night of the awards presentation, can our perpetually struggling heroine overcome her resentment and save the day? And can she cope with the further problems posed by crossdressing vigilantes, dying wishes from preteen wannabe supervillains, telepathic “booty calls,” a deeply depressed ninja, bedroom conflicts with her boyfriend, and even... Hummer® fu?

You can preorder EMP 4 online at Dark Horse's retail website at: [link] ... or you can try Amazon.com at: [link]

Note that both sites have links for ordering previous EMPOWERED volumes, as well; or, you can quite possibly find these volumes on the shelves of of your friendly neighborhood comics retailer or bookstore, though not at MY local Barnes & Noble, annoyingly enough... And if they don't carry the books, just ask said retailer to order 'em for you; believe me, they'd be happy to take your money. Note also that EMPOWERED vol. 1 appears to be outta print at the moment (though at present, Amazon still has a few copies); I'll check with Dark Horse about exactly when it might be going into its 3rd printing.

Finally, you can see a brief EMP 4 preview at: [link]

Description
Behold, the title-page spread from the upcoming 4th volume of EMPOWERED, my "sexy superhero comedy" published by Dark Horse Comics. Believe it or not, our heroine's nekkidness depicted here is, in fact, an actual plot point during one of the book's stories... No, really! (I dare not say more, lest I inadvertently spoil said plot point for observant readers.)

Have to admit, I'm already living in (mild) dread of having to do vol. 5's title page, as the "Emp lies either prone, supine or on her side underneath the EMPOWERED logo" riff I use for these title pages is starting to get a tad stale... Anyhoo, you can see what I mean by taking a look at similar pages from previous volumes elsewhere in me gallery:

EMPOWERED vol. 1: [link]

EMPOWERED vol. 2: [link]

EMPOWERED vol. 3: [link]

As I drew this image well (or, more accurately, WAAAAAY) before the rest of the book was finished, I was deliberately very conservative about what story elements I depicted to surround Emp; everything I depicted here had already appeared in the mere handful of stories I'd managed to finish.

I felt that I had to take this approach because of a mishap that occurred with the EMPOWERED vol. 3 title page (again, [link] )... There, I drew an element from a story that wound up not making it into the volume at all: specifically, Thugboy's helmet from his days as a Witless Minion for supervillain Spartan 3000, as seen at far left of that illo. Worse yet, the back-cover illo for vol. 3 [link] ALSO is a visual reference to this unused story, which was supposed to be a wacky riff about "cosplay sexplay," if you will. (For what's it's worth, this story will prolly run in EMPOWERED vol. 5.) Not that anyone seems to have noticed this mishap... but, hey, it sure annoys ME.

So, yeah, after finishing EMPOWERED vol. 4, the book's stories featured all kinds of elements that would've been great for this illo... Single Action's "Colt Navy plasma revolver," the footwear worn by Captain Goofy Boots (not his real name), platters of exotic foods from the Caped Justice Awards, the elephant and the little man in the canoe from the beginning of the volume, and so on. Alas, though, when I drew this title page, I hadn't yet drawn ANY of those things... Oh, well.

Anyhoo, EMPOWERED vol. 4 is finally slated to hit the shelves on Oct. 29th, after being delayed considerably by the fact that I had to simultaneously labor on a gargantuan and Sisphyean task that what might be (somewhat inadequately) termed "home repair"... In fact, said gargantuan task is still ongoing; as soon as I post this piece, I'm headed outside to toss stuff into what will soon be the 8th(!) filled dumpster of the summer. Still, I managed to turn around roughly 179 pages of EMPOWERED during the last 3.5 to 4 months of intermittent manual labor; that's not unimpressive (he said with somewhat feigned modesty), but that production rate was nowhere near impressive enough to prevent EMPOWERED 4 from shipping a month and a half late. (FWIW, EMP vol. 5 will have a far more forgiving schedule, I'm happy to report.)

Here's the solicitation copy for EMP 4:

Costumed crimefighter “Empowered” is briefly overjoyed to find herself in the running for one of the superhero community’s annual Caped Justice Awards (or “Capeys” )—only to discover that her nomination was merely a cruel joke by her obnoxious superpeers. But when the masked masses face a cataclysmic reckoning on the night of the awards presentation, can our perpetually struggling heroine overcome her resentment and save the day? And can she cope with the further problems posed by crossdressing vigilantes, dying wishes from preteen wannabe supervillains, telepathic “booty calls,” a deeply depressed ninja, bedroom conflicts with her boyfriend, and even... Hummer® fu?

You can preorder EMP 4 online at Dark Horse's retail website at: [link] ... or you can try Amazon.com at: [link]

Note that both sites have links for ordering previous EMPOWERED volumes, as well; or, you can quite possibly find these volumes on the shelves of of your friendly neighborhood comics retailer or bookstore, though not at MY local Barnes & Noble, annoyingly enough... And if they don't carry the books, just ask said retailer to order 'em for you; believe me, they'd be happy to take your money. Note also that EMPOWERED vol. 1 appears to be outta print at the moment (though at present, Amazon still has a few copies); I'll check with Dark Horse about exactly when it might be going into its 3rd printing.

Finally, you can see a brief EMP 4 preview at: [link]