A preview of EMPOWERED vol.12's entire "fantasy RPG" sequence!

Belatedly dawned on me that, with Empowered vol.12's llllonnnggg-delayed release looming in just over three weeks (Dec. 3 in bookstores, Dec. 4 in comics stores), I should start showing s'more Patreon previews from the book.

Behold our cover art, featuring colors by my bud Ryan Kinnaird:

And here's the volume's solicitation copy:

Costumed crimefighter Empowered is trapped in a surreal nightmare scenario as her universe begins spontaneously rebooting again and again, with each variation more twisted and bizarre than the last! Can our befuddled superheroine somehow undo this inexplicable Neverending Reboot--while simultaneously steering her love life in a boldly polyamorous new direction with Thugboy and Ninjette!--or is this The End for Emp and her chaotically convulsing cosmos?

 (Hand-lettered that subtitle myself, albeit based on an existing font.)

Anyhoo, Emp finds herself not so much in a standard multiverse scenario but in the aforementioned Never-Ending Reboot, which will admittedly deliver a similar experience for the reader. But why is her universe rebooting endlessly, you ask? Find out in just over three weeks, folks!

Anyhoo, as follow-up fantasy project The Chaste and the Chained seems to be lurching e'er closer to actually happening, I thought I might as well preview one of Empowered vol. 12's thematically relevant "reboot" scenes:

Please enjoy the likely final appearance of my analog-pencil art style, dear readers!

(And yes, the "bleeding off-panel" word balloons are a deliberate effect, I should note.) 

What's this?!!!!

Do these monsters seem a tad familiar? Mayhap so!

And here's the kinda-sorta-cliffhanging final page of the scene:

And lo, further bizarre "rebootiness" immediately ensues!

Note that I liked Goblin Ninja Kozue and Devilspawn Bard Hannah so much that I drew 'em for the book's back-cover illo, also colored by Ryan:

TBH, I enjoyed working on these FRPG versions of the Empowered cast characters enough that I'm actually considering pitching Dark Horse Comics on a new Guest-Artist-drawn spinoff project featuring 'em!

Anyhoo, this volume was the last gasp of not just my pencil-based art workflow, but (I hope) the last gasp of my infuriatingly perfectionistic, ultra-precise, detail-intensive approach to drawing that had been slowly choking off my productivity since well before COVID-19. Any future art style of mine is gonna need to be much looser, faster and worktime-efficient than the very pretty but grindingly slow output seen in the final few volumes of Empowered.

For the record, though, I finished drawing the final pages of Empowered vol.12 in March of 2022; many unfortunate mishaps befell the ill-starred book in the months and years since, alas. In fact, I'd largely forgotten about much of my work on the book whilst desperately flailing towards a new digital-art workflow that finally seems to be approaching viability; if anything, I'm more chagrined that I failed to get a new series published before the long-delayed Empowered vol. 12 belatedly appeared! (Oh, well.)

Anyhoo, back to work on another art-test story for upcoming romantic fantasy-action-comedy The Chaste and the Chained, folks. In the next few weeks, you can expect to see more Empowered vol.12 previews on this here Patreon along with plenty of other content, such as Distressed Damsels, Life Drawing, Failed-Project Friday, and much, much more!