EMPOWERED's EMP + THUGBOY as BETTY + THE ROCKETEER

Behold, a commissioned piece featuring Emp and Thugboy from Empowered, my "sexy superhero comedy" series published by Dark Horse Comics. Anyhoo, the sketch was supposed to replicate a famous image of Betty* and Cliff from The Rocketeer, drawn by one of my idols, the late, great Dave Stevens: [link]

I'd never noticed before that the original Dave illo is technically incorrect, as it shows Betty being carried over Cliff's outstretched arm, not his shoulder, which wouldn't be viable for anyone without extreme arm strength. Howeva, this was clearly a deliberate artistic choice by Dave, since Betty's backside would've completely obscured the Rocketeer helmet from this angle if he'd drawn the pose "correctly". When I had to redraw my own version of the illo, though, I decided to switch over to a slightly different camera angle and pose.

Here's the rough sketch for the piece, by the way:


Note that Emp's outfit for this illo is her "Sexy Librarian" costume, as first seen here:


Anyhoo, the newest installment of Empowered, vol. 7, is now on sale at your Local Comics Retailer Store and/or conventional bookstore, and is also available in digital form via the Dark Horse Digital Store [link] and on Barnes & noble's Nook: [link]
More info here: [link]



Anyhoo, if you've read the book and care to weigh in on the experience, feel free to leave a comment here, in a SPOILER ALERT zone: [link]

And now, further floggery: Empowered vol. 7 can be found at your Local Comics Retailer (or bookstore, possibly), or online at Dark Horse's retail website [link] or on Amazon.com [link] .

Say, here's Empowered vol. 7's cover, without the logo:



And here's the book's back-cover copy:

While costumed crimefighter Empowered makes a startling discovery regarding her unfortunate status as an all-too-frequent "damsel in distress," her hard-drinking best friend Ninjette confronts her own sordid past, violent present and frighteningly uncertain future as she fights a desperate, single-handed battle against a entire clan of supernaturally durable ninja warriors. Can our two hard-luck heroines also withstand the further perils posed by supervillainous minivans, dueling sets of "daddy issues," doomed-but-still-hot boyfriends, undead karaoke party-crashers, and even "spoiler alerts from hell itself" voiced by diabolically omniscient demonspawn?

In closing, I must of course paste in the requisite general-purpose Emp-related floggery: Print copies of Empowered's first six volumes (and a pair of one-shots in comics format) can be found on the shelves of your Local Comics Retailer or bookstore, or online at Dark Horse's retail website [link] or on Amazon.com [link] . All the existing Empowered books can be purchased rather more cheaply in digital form as well, via the Dark Horse Digital store: [link]

<sub>* To clarify for the pedantic, "Betty" is the fictional character from The Rocketeer; "Bettie Page", of course, refers to the real-life woman who was the inspiration for her.

**Annoyed as she understandably might be at once again winding up as a Damsel in Distress, Emp should be happy for one thing: I actually drew her butt a bit too small. Note, by the way, that I'm oddly amused by the image of Thugboy ignoring said backside to gaze happily at the Mauser he's carrying (a gun he never would've handled in official Empverse continuity, alas).</sub>