Woo hoo! The first volume of EMPOWERED, the "sexy superhero comedy" comic that I both write and draw, hits the shelves today! It's a 248-page, $14.95 trade paperback from Dark Horse Comics, roughly 6.5" X 9", with B&W artwork reproduced directly from my pencils. A 14-page excerpt from the beginning of the volume can be seen at:
www.darkhorse.com/profile/prev…
...and plenty of illustrations, from both the book's front and back covers as well as interior-page images, are a-lurking within my gallery. And now, a few words cribbed from some upcoming interviews:
The first volume of EMPOWERED is a collection of short stories depicting the less-than-glamorous life of a C-list superheroine... Not only does her embarrassingly provocative "supersuit" often malfunction and leave her in dire peril, but long-suffering heroine "Empowered" also can't quite seem to fit in with the "Mean (Super) Girls" and testosterone-drunk "fratboys in capes" who are her nominal teammates. So, through a series of humorous anecdotes, we follow our positive-thinking but put-upon protagonist as she valiantly muddles through the goofily demented world of modern superheroism with a little help from her real friends... who, we find out, are all "bad guys" of one sort or another!
Or, to put it more briefly, EMPOWERED is an episodic "sexy superhero comedy," mixing a twisted take on costumed crime-fighting, romance, and absurdist workplace humor with a strong dose of that "manga flava"... and just a dash of the kinky.
That last element's not entirely surprising, given EMPOWERED has an exceedingly unsavory origin... A few years ago, in the throes of yet another bout of underemployment, I was plowing through a bunch of commissioned sketches for various folks, and hit a stretch of requests for, shall we say, "damsels in distress." Growing tired of cranking out such repetitive pin-up illos, I started drawing a series of 1- or 2-page comics "stories" about an oft-distressed superheroine instead. Long story truncated, these throwaway joke pages eventually morphed and mutated into an ongoing series that veered off into broader takes on both romantic and workplace comedy, not to mention detailing the pitfalls of a low-level career in the "mask and tights" business.
Thus, in time EMPOWERED evolved beyond its initial "bondage-prone superheroine" premise into a comic designed for anybody who can appreciate a good laugh, sexualized romantic comedy, unconventional fun with superheroes, sparkling dialogue, and manga-influenced artwork. The reader does, however, need to be able to tolerate a heavy dose of cheesecake... and some degree of beefcake as well, the latter of which will only increase in future volumes. (Or "tofu-cake," really, as an upcoming story features an excerpt of "yaoi" slash-fanfiction manga about male superheroes; as you may know, yaoi artists rarely draw their "beautiful boys" looking all that beefy.) Alas, due to the stories' high degree of sexual farcicality (without actual nudity, for the most part!), the book had to ship shrink-wrapped and warning-labeled as a title meant for readers age 16 and older.
EMPOWERED is probably one of the most accessible and easy-to-read projects I've ever done, from its formatting as "bite-sized" short stories to its freedom from the tangles of mainstream-comic continuity to its complete break from the "techy" science-fiction orientation that characterizes much of my other work... (Sorry, technofetish fans, but I'll have plenty of other work with a far heavier SF orientation out soon enough, I hope.) If anything, it's closest in tone and feel to some of my work on Wildstorm's teen-superhero title GEN13 where, you'll remember, I was getting away with a LOT in regards to sexualized shenanigans.
Anyhoo, if you buy EMPOWERED and find that you like it, please feel free to sing out about it, baby. Tell your friends, mention the book on forums, spread the word, etcetera. Another volume of EMPOWERED is due out in September 2007, but the possibility of any further volumes coming out after that will depend on what kind of sales figures the first two trades pull (especially in long-term reorders, which will either save or kill the project). Furthermore, if EMP does well, there's a pretty good chance that I might start squeezing in a new collection or two of DIRTY PAIR material (in the EMP format) between volumes of my "sexy superhero comedy." On the other hand, I should warn you that, if EMPOWERED fails, then I'm extremely unlikely to ever bother drawing another comic again. (Ooh... grim and overly, narcissistically dramatic, but probably true!)
Well, have a good one. In the meantime, I'm headed back to the drawing board, to crank out a rough for the cover to EMP vol. 2... Yay!
-AW
