UPDATE: Feel free to use this journal as a comment thread for your thoughts and opinions on the new one-shot, okay? I'm always curious to hear what readers have to say about the work, and this is pretty much my only public forum other than Twitter [link]...

HUZZAH! The latest installment of my ongoing "sexy superhero comedy" series, the 32pp one-shot comic Empowered: Hellbent or Heaven Sent, is now on sale at your friendly Local Comics Retailer; why, even my normally Emp-abstaining Local Store deigned to stock a pair of copies!



Alternatively, you can order the one-shot online from Dark Horse's retail website here: [link] Or, you can snag the issue in digital form* from Dark Horse's digital store: [link]

Anyhoo, I wrote the entire book, and drew 7 B&W pages myself. Howeva, the majority of the one-shot's artwork—for a bold, brassy total of 30 story pages—were drawn and rendered in luxurious full color by Talented Guest Artist ~RyanKinnaird, as seen on the cover art here:



COMPLICATION: Due to a tragic proofing mishap, the Hellbent or Heaven Sent subtitle wound up missing from the cover. However, the Empowered logo is still quite visible on said cover, so you should be able to spot it on the shelves.

Here's Empowered: Hellbent or Heaven Sent's scintillating solicitation copy:

This time around, the "sexy superhero comedy" ensues when costumed crimefighter Empowered makes an ill-fated visit to a top-secret dumping ground for ultra-tech "superdebris" and wrecked "villainware" left over from cape-on-cape battle. Can our heroine and her hapless teammate, cyborg-with-a-secret Mechanismo, possibly hope to survive when the junkyard begins nano-spawning an apocalyptic cheesecake plague of flirty but lethal "cyber-angels" and sensual but savage "devil mecha"?



But wait, here's even more text that I wasn't able to fit in the solicitation copy:

Hellbent or Heaven Sent also includes: Literally superhot genderswapping! Fire-breathing jealousy and piercing blue eyes as more than just figures of speech! Jet-propelled mecha body-boarding! Hot angel-on-ladycape action! Desperate navigation of a hellishly unhelpful help menu! Emp suffers the agony of high heels! The imminent threat of searing, fiery extinction looms nigh! All this, plus something very, very gross is none-too-subtly hinted at!

And here's an oddly cool-looking, flat-color, preliminary version of the above page:



And here's one of the issue's B&W pages, as drawn by me:



So, yeah, hope you like the new one-shot! The next one's well underway, as is work on vol.8 of the regular Empowered graphic-novel series; speaking of which, back to the drawing board!

                                                       -AW


P.S.: In the interests of further floggery, I might as well mention other current Emp product on the shelves:

Here's the latest and arguably greatest installment in the series, the ninjatastic Empowered vol.7:



Below is Empowered Deluxe Edition Vol. 2, which collects volumes 4 through 6 of the series in a big, bold, brawny, 656-page $59.99 hardcover printed on pretty, pretty paper (and including a fair chunk of bonus material): [link]



This weighty new tome's already on the shelves of your Local Comics Retailer, and should be be available in conventional bookstores shortly. Alternatively, you can order it from Dark Horse's online retail site here (for 20% off): [link]

Note that Empowered Deluxe Edition Vol. 1, which collects volumes 1-3, as seen below:



...is also on sale at your Local Comics Retailer or bookstore, in theory at least, or can be ordered online from Dark Horse: [link] or Amazon: [link]

In closing, I must of course paste in the requisite general-purpose Emp-related floggery: Print copies of Empowered's first seven 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] Note, however, that these Empowered Deluxe Editions will remain a "print-only" proposition, alas.

* _{Just between you and me, Ryan Kinnaird's luscious color art looks really, really nice on a monitor's screen...}