Yeahp, the one-shot comic EMPOWERED: "THE WENCH WITH A MILLION SIGHS" is now on sale at your local comics retailer, I'm happy to report. "WENCH" is the latest installment in my ongoing "sexy* superhero comedy" series published by Dark Horse Comics, and the first EMPOWERED appearance in conventional-comics "floppy" format; for the uninitiated, five big, bold & brassy 208-page EMPOWERED trade paperbacks have been released in the last few years.



Here's the solicitation copy for the book:

Even as costumed crimefighter “Empowered” fights a desperate battle against a functionally invulnerable, grave-robbing supervillain inside a secret underground mausoleum for fallen superheroes, back at her apartment, the alien demonlord imprisoned upon her coffee table spins a tempestuous tell-all tale of the often-struggling heroine’s deepest secrets... The scruple-free storyteller soon reveals how all of Empowered’s many frustrations at work, at home, and even in the bedroom can be conveyed strictly through the vocabulary of her extraordinarily expressive exhalations, thus making her... “The Wench With A Million Sighs!”



Back to the floggery: "WENCH" features a 30-page story, still in pencil-based B&W (as with the previous EMPOWERED trade paperbacks) but on glossy, shiny paper stock (unlike the Emp trades), which should lend itself to improved repro; brief EMPOWERED excerpts in Dark Horse's co-published STYLE SCHOOL books have looked verra nice indeed on such paper. I should note "WENCH" is formatted in a slightly odd size, due to the fact that my EMPOWERED originals are 8.5" by 11", quite a bit "squatter" than standard comic art, and hence requiring a reduced vertical dimension (lest vast black spaces be left at the top and bottom of the page).

I should further note that, if you want to "wait for the trade" on this one, you'll be waiting for quite a while. The one-shot's story will NOT be reprinted in the next volume of EMPOWERED (vol. 6), but will have to wait until vol. 7 (or even later), which won't be out until well into 2011.

Nonetheless, "THE WENCH WITH A MILLION SIGHS" serves to introduce two themes that are critical story elements in EMPOWERED vol.6**: 1), The exploitation of dead superheroes, and 2), the late, lamented character Mindf**k communicating from beyond the grave (more or less)...

Anyhoo, just thought I'd post a journal about the comic's release, if'n anyone wanted to comment on it.

Further floggery: The five previous collections of EMPOWERED can be found at Dark Horse's retail website: [link] or on Amazon.com: [link] Or you can ask your local bookstore or comics retailer to order 'em for you; believe me, I have to do that at my local bookstore all the time, due to their rather, ah, capricious approach to ordering manga and American comics.

-AW


*Not that much sex in this particular story, though it does feature plenty o' superheroes and comedy.

**Incidentally, I just finished the (rather exhausting) inks on EMPOWERED 6's cover art today... Wheeee!