Whew... Just wrapped up the cover and a sample page from EMPOWERED: THE WENCH WITH A MILLION SIGHS, a one-shot comic (in conventional comics format and everything!) that's soon to be solicited for a December release... More info later, needless to say. (Intriguing hint: the cover features some sweet color artistry from DA's own , I'm happy to say!)

Had to wrap up the EMPOWERED one-shot material in a hurry, due to the fact that I'm headed off to the San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday... Yay! I'll miss most/all of the first day of the con, but will be there for Friday, Saturday and maybe a wee bit of Sunday before I take off for a visit to the Bay Area. I'm slated for a signing at the Dark Horse booth on Friday from 12:00 to 1:00PM, so feel free to drop on by; in fact, this'll be my first public appearance at a convention (or anywhere else) since EMPOWERED's initial 2007 release! The rest of the time, I'll just be wandering aimlessly about the con (sans table) looking up people, when not stopping off at the Antarctic Press booth, where a bunch of my friends will be hanging out.

I might bring along a few EMPOWERED originals to sell, though I won't be selling interior (story) pages for a while yet (as we might need to rescan some of 'em). Still, to defray my considerable expenses a little, I'll prolly tote along some of the original art for a few of the back-cover and (random) interior illos, such as this one: [link]

Beyond that, I might consider taking on some serious EMPOWERED-related commissions at the con (like the Oyuki piece I just to linked to, or this one: [link] ), as I can "double-dip" with EMPverse pieces by using them as extra material in future volumes of the book. These wouldn't be cheap, though (as in, at least $100)... and I'm not sure there would be much interest in EMPOWERED-related sketches, regardless. (Then again, as I said, I've never been anywhere to find out if there IS any nascent interest in EMPOWERED material.)

By contrast, signing books or cranking out wee, quick sketches to accompany my sig is "as free as the air," if you're able to find me sitting down somewhere. Anyhoo, hope to see y'all (and pick up art/sketchbooks from certain of you) at the con!

Side note: As has been helpfully pointed out to me, Marvel just announced [link] that "Galacta", the story that and I did for the anthology MARVEL ASSISTANT-SIZED SPECTACULAR #2, won a contest to see which of the anthology's stories would continue... Thanks verra much, everybody who voted for Galacta! So, looks like the daughter of Galactus will appear again with a trio of short stories that will initially run on Marvel's Digital Comics, before all the Galacta material is later reprinted in a single (conventionally published) issue. Thanks again, kind voters!

And now, back to the usual floggery... EMPOWERED is my "sexy superhero comedy" published by Dark Horse Comics, with the fifth volume having hit the shelves of your local comics retailer or bookstore just last month. You can order EMPOWERED 5 online at Dark Horse's retail website at: [link] or, far more problematically, at Amazon.com: [link] Keep in mind, though, that while Dark Horse's site has the book in stock, bookstores--including Amazon, which currently states that EMP 5 "usually ships in 1-2 months," for reasons inexplicable to me-- may not get it in stock for some time yet. (Comics retailers, including online sites like TFAW, often get EMPOWERED volumes well before the bookstores do.)

-AW