EMPOWERED: ANIMAL STYLE one-shot cover illo

Behold, the cover artwork for EMPOWERED: ANIMAL STYLE, the latest one-shot installment of my ongoing "sexy superhero comedy" series published by Dark Horse Comics. This 32pp "floppy" comic is due out on June 5, and can be pre-ordered from your Local Comics Retailer RIGHT NOW, FOLKS, which I strongly recommend; otherwise, your Local Comics Retailer might not bother to stock a copy of the book. Alternatively, the comic can be pre-ordered online from Dark Horse's retail website here: [link]

The main story in EMPOWERED: ANIMAL STYLE features tech-intensive line art by mecha maestro John Staton, aka deviantART's own , who drew all the heavy metal supervillains on this cover illo. Yours truly all provided the line art for the cover's images of our often-struggling heroine Empowered (at left and right), and Rob Porter, aka dA's own painted all the pretty, pretty color work.

Here's the solicitation copy for the one-shot:

TERRORPIN! POWERPACHYDERM! BRASS MONKEY! CYBERIAN TIGER! SUPERCOBRA! MAUL BUNNY! Can struggling superheroine Empowered foil a mass carjacking by these animal-armored criminal mecha at the 21st annual Alternate Timeline Superhero Auto Show? Can one exceedingly flimsy "supersuit" overcome 14 hostile tons of heavy metal? This action-packed new Empowered one-shot says: "MAYBE!"

For the record, I'm also drawing 6pp of B&W art to accompany the main story; plus, the issue is slated to feature a 2-page preview of the next Empowered one-shot (a Ninjette-focused story), about which I'm pretty darn excited as well. I should further note that Guest Artist John Staton went way, way above and beyond the call of duty in his design work for the story, which I wrote specifically for his tech-savvy skill set. He cranked out a quite frankly insane total of 40-odd pages of designs for the one-shot's mecha and superhero vehicles, which I'll be straggling out over the weeks to come.

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]