EMPOWERED's Sistah Spooky, high contrast

Behold, a Sharpie—and Micro Pigma, for small detail—sketch of superheroine Sistah Spooky from Empowered, my ongoing "sexy superhero comedy" published by Dark Horse Comics. I do high-contrast* illos like this mainly as a break from the pencil-based grayscale images I normally crank out, as I find 'em inherently more interesting to draw; however, I conveniently forget that bold, chiaroscuro-laden images like this take two or three times longer to finish than more mundane drawings. Whoops!

Spooky trivia: Her "hotpants, garter belt and opera gloves" costume is actually ported over from an unused Dirty Pair alternate costume, of which I'm mildly surprised that I've only ever posted a single image: [link] More oddly still, both she and the Empowered character Ninjette are very, very, very loosely derived from "Sista Ninja", a character I created for a 90s-era anthology book, Chix. Spooky got the "Sista" part of the character's name (but with an added "h"), and Ninjette—wait for it—got the "Ninja" part.

Anyhoo: The most recent Empowered product to see print is the big, bold, brawny Empowered Deluxe Edition Vol. 1, which collects the first three volumes of the series in a712-page $59.99 hardcover printed on pretty, pretty paper and including 40-odd pages of bonus material. This titanic tome's currently straining the shelves of your Local Comics Retailer or bookstore (though not my local bookstore, of course); alternatively, you can order it from Dark Horses's online retail site here, at a 10% savings: [link] You can also order it from Amazon: [link]

In closing, I must of course paste in the requisite general-purpose Emp-related floggery: Print copies of Empowered's first six 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 Empowered Deluxe Edition will remain a "print-only" proposition.

_{*Or "harsh B&W", as I used to call 'em.}