EMPOWERED AND THE GIANT-SIZE ISSUES #1 thumbnails & script, pt.1 (Patreon)

Based on the results from a recent poll of you fine Patrons, today we're kicking off serialization of my page roughs and scripts for Empowered and the Giant-Size Issues, a never-published, two-issue miniseries intended to be drawn by a Special Guest Artist. 

I wrote the two-parter back in 2015 with the excellent artist Rob "Robaato" Porter in mind to draw the story; later on, as the credits on the cover rough below hint, I ran the proposal by the likewise excellent artist David Lafuente.

Both times, though, the miniseries quickly foundered, for a very simple reason: Empowered and the Giant-Size Issues, as I'd originally written it, featured an unworkable pagecount and pagerate format. See, the mini's first draft featured two 30-page issues, based on my 30-page one-shot from 2010, Empowered: The Wench with a Million Sighs.  Now, producing such a high-pagecount issue is no biggie for me as an artist; but keep in mind, though, that most "floppy" comics back then featured 22pp of story, soon to be downgraded to the current industry standard of 20pp.

I could only get a certain (quite generous, really!)  budget approved by Dark Horse for an Empowered "floppy"  project like this, and when divided out over such a high pagecount (of 30pp/issue vs. 22 or 20pp), that budget just did not work out to a per-page number I felt comfortable offering another artist. (Plus, we still would've had to pay a separate letterer and/or colorist, shrinking the artist-available pagerate even further.)

I airily assured my editor that I could "rebreak" Empowered and the Giant-Size Issues into three issues with 22pp of story in each, but never quite succeeded in that task, as the story really did need to be told in two parts. (The punchline at the end of issue #1, and the manner in which that punchline ties into the title, really doesn't work as well when the miniseries is reformatted as three issues.)

Plus, TBH, as the years went on, the miniseries' focus on a still cripplingly insecure Emp increasingly felt out of synch with her progression towards badassitude— if still deeply flawed badassitude—in the ongoing Empowered volumes. As you'll see, much of the material to follow was repurposed from the defunct, Twitter-format prose experiment I Am Empowered, and that project leans heavily on a relentlessly self-doubting, low-self-esteem vision of Early Emp.

So, this project will never exist as a real comic; this is the only form in which it's ever likely to be seen.  Let's get started, shall we? Time to alternate my thumbnailed page roughs with script excerpts for each page!

EMPOWERED AND THE GIANT-SIZE ISSUES, issue #1 script

PAGE 1 

PANEL 1: First page of a 3-page, real-world scene of "a city under siege." For these portions of the story, I'd like to use solid, black-filled gutters (as on my own EMPOWERED pages) to visually differentiate them from the open (or white-guttered) vignette format of the later "Emp discusses her issues" parts of the issue.

Four panoramic panels comprise this page. Here, a steeply up-angled shot, with the camera looking up the side of a high-rise building under construction; a high-rise crane is visible atop the building, by the way, though this won't be seen again until later in the issue. Something has just collided with the top of the building, sending a spray of debris bursting forth amid a gush of dust cloud; prominent among this spray is a plummeting I-beam, which we see plunging alongside the structure's face, headed directly for the camera. Background (BG): Blue sky with fluffy white clouds, with the tops of other, nearby buildings visible on the periphery of the shot.

Note: As will be made clear in pp.27-28, the object that just collided with the building's top is, in fact, a gigantic, floating gravestone(!) 50 or more feet long; however, we don't yet see giant stone slab directly; just a huge explosion of debris and dust cloud at the top of the structure.

SFX: (at left) KTHOOM (at right) SKRANGG

PANEL 2: Another panoramic panel, dramatically tilted, with an image of street-level action. At BG left, we see a stretch of city-street sidewalk extending back into the distance; shards of glass and bits of debris are raining down on the concrete. Importantly, we see a series of puffs of dust stretching back down the sidewalk. These, we see, represent the running footsteps of EMPOWERED (EMP, hereafter), whose masked face flashes close by the camera in the extreme foreground (FG), hair streaming back to indicate the speed of her sprinting. An anxious expression on her face, she's looking up as she runs, presumably tracking the (off-panel) falling I-beam. 

SFX: (small, by footstep bursts in BG; grow larger as they advance) THAPP THAPP THAPP

EMP: (burst balloon) --OH, JEEZ--

EMP: (burst balloon) --OH, JEEZ--

PANEL 3: Same shot and camera angle as panel 1, only now the plummeting I-beam is hurtling down close to the camera, blurred somewhat as it approaches with blinding (speedline-indicated?) velocity. Another slight BG difference: Other small bits of assorted debris (loose rivets, small chunks of concrete, pieces of metal framing, etc.) are falling alongside the beam.

SFX: WHOOOSHH

PANEL 4: Down-angled shot, effectively from the off-panel I-beam's POV. The camera's looking almost straight down at a section of sidewalk, where a cluster of hapless CIVILIANS are looking back up with terrified expressions. A flurry of speedlines flicker around the periphery of the panel to suggest the rapid approach of the inbound deadly hunk o' metal. I'm picturing a diverse group of about a half-dozen cityfolk, here. Random suggestions: Alarmed BUSINESSMAN and BUSINESSWOMAN, screaming MOM with CHILD, alarmed pair of YOUNG FELLAS, TEEN GIRL, ELDERLY MAN.

CROWD1: (burst balloon) AAAAA 

CROWD2:  (burst balloon; black, "censored" block over indicated letters) OH, SHIT--!

CROWD3: (burst balloon) AIEEEEE

PAGE 2 

PANEL 1: This page is a single, big "action panel," as dramatic as you can make it. Low-angled shot of a SUPERSUIT-clad EMP reaching up and catching the falling, very large  I-beam over her head, her body shuddering under the weight of the impact, her blonde hair whipping around her straining, teeth-gritted (and masked) face. Puffs of dust burst out from the sidewalk around EMP's SUIT-stockinged feet, as the weight of the caught beam cracks the concrete underneath her. Note that her SUPERSUIT sports a few tears here and there, as she's been "at work" for a while; also, the SUIT's membrane is glowing and sparkling extra brightly here, indicating that her superpowers are being strongly exerted.

She's leapt into the midst of page 1's cluster of panicked CIVILIANs, who are all crouching low or sprawled on the sidewalk underneath her. They're looking up at her with startled expressions, hair and clothes whipped by a billowing downdraft (indicated by spirals and twists of dust) driven by the beam's passage. Meanwhile, bits of small, assorted debris (loose rivets, chunks of concrete, unidentifiable pieces of metal) rain down on the sidewalk all around them. The BG is primarily dominated by speedlines and/or streaks of color as emphasis for the action, but we might see some detail of the building(s) immediately beyond the FG characters. 

SFX: (larger, by beam) WHAPP

SFX: (smaller, by various pieces of debris hitting the sidewalk) TINKK TINKK KTINKK

SFX: (by puffs of dust at EMP's feet) KRNCHH KRNCHH

EMP: (burst balloon; large lettering) >HNNH<

CROWD1: (burst balloon, at left; multiple tails, pointing to different civilians on the sidewalk) !

CROWD2: (burst balloon, at right; multiple tails, pointing to different civilians on the sidewalk) ?!

PAGE 3 

PANEL 1: Vertical panel. SUPERSUITED EMP huffs and puffs a bit as she recovers from the catch, balancing the I-beam over her head in the process. Meanwhile, the cluster of CIVILIANS sprawled and crouched on the sidewalk around EMP are staring up at her with outright awe; note that upcoming panel 3's two characters need to be located behind EMP. 

EMP: (half-burst on either side of the indicated word, or "h-b" hereafter) >HFF<

EMP: (half-burst on either side of the indicated word, or "h-b" hereafter) >HAHH<

CROWD1:  WH-WHOA…! 

CROWD2: COÑO..!

PANEL 2: Camera pulls back to show the couching/ kneeling/ sprawling CIVILIANS giving a hearty round of applause to EMP, who's still holding up the beam and looking down at them with a concerned expression. 

EMP: IS EVERYBODY, UM, OKAY…?

SFX: (at left) CLAP CLAP CLAP

SFX: (at right) CLAP CLAP CLAP

PANEL 3: FG center: EMP, from abdomen down to mid-thigh, facing the camera. BG left: BUSINESSMAN, quite clearly checking out EMP's butt with a raised-eyebrow expression of lust. BG right: BUSINESSWOMAN, likewise with eyebrows raised, but with a disconcerted expression (as in, "WHOA, that's a tight suit"). 

SFX: (at top left) CLAP CLAP 

SFX: (at top right) CLAP CLAP 

MAN: HMMM…

WOMAN: HMMM…

PANEL 4: Panoramic panel finishes off this scene. Close-up on EMP, still hefting the beam over her head, blushing and smiling modestly as she reacts with obvious pleasure to the applause from the (off-panel) CIVILIANS. Leave a good bit of space open to the right for the captions. Also, might as well go for an abstracted color BG here, as we're transitioning to a long section of the story that is NOT taking place in the real world.

EMP: (at left) UM, THANKS…! (little heart) ♥ 

SFX: (at right) CLAP CLAP CLAP

CAPTION: UM, HELLO, THERE.

CAPTION: MY NAME IS ELISSA MEGAN POWERS, AND YOU SHOULD KNOW ONE THING ABOUT ME:

CAPTION: I'VE WANTED TO BE A SUPERHEROINE PRETTY MUCH ALL OF MY LIFE.

PAGE 4 

PANEL 1: Now, we step away from the real-world, "city-under-siege" environment of pp.1-3 and start a long sequence of "VIGNETTE" pages narrated by EMP. Unlike the more literal and concrete "real-word" pages, these VIGNETTE pages can often figure EMP figures and head shots "collaged" against either open white backgrounds or abstract (and/or expressionistic) color BGs. Some panels do have more literal BGs, however; to separate these pages and panels from the real-world scenes' black-guttered format, I want their gutters to be pure white without any no black borderlines, much like Chris Bachalo's Uncanny X-Men pages (a format he, in turn, took from Sienkiewicz on Elektra: Assassin). Note that, while I use panel numbers here, this might sometimes be thought of more as separate images than panels as such, given the open VIGNETTE format.

Here, we kick things off with a full-figure shot of EMP in civilian clothes (maybe a T-shirt or other top, jeans, flip-flops), standing on the left side of the page against an open, white BG. Head tilted, she's smiling crookedly as she addresses the camera. Her posture conveys a bit of reluctance, uncertainty and embarrassment; she might be standing "pigeon-toed," for example. 

EMP: I MEAN, MY VERY EARLIEST MEMORY IS OF LEAPING DOWN A STAIRCASE WITH A BLANKET FOR A CAPE…! 

PANEL 2: A genuine background appears here, perhaps watercolor-blending out into the open white space at left. (Or, well, you can just cut it off with a white gutter space.) What we're seeing is an "action image" of a gleefully yelling, 4-year-old LI'L EMP leaping down a STAIRCASE, railings and stairsteps whizzing by as a backdrop while she "flies." While this is based on a scene from EMPOWERED vol.5 (p.182), I no longer think that depicting a 4-year-old in underpants is a particularly great idea. Instead, dress her like the image that appears on the back cover of EMP5: Namely, wearing a one-piece "onesie" labeled with superhero imagery, such as the "AG" winged logo and the "hero belt" design. (You might make the onesie bright red, as the blue from the back-cover illo is kinda blah.) As in both versions of the EMP5 image, she's wearing a fluffy blanket as a cape, clutching one end of it to her neck with one hand while her other hand flails about in mid-leap. Speed lines help convey her flight, also. As mentions, she looks gloriously happy as she leaps, a missing front tooth prominent in her open, happily screaming mouth.

CAPTION: EMP, AGE 4

LIL' EMP: (burst balloon) LOOK, DADDY!

LI'L EMP: (burst balloon) I CAN FWY!

DAD (OP): (burst balloon; at right) EMP--!

PANEL 3: Close-up shot of LI'L EMP joyously crowing post-leap, her grinning face a bit battered and bruised, her missing front tooth prominent. A colorful bandaid is visible across the bridge of her nose—I'm fairly sure that kid-friendly, cartoon-character bandaids were around 20 years ago—while another one is being applied to her scratched-up cheek by the big hands of her (off-panel) DADDY. 

EMP: (at left) I'M A SUPAHHEWOINE, DADDY!

DAD (OP): (at right) DAMN IT, EMP…

PANEL 4: New setting, and an older EMP. In fact, make that TWO older EMPs, as at foreground (FG) left we see the head and shoulders of the grown-up EMP from panel 1, a rueful expression on her face as she speaks. She's looking over and up at an image of a grinning AGE 9 EMP climbing a BACKYARD TREE. Skinny and agile, she's scrambling up the tree's branches and truck like a wee blonde monkey, shoulder-length hair swinging around her face. She's wearing a superhero T-shirt (perhaps with another "winged AG" logo on it?) and shorts, and is likely barefoot; we can see a few more bandaids on her arms and legs (though not colorful ones, as she'd prolly think herself too mature for such childish things), indicative of rather clumsy tomboyishness. Sun-dappled tree foliage and blue sky as a BG.

EMP: AS A KID, I WAS QUITE THE DADDY-ALARMING LITTLE TOMBOY SPAZ.

EMP: SKINNY, LIGHTWEIGHT AND FEARLESS, IF KINDA, WELL, DUMB.

AGE 9 EMP: A REAL SUPERHEROINE… (h-b) >HFF< 

AGE 9 EMP: …ISN'T AFRAID OF HEIGHTS…!

CAPTION: EMP, AGE 9

CAPTION: (small) BODILY POWER-TO-WEIGHT RATIO: AT LIFETIME PEAK

DAD (OP): (at lower right) GET DOWN FROM THERE, EMP!

DAD (OP): (at lower right; small; black, "censored" block over indicated letters) FOR F**K'S SAKE, HOW LONG IS THIS SUPERHERO PHASE GONNA LAST…?

PAGE 5 

PANEL 1: VIGNETTE pages continue. Here, in the upper left corner, we see an image that recurs through these scenes: An "insert head shot" of grown-up EMP, so we can have word balloons directly spoken by her instead of captions, whenever possible. This insert head-shot could be speaking from inside a circular "bulls-eye" panel frame, or could just be popping in from off-panel left. In any event, here she's addressing the camera with an apologetic expression. Next to her, a full-figure shot of page 4's AGE 9 EMP merrily swinging from a tree branch, grinning happily, sun-dappled foliage as a backdrop. She's dressed as before, with several bandaids visible on arms and legs. 

The VIGNETE continues below, where we see a larger, torso-up image of AGE 9 EMP, one of her arms in a cast and sling to indicate that her daredevilry has gone awry. (We'd need to change her T-shirt, too.) Her free hand is gesturing airily as she speaks with a contemplative expression on her face. What she's discussing, here, is her idealized view of her future self as a superheroine; beyond her, in the BG at right, we see a dramatic, up-angled shot of her visualization of just such an IDEALIZED SUPERHERO EMP, striking a bold pose with one foot up on a fallen superfoe. (Could be a brawny male supervilliain, or a monster, or a robot. Up to you.) 

IDEALIZED SUPERHERO EMP is a grown-up version of EMP, but notably more trim, slender and athletic (and considerably less zaftig and voluptuous) than the real-world EMP. She's wearing a "practical" superheroine costume along the lines of the new Batgirl outfit, more like sturdy "motorcycle racing leathers" or extreme motor-sports gear than a skintight bodysuit. (Might even have elbow and knee pads.) Important point: Virtually no exposed skin. The costume boasts a medium-length cape swirling dramatically in the wind, as does her medium-length hair. She wears an "open-eyed" mask, like BATGIRL, with the letter "E" from the EMPOWERED logo on her mask's forehead, like CAPTAIN AMERICA. (Might be on her chest, too.) Footwear: Doc Martens-style boots. BG: Abstracted color, perhaps with glitter FX sparkling around her form, to hint at how awesome she is.

EMP:  (at upper left) NINE-YEAR-OLD ME ASSUMED THAT I'D ALWAYS FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT AND SECURE IN MY BODY.

EMP: UM, OOPS.

EMP: (no tail; at top) BY THEN, I'D INTERNALIZED VERY SPECIFIC IDEAS OF WHAT "A REAL SUPERHEROINE" WOULD LOOK AND DRESS LIKE. 

CAPTION: (small) COSTUME GESTALT: "CUTE," MAYBE; "HOT AND/OR SEXY," DEFINITELY NOT 

CAPTION: (small; with arrow, pointing to suit) BODYSUIT TENSION LEVEL: NOT, LIKE, SKINTIGHT OR WHATEVER

CAPTION: (small; with arrow, pointing to cape) CAPE: WELL, DUHH

CAPTION:  (small; with arrow, pointing to chest) TOP: SPORTS BRA, NOT (AHEM) "BOOB SOCKS"

CAPTION: (small; with arrow, pointing to shoe) FOOTWEAR: PRACTICAL

PANEL 2: Panoramic panel. At center, an up-angled, head-and-shoulders close-up shot of GROWN-UP EMP gesturing as she speaks, perhaps tilting her head to one side as she ticks off the things a "real superheroine's body" would be. In the BG beyond, we see a cavalcade of full-figure shots of IDEALIZED SUPERHERO EMP's slim, athletic form gamboling, leaping, kicking and punching (and otherwise doing "superhero-y" stuff). Note that you could make this panel easier on yourself by turning all of these shots into silhouettes; not a bad idea, given that many of them are going to be obscured by GROWN-UP EMP's word balloons. 

EMP: (at left) A REAL SUPERHEROINE'S BODY WOULD BE, Y'KNOW, SLEEK.  

EMP: STRONG. 

EMP: GRACEFUL.

EMP: ATHLETIC. 

EMP: GAZELLE-ISH.

EMP: (at right) GYMNAST-Y, NOT BOOBY-GIRL-Y.

 EMP: AND, OF COURSE, SKINNY.

<And that's it for pt. 1 of Empowered and the Giant-Size Issues, folks! I'm not sure how frequently I'll be posting these excerpts, as I don't really wanna blow a regular weekly Patreon slot for the 12 weeks or so it'll take to complete serialization of this miniseries. Maybe 'll post 'em every two weeks or so?

Also: Going forward, serialization of this miniseries wil be a feature accessible only by the $3 tiers and higher. Just thought I'd kick things off with an open-to-the-public post, okay?>

TOMORROW: Patrons of the $5+ tiers can look forward to another excerpt of a commissioned "damsel in distress" story that is, technically at least, a highly non-canonical fan-comic crossover between two different properties I worked on. (Well, sorta.)