MAKE MINE MANGA: Empowered

This just in... I've finished volume one of Empowered, and I'm going to go ahead and file this gush under MANGA...

Yeah yeah, all you mangaphobes and manga purists may argue whether it belongs under such a classification, but I'm stickin to it.

Empowered is the 243 page black and white artwork collection of shorts centered around a sexy/cute female member of the Superhomey's, named Empowered. She's a superchica with self confidence issues, who, thanks to the trickey powers that her skintight suit endows, is perennially being bound and gagged by the supervillains she goes up against. Along the way the book builds on these funny slice-of-life skewed superexploits and our heroine gains a henchman boyfriend, bad girl best friend, and one entraped essence of space demon that lies around her apartment bitching. The book is full of creator Adam Warren's trademark art and scripting. Warren has one of the most unique voices in comics, an imaginative mind and skillful touch with dialogue make his efforts always a joy to behold. Emp vol 1 is no exception. At first, the volume feels a bit lacking, as it was born from a series of shorts with no grand scheme in mind, empty bits to get our heroine in distress gradually build a world, relationship/s, and story that is totally immersive.

Reading Empowered is most rewarding because of it's unique approach, feeling more like a novel, or journal in it's expansive structure, and wide open reach. By the end of the volume things pick up considerably, and leave even more to explore for the next of what are hopefully the many planned volumes to come.

If you're not an Adam Warren fan already (shame shame), give Empowered a chance, especially if you've ever enjoyed superpowred adventure in your comics, it's a new type of mature exploration of those themes that's both sexy, and ultimately resonant. Empowered is filled with real life emotion and experiences, and Warren is tapping into a new mold of storytelling here, both in structure and scope! I loved it, simply loved it!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

DeviantArtists - Adam Warren

I've been meaning to add some features to TSL for some time, regular series' that highlight various topics on the web, the main one being artists found in the DeviantArt.com community.

Well, with the addition of one of my all time favorite creators to DeviantArt, it's high time to kick things off. I'll be back on the regular (read: as I get time, weekly, monthly, who knows) to offer artists that have impressive works to view on DA.

This time, we have none other than Adam Warren.


Yes, the godfather of American-Manga, the man at the forefront of the crossover manga hybrid style that's in full force today with millions of pre-teen kids aping their beloved anime/manga influences. Adams had a well informed, natural, and keen taste for Eastern flair since way before it was fashionable, a precursor to Joe Mad and devotees of the 90's, an innovator along with Ben Dunn and other early adaptors, but built on the solid foundation of the Joe Kubert School. Adam's perhaps most known for his Dirty Pair comics that came from Dark Horse through the 90's, and later moving to some high profile gigs on Gen13 and Teen Titans: Rock Paper Scissors. Since then he's taken several projects to Marvel, from Mangaverse Fantastic Four, to his own creation, the brilliant LIVEWIRES series from 2005. Currently Adam can be found rocking Iron Man's world with the visionary Hypervelocity series, and better yet, his March debuting EMPOWERED original graphic novel from Dark Horse.


Adam's not simply content to start a DA page, he's throwing in full speed ahead, by offering regular journal entries and weekly behind the scenes features, but also providing tons of artwork updates. From cover illustrations, convention sketches, commissions, commercial work, roughs, pencils, inks, colors, you name it, he's sharing it. It's paradise for a fan like myself, getting a glimpse at many works you'd otherwise never see, and a peek at the development of the art itself.


From last week's FAILED-PROJECT FRIDAY journal entry, we're treated to 4 pages from a never published KILL BILL comic book pitch...

featuring Adam's take on Tarantino's Bride in a scissor fight against an imaginative adversary!

Or unused illustrations from the SSX video game screen shots...

There's no shortage of things to take in, with 38 deviations, and 22 scraps (and he's only had an account for a little over a week!!)

You can check it all out HERE
Go on! Get Deviant!!