adamwarren
patreon
ROSE STANDS ALONE, pt.1 (proto-EMPOWERED comic from early 2000s)
🕑 Added 2021-08-13 13:01:03 +0000 UTCPatrons of the $1 and $3 tiers, enjoy a rare glimpse at material normally only seen by the Bigger Spenders of the $5, $10 & $20 tiers!
See, you've been missing out on many, many commissioned comic pages and con-sketch-format illos from the rather desperate days of yore when, chronically underemployed as I was then (and often still am nowadays), I cranked out commissioned "damsel-in-distress" content of the sort that would eventually morph into Empowered.
Unsurprisingly, a bunch of that older material produced for generous (uncapitalized) patrons back in the day featured Kei and Y**i from the Dirty Pair winding up in unlikely damselly scenarios. (Note, by the way, that I can't even spell out Y**i's full name without triggering an automatic Patreon warning.)
However, in dozens of older Distressed Damsels posts for the $5 tier and higher, I've taken to referring to this notably unofficial, alarmingly bondage-prone version of the Lovely Angels as "Rose and Lily," given that my in-continuity version of Kei & Y**i would be nowhere near as easily distressed as these commissions depicted. (Perhaps "Rose & Lily" are cursed with bondage in a simulation, just like Empowered is within her own universe? Who knows....)
Anyhoo, at some point in the early 2000s when I was long on free time and short on paying comics work, a generous friend of mine wanted some "DiD" content featuring Kei-- no, Rose. Originally I was going to crank out some pin-ups, but instead I decided to do some sketchy layout pages in what proved to be an early version of the later Empowered comic format.
Ah, but to set up the distressing scenario, I planned to feature an initial page featuring plucky Rose fighting off some anonymous, would-be captors; lo and behold, though, I had so much fun drawing said fight scene that the action-packed opening sequence dragged on for five full pages of Rose being a damsel who was proving extremely difficult to distress. Golly!
Part of the amusement value of this opening scene was that, since this would be an unpublished and highly unofficial version of the DP, I could pump up the cheesecake level of the imagery to a degree not normally seen with my in-continuity DP work. Wheeeeee! (This, too, would later prove to be an early version of the Empowered format.) Gotta admit, 'twas amusing to draw "Rose" in the high heels that the in-continuity Angels had not worn for decades.
Note that I reused the poses in the middle panel above for the introduction of Empowered's Goddamn Maidman:
Anyhoo, next week or thereabouts, Patrons of the $5 tier and higher will see the continuation of this narrative, in which our valiant heroine Rose winds up in a more conventional "damsel in distress" scenario. Oh, no!
In the meantime, hope you fine folks of the $1 and $3 tiers enjoyed this brief glimpse of material you've been missing out on. (Though I should point out that, if you're at the $1 "mostly Life Drawing" tier, you've missed out on a far larger number and variety of posts of every type, possibly numbering into the hundreds.)
NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: While switching to the so-called "M/W/F+" schedule has eased my workload of Patreon prep a bit, this has also triggered a conceptual logjam of sorts as I try to find slots for ongoing types of posts. So, expect to see some random juggling of posts through the rest of the month, okay?
Comments
Aidenke
Heck of a nice action scene here -- there's some nice flow in these pages, and can definitely see some echoes of the big battles that have popped up in Empowered!
Will_K
Great battle royale !!
Eric
Indeed. It's like "Bruh. Being able to fight 20 people and walk away at all is outside of 99.99% of human capability, expecting someone to do it entirely non lethally is just laughable"
Dean Reilly
Within three weeks, the Empersonator is #1 on CapeNet, has her own action figure line and is in talks with three major studios to play herself in 'Empersonator: The Movie'.
Mike Powers
This makes me think of the bit where Batman chastises a wannabe-sidekick for not being able to nonlethally beat up twenty thugs...
andrew
Hmm. Good points, but I still think "Empersonator" is too good a concept to let go. How about if it's a project MannyNet spins up to carry some of the bountiful bondage-y burden beset Emp. A duplicitous digital double dutifully damsel-fied all in the name of keeping Emp safe.
Strypgia
Considering how thin Emp's budget usually is, I don't think she'd have the funds to hire any. :P At the same time, Emp's real power is her empathy, and she knows just how much getting bondaged so much sucks, so I doubt she'd want to inflict it on anyone.
Strypgia
For the 3WA department that came up with the decoy idea, this would be 'system working as intended'.
andrew
Sounds like Emp needs to commission A.R.R. to build her an Empersonator android, although with Emp's luck Empersonator would go rampant and team up with Ocelotina.
andrew
... So by virtue of being forced to be an inferior version of Kei, Rose fights harder and loses her temper more often, thus comes off as a more exaggerated version of Kei, which perversely makes her a more Kei-like target. Dang, that actually *IS* kind of a bondage curse.
Burninator
You know, I wonder if Emp's jealous at all that Kei and Yuri get duplicates to take their bedamselings for them.
Strypgia
"Rose, we're not paying you to actually _win_ these fights." "But sir, I've got black belts in three martial arts, and I've trained for years to-" "Rose, your _job_ is to be a easy target to draw fire from the Lovely Angels, and make people think they're not a real threat. Now get back out there and be a bondage magnet!" _Siiiiiiggghhhhh_
