adamwarren
patreon
EMPOWERED & SISTAH SPOOKY #6 thumbnails, pt.2: THE END, folks!
🕑 Added 2019-11-14 14:01:00 +0000 UTCAbove are my thumbnails for the second half of issue #6 of 2018's Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell, a six-part miniseries written by me, drawn by Carla Speed McNeil, and colored by Jenn Manley Lee. Previous roughs from issue #6 are here, and more info on the overall project here.
To be honest, this long-running feature hasn't been one of the more popular ones on this Patreon, judging by the number of likes and comments. But hey, at least we're at the end, folks! If I get a chance, perhaps I'll write up a post-mortem for this unfortunately ill-starred project, which suffered from a goodly number of very poor decisions on my part. At the very least, I could post some pics of the back-and-forth procedure that Carla and I did on the series' dialogue, which was an unusual feature of the project.
Now, with the previous issues, such as #3, I posted the thumbnails only in their original "quad" format, as seen above. Howeva, it's occurred to me that the roughs might be more appealing if I cropped 'em to show a single page at a time, as seen below.
Not thrilled with the choice of relying almost entirely on close-ups in pp.13-16.
On pp.14-15, I really liked doing one last warm & fuzzy scene with Mindf**k and Spooky, even if it was in the context of a magically weaponized delusion.
And with p.15 above, time for the final act, in which a wholly powerless, distressed-damsel Spooky truly uses her words as weapons.
And with p.16, Spooky figures out the all-powerful Final Blonde's Big Secret.
At least a few of the (rare) reviews of the series seemed a bit taken aback by the last act, as in this largely positive piece (which, amusingly, goes out of its way to bitch about how I draw women-- an odd point, considering I didn't draw any of 'em in this miniseries).
I had Spooky's verbal curbstomping written out in my head for months, maybe years before I did these roughs, much like some of the soliloquies in Empowered vol.7 (Demonwolf), vol.8 (Spooky, again), vol. 10 (Thugboy's long-rehearsed speech to Emp), and vol.11 (the last act with Mindf**k's brother).
The pp.19-20 riff, however, with Spooky explaining the existential dilemma of someone already struggling with self-loathing and suicidal impulses finding themselves armed with absolute power, was a last-minute addition. As one reader put it, "Automatically wish-fulfilling powers aren't super ideal for a self-hating character hiding a death wish."
I liked the idea of Spooky using verbal brutality to defeat a bully who had once tormented her, just as Spooky in turn had once verbally brutalized Emp.
I clarified things a bit with the final version of p.21, which had Ashlee blurt "My name was Joslyn" for a bit more clarity.
Page 22's bit about Spooky becoming even more magically powerful looms large with an important story in Empowered vol.12, by the way.
And the wrap-up happens very quickly. Looking back, I should've truncated an earlier scene or two to buy more pagecount for the ending. Then again, looking back, I can see many, many things I should've done differently with this miniseries. (Perhaps I'll discuss those things here, someday.)
And that's it for Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell's thumbnails, folks. Not sure if I'll post the thumbnails from another Empowered Guest Artist project next, or maaaaaaybe look into posting the even more detailed roughs from one of my Marvel books. Might post a poll about it, even!
Comments
KranberriJam
I loved this mini-series, such insight into Spooky; I seriously love her character development. I do have to say that I still love the disguise she did for Emp in the first issue.
Adam Warren
Honestly not sure. I have two more (short) EMP miniseries already scripted and laid out, but successfully lining up an artist for 'em has proven nightmarishly difficult. (Might blither about 'em in a future E&SHSH post-mortem here...)
Dean Reilly
Yeah, I really liked this miniseries as well. Do you have any plans for more similar work in the future?
Adam Warren
You're welcome!
Adam Warren
Thanks much; glad you enjoyed the miniseries (despite whatever flaws I might perceive in it)!
Eric
This was a unique comic, I enjoyed collecting it.
J.
Man, this had such a good ending. Thanks for sharing these.
Strypgia
In hindsight, it would have been good to have more pagecount for the ending, which did feel a little rushed. The whole miniseries felt packed, though, so I'm not sure where you could have cut easily. And boy, the longer things unfold, the worse and worse it looks for everyone that Spooky let Hanna slip away out of fear. Spooky was already burdened with a lot of self-loathing and suicidal impulses, and now that she has Hannah's death on her conscience, plus the thought that yes, Hannah loved her so much she'd have stood by her no matter what, it feels like it could get even worse. Maybe her career suicide and that dive into Hell was enough to blunt it?
