ADAM WARREN - A HISTORY OF FAILED PITCHES AND THE SUCCESS OF EMPOWERED

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Announced at the Comic-Con International in San Diego in 2006, Empowered is a “sexy superhero comedy” created, written and illustrated by acclaimed creator Adam Warren and published by Dark Horse.

What started out as an “e-mail comic” circulated among publishers, editors, industry pros, assorted friends and acquaintances is now a confirmed four volume graphic novel series (with at least five volumes in total planned - more on that in a moment).

Warren first broke into the comic book industry in the late 80s with his work on Dirty Pair, based on the light novel series by Haruka Takachiho. He then went on to either write, draw or handled both writing and illustrations on such works as Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal, Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone, Marvel Mangaverse: Fantastic Four (with artist Keron Grant), a couple Gen13 Bootleg stories entitled Grunge! The Movie and Magical Drama Queen Roxy, followed by a run on the first volume of Gen13 with artists Ed Benes, Kaare Andrews, Rick Mays, Lee Bermejo, Yanick Pacquette and others.

Most recently, he created, wrote and provided the layouts for the critically-acclaimed but not chart-topping Marvel Next limited series, Livewires, with art by Rick Mays. And there’s the Iron Man: Hypervelocity mini-series with artist Brian Denham.

With the release of the second volume this week, Newsarama chatted with Warren about doing a creator-owned comic in today’s market as well as discussed about his other failed comic pitches which include the likes of Livewire, the Livewires sequel, Dirty Pair/Superman, Dirty Pair/Gen 13, Dirty Pair/Aliens, Dirty Pair/Predator, a comic book version of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, an online The Matrix comic, and a couple WildStorm/Cliffhanger projects known as Cannibal Sun and Blood of the Magi.

Oh, and look out for a special, colored version of Empowered in December. More info in the following interview…

Newsarama: On your deviantART site, you ran a series of Failed-project Fridays where you revealed pitches and proposals that you sent in to publishers. How about pitching them to our readers (and company execs, publishers and editors who happened to come across this interview)? Let's start with Livewire. Yes, the one that's not part of Marvel Next. This one's about a rogue AI...

Adam Warren: Alas, Livewire was a project so violently of its time— the late 80s— that little about it is worth discussing. Cyber-enhanced and ultracompetent female protagonist, dystopic future milieu, pseudo-nihilistic ultraviolence, and boatloads of then-current cyberpunk riffs... Some Gibson, a skosh of Bruce Sterling, and a whole lotta influence from the great (and tragically, appallingly overlooked) light of the late-80s SF scene, Walter Jon Williams.

This project is arguably notable for three things, though: 1) The ludicrous overreach inherent to Livewire’s sprawling and epic structure, which made it completely nonviable as an actual comic, clued me in that I should shift my focus to storytelling delivered in more practical and reasonably sized doses... That is, as a “series of mini-series,” as the Dirty Pair comic wound up being produced.

2) One of the antagonists from the project was ported over to Dirty Pair as the misogynistic dirtbag Kevin J. Sleet in the Sim Hell miniseries. Amusingly enough, the character was in turn cannibalized from a dystopic cyberpunk parody of, I kid you not, Scooby Doo (!) that never got off the ground. Yep, Sleet is descended from “Dark Cyberpunk Shaggy,” if you will.

3) The long-defunct project gave up its title to my ill-fated Marvel project Livewires, just as earlier, its font design (contributed by a very talented Kubert-School friend of mine) was lent to the logo for the American Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal miniseries. Riveting, huh?

If you still happen to give a crap, you can hear more about this long-dead project, and see plenty of my crappy Kubert-School-era artwork, at: http://adamwarren.deviantart.com/journal/12671350/

Newsarama: Next (no pun intended) is the Livewires sequel. But first, in your opinion, why didn't the first mini-series appeal to the masses? It was grouped together with titles like X-23, Young Avengers, Runaways, Arana, Machine Teen, Gravity, Spellbinders...

AW: I’m not sure about Young Avengers, but I should note that Runaways is more or less the sole survivor from an earlier Marvel effort, the “Tsunami” line. Livewires and the other books you listed from the 2005 Marvel Next line all pretty much crashed and burned... with the (very) notable exception of X-23, of course. Really, though, it is perhaps not an enormous surprise that the miniseries featuring a attractive, female, teenaged Wolverine clone proved successful.

[Newsarama Note: Young Avengers was not part of Marvel’s Tsunami imprint. It was launched in 2005 and was part of Marvel Next.]

As for why Livewires and the rest of the Marvel Next line tanked... Well, it’s not a particularly bold or daring statement to say that there’s not exactly a huge, burgeoning demand among what remnants of the Big Two readerships for new characters. Let’s face it, while both Marvel and DC regularly release new books with new characters, the long-term survival rate for the overwhelming majority of these titles is very, very low indeed. Livewires, needless to say, did not prove to be an exception to this trend.

Hard to say whether or not Livewires’ somewhat manga-influenced look and feel hurt the project, given that the other, non-manga-influenced books in the Marvel Next line sold just as badly, if not even worse. At the time, I thought the whole “manga look and feel” dealie might be a turnoff to readers, after stumbling across the occasional bout of Marvel-fan “manga hateration” online... So, I decided to steer well clear of any manga influence in the artwork for the my next Marvel project, the miniseries Iron Man: Hypervelocity. I deliberately avoided the opportunity of drawing the issues’ covers, and recommended the excellent and (just as important) quite “realistic” artist Brian Denham to handle the project’s artwork chores.

And lo and behold, despite Brian’s great (and clearly not manga-influenced!) work on the book, Iron Man: Hypervelocity wound up selling fer crap! Woo hoo! Relatively speaking, the miniseries arguably tanked even worse than Livewires... While Hypervelocity’s sales weren’t quite as low as those of Livewires (though not by much), the fact remains that a miniseries featuring a character with a high-profile regular series still managed to perform almost as badly as a book featuring a group of entirely new characters. Ouch! Still, in retrospect, it certainly looks as if avoiding the appearance of manga influence didn’t make much of a difference on sales figures after all.

Now, one might have hoped that a positive portrayal of Tony Stark would go over well with an aggrieved Iron Man readership wailing about the Civil War treatment of the character... Needless to say, that hope proved out to be mistaken and naïve, if not outright idiotic. Realistically, during the Civil War focus on Tony Stark as Mecha Machiavelli, the time was prolly not ideal to put a not-in-current-continuity Iron Man project on the shelves. What was Marvel’s alternative, though? Hold on to the completed Hypervelocity issues for months or even years, in the vain hopes that the ideal time for a not-in-continuity IM project would, somehow, magically arise? (I should note further that the Hypervelocity pitch may actually have predated Civil War, as I worked up the proposal while contributing artwork for Livewires in 2005.)

NRAMA: So, bringing Livewires and the (failed) sequel into the equation, what would have made it worked in a superhero universe that is the Marvel Universe?

AW: First, a word of explanation for the many, many people who didn’t read Livewires: The book was about a team of human-appearing “combat mecha” who were the products of a top-secret, quasi-governmental R&D program that wound up targeting and destroying other top-secret quasi-governmental R&D programs. Our mechanical protagonists were in pretty ragged shape by the end of the miniseries, but hey, they are machines, and hence very, very hard to kill.

Well, with the theoretical second miniseries, the Livewires would’ve gone after a series of Marvel-Uni secret projects exploiting host of ultra-high-tech “hacks” derived from the nature of various superheroes’ powers... This, presumably, would’ve provided opportunities for guest appearances by better-known Marvel characters, as opposed to my arguably misguided avoidance of such appearances in the original miniseries.

And the even-more-hypothetical third miniseries would’ve specifically addressed the manifold implications of how sufficiently advanced technology could seriously exploit the potential of the so-called “mutant gene”... Ooh, ah. Paging Wolverine and Storm!

I rolled these rudimentary pitches by Marvel a while ago, but not surprisingly, no particular interest was expressed in them. No point in complaining about this, given that not only did the individual issues of the Livewires miniseries feature anemic sales figures, but the wee trade paperback collecting the six issues failed to “pull a Runaways” by selling well enough to warrant further installments of the project. Oh, well.

NRAMA: Dirty Pair/Superman, Dirty Pair/Gen13, Dirty Pair/Aliens, Dirty Pair/Predator... Wha-?! Looking at the list, a Dirty Pair and Gen13 crossover would probably make some sense (since you’d worked on both) but still, wha-?

AW: Pretty straightforward, really... I was desperate for something / anything to jumpstart the flagging sales and popularity of the Dirty Pair comics franchise. In all likelihood, none of the crossovers I had in mind would’ve actually boosted the DP’s profile in the long term, regardless. I had another, considerably more practical reason for trying to get these various crossovers off the ground, however: I wanted to maintain the DP franchise while simultaneously maintaining those sweet, sweet mainstream-comics page rates! I didn’t start earning much viable income to speak of until I started working for DC (on Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone) and Wildstorm (on Gen13), and I most definitely wanted to keep that modest gravy train a-rollin’. (Well, it was a modest gravy train in comparison to what real heavy-hitters were earning, both at the time and more recently.) Alas, to stretch the metaphor to the breaking point, that gravy train eventually derailed completely. Oh, well, again.

NRAMA: Okay, Cannibal Sun is up next. It would have put you in the same creative company as Joe Madureira, J. Scott Campbell, Humberto Ramos and Chris Bachalo. But the Cliffhanger project didn't get off the ground. Any regrets considering the fact that the Cliffhanger imprint collapsed not long after its high profile launch?

AW: Oh, I have quite a few regrets about not getting a Cliffhanger book up and running... though, to be pragmatic, many of those regrets were financial in nature. The page rates were seriously gravy-trainy, at least from the point of view of a lower-rung freelancer like myself.

Cannibal Sun was a far-future SF book that would’ve been an incredibly demanding challenge to draw... Very early into my work on the first story arc, I became very much aware that I no longer possessed the artistic “Eye of the Tiger” to cope with the ridiculous degree of background gruntwork that the book would’ve required. Still, I did do a bunch of “digital ink” art tests early on, which you can see in my deviantART entry on Cannibal Sun: http://adamwarren.deviantart.com/journal/11835950/

After Cannibal Sun fell apart, I decided to shift my career over to writing stories for other artists to draw... This didn’t really work very well, as I managed to scrape up only a wee bit o’ work as a writer. Oh, well. Along those very lines, I should mention the failure of yet another Cliffhanger book that I lined up at Wildstorm: Blood of the Magi. This was a quasi-fantasy, quasi-SF project that I would have written for a very talented Big Name Artist (who shall remain unnamed here) to pencil. Sadly, circumstances forced the artist to bail out on the project, but I still think that the book would’ve been awesome, man. I briefly considered drawing the comic myself, before realizing that this, too, would require a level of art-related intestinal fortitude that I no longer possessed.

You can see some of my developmental work for this defunct project at: http://adamwarren.deviantart.com/journal/12206203/

NRAMA: The Matrix Online story that didn't get posted on the internet at all. Was it a bitter "pill" to swallow after having written the partial script and done some page layouts for Rick Mays to draw?

AW: Nahh, not especially... I did do rather more work on the proposal than is the norm for my many, many failed pitches, but what the heck. In retrospect, I was slightly peeved at myself for conniving Ryan Kinnaird into coloring my “promo illo” for the story, though... Sorry about that, Ryan.

You can see more from this particular ill-fated pitch, as well as the illo that poor Ryan colored for me, at: http://adamwarren.deviantart.com/journal/12027374/

NRAMA: Last on the list is the Kill Bill comic book pitch which ended with you on the casualty list instead. Would Quentin have been proud if he had entrusted you instead?

AW: I’d like to think so, but I really can’t complain about the rejection... From what I was told, “QT” said that if a Kill Bill-related comic were ever to be done, he would want to write the book himself, as opposed to passing it off to another writer (such as myself). As a creator, I certainly can’t begrudge the man for wanting to maintain complete control of his own creations.

For a look at layout pages from my Kill Bill pitch dealie, you can check here: http://adamwarren.deviantart.com/journal/11741519/

I should add that all of the previous defunct projects were discussed in a feature I used to do on my deviantART page, “Failed-Project Friday.” A number of dA folks found the tone and concept of “FPF” a tad negative and depressing, but hey, kids, this is the reality of life in the comics field (and any creative field, really): If you’re gonna try to initiate new projects of any sort, you can expect an copious degree of rejection. This is especially true for writers, who have to write up a pitch for any project they might work on; artists, by contrast, are far more often just plugged in to preexisting books on the basis of their previous work, without having to grind up much (or sometimes any) sample work. Even wildly successful writers have failed pitches aplenty under their belts, or so I’ve heard...

NRAMA: Now, with all that out of the way, what's it like to be doing a creator-owned comic like Empowered in this day and age? After all, you're getting your hands into the superhero sandbox and mixing it with your signature manga-meets-pin-up style...

AW: Well, I’m still somewhat stunned by the fact that a offhand, throwaway joke of a comic has spontaneously bootstrapped itself into a long-term, ongoing project... For the uninitiated, I should clarify that Empowered was originally derived from a series of, ah, “damsel in distress” commissioned sketches I had to do; with no advance planning on my part, these pieces somehow evolved into a “real comic” over time, albeit a “real comic” with heavy sexual overtones and a bent toward sophomoric comedy.

In all honesty, I’d prefer not to still be drawing at all by this point in my brilliant career, but what can you do? I’m the only decent artist I could dredge up who would work for cheap on Empowered (and whom I wouldn’t feel like I was grievously exploiting in the process).

NRAMA: Empowered is, as you'd regularly and publicly labeled it, your "sexy superhero comedy." The first installment came shrink-wrapped and with a parental advisory label. But you got to turn yourself loose with the project, right?

AW: Yeah, more or less, though Empowered operates by a series of seemingly arbitrary rules... Fo’ example, the art never shows any full-on nudity as such (though we come verra, verra close on numerous occasions) and most of the profanity in the dialogue is censored. Note that neither of these proscriptions are really necessary; I just find them amusing, for some reason. In fact, Empowered Vol. 1 probably could’ve shipped unwrapped (after I removed some incriminating oral spit-strings from a few panels, that is), save for its superhero subject matter! Dark Horse Legal was worried that the combo of sexual situations with superheroes, which are still perceived as inherently kid-friendly entertainment in some quarters, might lead to problems down the road... They were probably right in that cautious assumption, really.

The main “turning myself loose” aspect of the book, however, isn’t the “sexy comedy” content as such, but the open-ended format I use to convey that content. Compared to having to cut, abridge, and cram stories into the rigid page counts of mainstream comics, being able to tell a series of short stories of completely variable length feels luxurious and indulgent indeed! And sinful, too, of course.

NRAMA: For someone who's considered one of the first creators in the American comics field to integrate the artistic and storytelling techniques of Japanese comics (or manga) into your work, do you think that there is a limit when it comes to one's own property?

Do you think that you have a set of rules and guidelines that you submit yourself to when creating a "sexy superhero comedy" without making it come across as hentai or something bordering T&A?

AW: Yeah, as I hinted at earlier, there is an ill-defined “line in my head” separating what’s permissible and what is irredeemably exploitative hogwash.. though, I admit, one of the things I like about Empowered is the way the book repeatedly stomps back and forth along that very line. Then again, to get all “meta” on you, there’s a similar line within the stories’ milieu itself! As is made clearer in later volumes, the characters within the “Empverse” operate by a set of so-called “Unwritten Rules” governing superhuman-related behavior and interactions. These rules are, alas, occasionally fudged and sometimes broken entirely (with the literally burning example of this being the uber-horny supervillain “Willy Pete”).

In particular, one story in Vol. 2 features a female character who gets rather, ah, excessively forward with Emp, to the point that I actually considered cutting the story entirely. However, I wound up leaving the story in the volume anyway (though with a few cuts), as that character later winds up as the improbable, kinda-sorta superheroine “Ocelotina” in Empowered Vol. 3... and, furthermore, the story in question features the volume’s primary appearance by Emp’s nemesis “Sistah Spooky” (whose motives in said story may well be misunderstood, but I’ll worry about that later).

NRAMA: Empowered Vol. 1 was basically a collection of "very short" vignettes. What's in store for Empowered, Thugboy, Ninjette and others in the second volume?

AW: Well, in Empowered Vol. 2, most of the stories are much longer than the wee vignettes that characterized the first collection... The volume starts with a 24-page story and ends with a 25-pager (and features a 50+ page story arc in the middle), though much shorter stories continue to pop up amongst these more lengthy narratives.

The stories feature a tad less sex and considerably more action (of the non-carnal variety), this time around. While I shall endeavor to tip the balance back in the “sex comedy” direction in future volumes, I really do enjoy drawing action sequences quite a bit... Hence the scenes of eponymous heroine Empowered “vorpp”-ing a lisping lizardoid monstrosity, hapless minions getting “b-word”-slapped en masse, and several spectacularly silly supervillains getting their well-deserved comeuppances.

Once again, our plucky protagonist’s superheroic career continues to be something of a mixed bag at best. While she does rack up some colorful victories against assorted “black capes,” the fragility of her horrifically unreliable (not to mention mercilessly tight and revealing) “supersuit” still lands her in a number of embarrassingly “distressful” situations, if you catch my drift. Midway through the book, one humiliation too many causes her to spiral into an especially severe crisis of confidence... from which only the inhuman, nigh-omnipotent therapy skills of the “Caged Demonwolf” (the imprisoned alien overlord who dwells atop her coffee table) can extricate her!

As before, Emp gets by with a little help from her friends... more or less, that is. Her hard-drinking best friend Ninjette, after a vicious bout of ninja-videogame critiquing, crafts an inbebriated, ill-considered scheme to get Emp some respect—by force, if necessary!—that goes disastrously awry. Meanwhile, Emp’s ex-criminal boyfriend Thugboy dares to play a very dangerous game indeed: complimenting his deeply insecure, body-image-plagued girlfriend on the beauty of... her booty! (Believe me, that really is a dangerous game, folks.) Both Ninjette and Thugboy, however, face far worse problems down the road, as we find out that Dark Secrets from their respective pasts are looming ever-larger in the present... and setting in motion some long-term plotlines, incidentally.

Jeez, that all sounds a tad negative, doesn’t it? Well, let me hasten to bring up some mo’ funnier moments from Empowered Vol. 2: Emp goes undercover as less-than subtle “Sexy Librarian” bait for an eyeglasses-obsessed supervillain! The Man of Masonry and Commander of Concrete, the quite literally blockheaded “Syndablokk,” schools a bemused Emp about the issue of superheroic incontinence! Emp’s putative teammate and effective nemesis Sistah Spooky reveals her own insecurities as she complains bitterly about “The Aryan Ideal of Shoulder Candy!” Emp’s tattered “supersuit” not only asphyxiates an overconfident supervillain AND sees use as a suprahuman condom, but gets its “House” on and diagnoses a potentially lethal illness as well! All this, plus magical sock monkeys, MST3K-quoting criminal doofi, wannabe “chronovillains” not burdened by actual time-related superpowers, and a Quantum Theory of Hotness Self-Perception! And, well, Emp gets tied up a few times, if you’re into that kinda thing!

Bonus: Nude scenes for Emp, Ninjette and Thugboy (though we don’t actually see any Naughty Bits)! Extra Bonus: A grievous misspelling of the proper name in “Stendhal’s Syndrome” during a very, very pretentious high-culture reference! (What can I say, my 3B pencil didn’t come with spellcheck installed; hope we can fix this in the second printing...)

Finally, we wrap things up with an emotionally charged story in which Emp tries to save a bemused thug’s life in a rather unorthodox manner, and in the process reveals an aspect of her background that adds a whole new level of cruel irony to her ill-starred superheroic career...

For the time being, you can see a 10-page preview excerpt from the beginning of Empowered Vol. 2 (which hits the shelves on October 10th) over at Publishers’ Weekly online: http://www.publishersweekly.com/arti....html&nid=2789

And plenty of illos and pages from all three Empowered volumes can be espied in the my deviantART page’s gallery: http://adamwarren.deviantart.com/gallery/

NRAMA: The third installment has been greenlit and is due to be in stores in March 2008, right?

AW: That is indeed the plan.

There’ll be a lot going on in this volume. To quote the solicitation copy:
“As if life as an often-struggling superheroine weren’t already hard enough, now costumed crimefighter “Empowered” discovers that another female superhero is ripping off her distress-prone persona-- and cashing in, big-time! Even worse, her relationship with live-in boyfriend (and semi-reformed Witless Minion) Thugboy has run afoul of an extremely literal set of “power issues”! Worse yet, a singularly bloodthirsty and ruthless ninja clan is gunning-- no, make that shurikening-- for Emp’s best friend and karaoke partner, Ninjette! Can our unlucky but still plucky heroine prevail over all these obstacles, as well as the further threats posed by foreign fanfiction outrages, her own supersuit’s attempts to manipulate her self-esteem, and the revelation of (gasp!) her real name?”
I should add that the term “foreign fanfiction” refers to actual yaoi (boy-on-boy) doujinshi, this time around... In fact, I’m planning to bring in a few genuine yaoi guest artists to help me out with this particular story, ‘cause I’m all about the authenticity, yo.

NRAMA: But before that, there will be a colored version of the characters in a special project in December. How did this short story come about?

AW: Dark Horse is allowing me to contribute an 8-page Empowered story to the December “issue” of their popular new online anthology, Dark Horse Presents on MySpace.

You might recall DHP on MySpace getting some coverage of late, particularly in regards to the much-discussed Joss Whedon/Fabio Moon story Sugarshock. Anyhoo, I was pleased by the opportunity to bridge the gap between Empowered Vol. 2 (in October) and Vol. 3 (in March ’08) with a dose of full-color Empowered-ment (ouch). Yep, unlike all previous Emp stories, this one will feature coloring by the Photoshop masters of the studio Guru eFX, who so ably colored Iron Man: Hypervelocity, Livewires, and a bunch of other artistic miscellanea for me.

As for the story itself, it’s a fast-paced and, I hope, funny introduction to the world of Empowered, currently sporting the working title of “Who Da Übermensch?” Points of interest include: a high-speed demonstration of “Hummer fu”; 10-year-old Emp confronts the grim spectre of her grown-up self's behind; the fearsome fury of the Crimera! unleashed; and our heroine’s bachelor's degree in Suprahuman Studies finally pays off!

I should note that the long-term plan for this story is to eventually run it as a color insert at the beginning of Empowered Vol. 4, which is tentatively slated for a September ’08 release.

NRAMA: Back to the third volume, well, the first was delayed and word came in that the second one is late for at least a couple weeks than the original date of release. Where are you at on the production side of things with Vol. 3?

AW: Yeah, for some reason the first two Empowered volumes have been plagued by problems at the printer, at least during their initial print runs. Volume 1 went back to press a few months ago, though, and suffered no such delays. Oh, wait... Clearly, I missed an opportunity to send an obnoxious press release hither and yon, trumpeting “Empowered Vol. 1 goes back for a second printing!!!!! OMFG!!!!” Oh, well, again.

Regarding Empowered Vol. 3... Well, in addition to the cover, I’ve finished between 70 and 85 pages so far, depending on whether or not I use a particular story that might otherwise be bumped into Volume 4... The story in question would certainly appeal strongly to a fair chunk of the readership, given that it features Emp once again going undercover as Sexy Librarian Lingerie Bait for a supervillainous poltergeist. Alas, though, page count in Empowered 3’s gonna be at a premium, what with the very long, very intense ninja fight (in a fast-food joint, no less) that climaxes the volume.

The overall arc of stories for the book is all plotted out; now, I merely face the task of putting 3B lead to cheap-ass copy paper and grinding out the finished pages. Yes, I am very likely the only artist in the country who cranks out original artwork (bound for publication, mind you) on paper so cheap that it would blow your miiiiind, maaaaan. At least, I hope I’m the only idiot using this technique. On the other hand, I have definitely become quite the artistic connoisseur of budget paper stock... Well, everyone needs a hobby.

NRAMA: Finally – why would Empowered rock the comic book community again?

AW: I’d like to think that Empowered has done well because few other books in our market (let alone superhero-related ones) could be characterized as “superlatively sweet, sexy and silly”, as one of the more alliterative pros on the “Top-Secret Empowered (BCC) E-Mailing List” described it to me... Well, maybe.

[Nobody]

Empowered v1 was one of the great surprises I read last year. I will definitely be on board for future volumes.

The overall arc of stories for the book is all plotted out; now, I merely face the task of putting 3B lead to cheap-ass copy paper and grinding out the finished pages. Yes, I am very likely the only artist in the country who cranks out original artwork (bound for publication, mind you) on paper so cheap that it would blow your miiiiind, maaaaan. At least, I hope I’m the only idiot using this technique. On the other hand, I have definitely become quite the artistic connoisseur of budget paper stock... Well, everyone needs a hobby.

That's how I draw my comics!

[Zubkavich]

Adam Warren's original Dirty Pair mini-series was one of the first non-Marvel comics I ever read. The timing was perfect as my brother had just started getting into manga/anime and was introducing his friends to all kinds of fantastic stories from Japan. Seeing an american artist with the anime-dynamic really inspired me at a crucial time in my creative development.

Adam's work has a fantastic feel and his writing is always energetic and entertaining. Here's hoping that Empowered's success helps fuel more projects and keeps him in the spotlight.

[MKF]

Awesome! Volume one was one of the freshest, liveliest books I'd read in ages, and a lovely surprise, as I bought it more or less on a whim without really knowing much about it - ever since I first read it, there's been a spot on my shelf reserved for volume two.

[kalorama]

Definitely on my list. Vol. 1 was a great, fun read.

[Evilomar]

I'm glad Warren is still around. I was such a fan of Dirty Pair and Bubble Gum Crisis.

[shadowchaser]

hes one of the best

[NightRiver]

Vol. 1 was an excellent read, so Ill definitely looking for vol. 2 this week.

[waterdragon]

Has it crossed his mind that the reason the stuff he does tanks is because of his writing, art, etc? I only got the Iron Man Hypervelocity trade for the artwork, but sadly it was a bad story. I liked the premise of Empowered, but I honestly no point in this whole "tease" when it should be 1 or the other. I still don't get why Vol. 1 was shrink-wrapped. It's not even breaking new grounds to begin with.

[ShinAkuma666]

Originally Posted by MKF

Awesome! Volume one was one of the freshest, liveliest books I'd read in ages, and a lovely surprise, as I bought it more or less on a whim without really knowing much about it - ever since I first read it, there's been a spot on my shelf reserved for volume two.

Same for me, Adam Warren is a very talented guy, and his writing is always a hit with me, I cant wait for Volume 2 and happy that the book is doing well.

Its an intense action packed book, sexy and with a lot of humor, keep up the good work Mr. Warren !

Gonna go read that Livewires TPB I bought a while ago before I received Empowered volume 2.

[phunengames]

Demonwolf rocks!!!

[PoisonElf]

The first volume was a hilariously delightful read.
Can't sing it's praises enough.
The man's art and story telling is incredible.

I'm elated that there's up to 4 volumes and possibly a 5th.

[ShadeCrowe]

I got the first one from the library just last week, completely unaware that a new volume is coming out. It's really very funny. It starts slow, like some random bits strung together (which I'm guessing they were, from older material) but once the supporting cast comes into play, the book gets even more fun.

[TerryX]

Loved the first volume and looking forward to the 2nd.

[seesoul]

I was one of the three people who bought the entire Livewires mini. I loved it. Too bad there won't be more.

[Doc Destro]

Originally Posted by seesoul

I was one of the three people who bought the entire Livewires mini. I loved it. Too bad there won't be more.

That makes me number two. I LOVED that series.

[Rob Levin]

Adam Warren is one of the great under-the-radar guys in comics today. An idea man to destroy many idea men, he's a sharp cookie.

I look forward to finally getting rolling on something with him at some point in the future.

[xdemon]

I bought and loved Livewires and Iron Man: Hypervelocity. Those books made me really want Adam Warren to write the monthly Iron Man and/or Fantastic Four series. I think he would be great on a SHIELD series, too.

[Psycho Andy]

Originally Posted by seesoul

I was one of the three people who bought the entire Livewires mini. I loved it. Too bad there won't be more.

Originally Posted by Doc Destro

That makes me number two. I LOVED that series.

Originally Posted by xdemon

I bought and loved Livewires and Iron Man: Hypervelocity.

Hey, that makes FOUR of us! - One more than previously believed!

I've been a fan of Warren's work since I first caught him amongst the pages of Gen 13, and I keep coming back for more.

Admittedly, I can understand why the mainstream comics audience doesn't "get" a lot of his work - his storytelling is of a very different style, and isn't in line with a lot of the other big names working for Marvel or DC.

But I'd still rather read Adam Warren comics than most of the stuff I've been reading lately, good or bad!

[mugiwara]

Sad that Adam Warren doesn't draw, and doesn't seem want to draw more comics. He is one if the few artist who can draw comics with a manga influenced art. I mean, there are a lot of comic books artist who try to copy manga, but most time, it looks like bad fanarts. With Adam Warren, it looks like te perfect amalgam between comics and manga.

Sad also that the Dirty Pair projects crashed. I'd like to read a Dirty Pair vs Alien.

"Please, Mr Alien, save us from the Dirty Pair!"


Hoping that Empowered will be a succes and convince te guy to continue drawing.

[Benjamin Ong]

Originally Posted by Psycho Andy

Hey, that makes FOUR of us! - One more than previously believed!

Make me no. 5!

[J.M.De la Torre]

D.P. Superman??? Talk about misguiding the reader...How in hell did you thing you could get away with that? After the tentacle-rape outrage in Heroes for Hire? No way, man.

[J.M.De la Torre]

No, really. I mean it. D.P. Alien??? Too much graphic. I'm not into stuff that hard.

[J.M.De la Torre]

He. Excuse me for being such a jerk. My sicapliptic sense of humor is gearing overdrive tonight.
BTW, what I really liked about Livewires was that it was the first attempt in years to tackle the concept behind the LMDs. I always wandered that nobody seemed to realise the huge potential for stories of having these robots who looked perfectly human playing the field of the marvel universe. Astonished still today nobody does.
I mean, other than Steve Englehart, of course.

[Royal Nonesuch]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Ong

Make me no. 5!

I thought I was number 5? I guess I'm actually six, then.

It's actually the first comic I had ever read by Adam Warren, and thought it was one of the best limited series of that year.