The Ink Stained Wretch #189 6/11/25

Say No More, Going Emo Again, Fun with Technology, and New MADness!

Here we go with another of the gaudy, grotesque, and gauche gatherings of garbage that are these newsletters! This week our sketch is a real goer, eh? Eh? Say no more say no more! We get our emo on again, play with a new tech toy, and MAD #44 drops today with a new piece from Desmond Devlin and me...on with the 'Wretch!

Sketch o'the Week: Eric Idle!

We're back with a new "Sketch o'the Week", and another Python! A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh? Or so says "Arthur Nudge" as portrayed by Eric Idle from the classic Monty Python sketch "Candid Photography" (or as the rest of the world knows it, "Wink Wink Nudge Nudge.")

I had a tough time decided what character to draw Eric Idle as. He has so many that are key parts of Python lore... The "Door-to-Door Joke Salesman"? The "Dead Collector" from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"? The "Amorous Marriage Counselor?" How about "Sir Robin The Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot?" I decided on his Arthur Nudge character. When a character is still endlessly quoted and imitated over 55 years later, that has to be considered a pop culture touchstone.

Premium subscribers get to watch me scribble away on this sketch... see the bottom of this newsletter for your exclusive content!

Emo Art

This year has been exceptionally crazy on the freelance front. I'm not sure what is going on, but I don't remember ever doing so many projects for so many different clients over so short a timeframe as I've seen the last few months. It's a good problem to have, but I might be getting too old for this. I am having trouble keeping it all straight.

One of those clients are the folks who produce the ongoing series of events called "Emo Nite", and who keep having me do art for some of their various themed events. Just this last week I did two new illustrations for them. One is supposed to be reminiscent of a vintage beach postcard, and the other has a racing theme:

These are fun jobs because I need to tailor the art to a specific theme, including the headlines, which I also design.

My pal Luke McGarry is also doing work for the Emo Nite crew. Incidentally, if you don't already follow Luke on Substack, you should... but only if you like laughing.

Pixel Pushing

Earlier this week I posted a video review I did of the Xenselabs Pen Display 16 on my sadly neglected YouTube channel. In fact, you can see me actually working on the "racing" Emo Nite illustration in the video. Here's the tl;dr version of my review: I loved it.

If you want the full review, check it out here:

It's a bird! It's a Plane! It's New MAD Material!

MAD #44 drops in comic book shops everywhere today. My CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and I did a fun little two pager for this "Superman" themed issue. I showed some sneak peeks of this a few weeks ago. Here's the full feature:

As you can see, this one called for me to channel different eras and styles of comic book cover art. That calls for some careful study of the parody target, and some effort to get it right. My favorite above is the romance comic cover spoof.

In spite of my showing you this two page spread for free, you should still go out and buy a copy of MAD #44. There's 14 more pages of new stuff in the issue!

Regular Subscriber? That's it for another lame issue of the 'Wretch! Thank you for subscribing! As always, if you liked what you saw please share it with others. Remember I'm always looking for feedback, questions for the mailbag, and suggestions for future Sketch o'the Week subjects. Just reply to this email with any of the above, or leave a comment on Substack! And always remember... it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide!