The Ink Stained Wretch #193 7/9/25

This Week's 'Wretch is Super, Man!

Here's we go with another of the absurd, abominable, abysmal articles that are these newsletters! This week we get super into Superman!...on with the 'Wretch!

Sketch o'the Week: David Corenswet!

Click here if you are interested in this original sketch.

If you've been following me online for more than just a heartbeat you'll probably know I am a big fan of Batman, but Superman is also a favorite of mine. In fact, I once had a full blown Superman suit for those times the Batsuit needed a breather...

Last night, thanks to Number One Son Thomas procuring advance screening tickets, he and I saw the new James Gunn "Superman" movie. There will be no spoilers here, but I am going to do a little review and share my thoughts on the film.

Premium subscribers can watch me draw this caricature of David Corenswet in this week’s video. Scroll to the bottom!

Superman Spoiler-Free Review

The short version is, I loved it. IMO it's by far the best treatment of Superman in film since the Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner movies. Gunn really understands the Superman character, everyone was perfectly cast and did a fantastic job in their respective roles, and it was a fun ride to boot.

I'm one of those people who can appreciate different takes on a character like a comic book superhero, even if they don't match my idea of that character. That's why I can enjoy the sixties "Batman" TV show and Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy in equal measure. The former is a campy, tongue-in-cheek comedic take while the latter is a gritty, dark examination of a revenge driven superhero in a real world setting. Both are good, but for different reasons.

Zack Synder handled Superman in a very different way in his DCU films. I appreciated his movies even though I did not see his Superman as the character I grew up reading. His Superman was careless with human life and destruction around him. He was brooding and spent way too much time questioning his purpose and direction. Synder's Superman was more an alien than a human, revolving around his Kyptonian heritage more than his human life.

Gunn's Superman is much more the Superman of the comics. The core of the character has never been his Kryptonian roots, it's always been the human values instilled in him by his Kansas farmer parents. This Superman is trusting and believes in the good in people, even to the point of being naive. It does make him a little childlike in his view of the world, but Superman should be generous and trusting to a fault. Synder fans seem to think this makes him buffoonish and one-dimensional. It doesn't. Believing the best in people might be sometimes naive, and those that do might get taken advantage of from time to time by unscrupulous people, but if the alternative is to be suspicious of everyone and believe the bad in them first, I'd rather be naive. Gunn's Superman would rather believe in the good in people and sometimes appear naive, because he's not afraid to appear that way.

The movie does have it's darker moments, and Gunn turns one bit of Superman lore that has to do with his Kyptonian parents on its ear, but he uses it to reiterate where Superman's true values and heroism really come from. Gunn really understand what Superman is all about, and that is the main message of this film.

I highly recommended this movie. It's a feel good story that many of the DC character films have badly lacked, and just a fun movie to watch. I'll be seeing it again.

Clicky to embiggen…

More Superman!

I've done a few Superman projects over the years, particularly for MAD. Here's a look at some of them.

Above is a print I did of (at the time) all the live action Supermen in film and television. The rule to be included in the print was that the actor had to appear on camera in the costume and as the actual Superman character in a live action movie or TV show. That meant no SuperBOYs. No Ben Affleck from the George Reeves biopic. Tyler Hoechlin had not debuted when I did the print, which is now sold out. I will not be updating it… these line-up type prints has run their course.

I did the art for the "Superman Returns" movie parody, written by Dick DeBartolo and appearing in MAD #468, Aug 2006. Here's the splash:

If you are interested you can read the rest of the story here.

I also did the art for the parody of "Man of Steel", written by Desmond Devlin and appearing in MAD #524, Feb 2014.

You can read the rest of the story here.

I did the art for the spoof of "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice", written by Desmond and appearing in MAD #540, Aug 2016.

This was the shortest deadline I was ever given for a full blown MAD movie/TV parody. I think I had to get it done in 10 days, and it was eight pages. It almost killed me, and it really upset The Lovely Anna because I had to cancel my 50th birthday party in order to get it done. She was not amused. The MAD staff sent her flowers and chocolates if I remember right. The rest of the story is here.

Finally, in 2017 I did the art for a MAD children’s book parody of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Really Bad Day originally written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz. Our parody was written by MAD editor Dave Croatto.

This was one of those jobs where I had to mimic the look of a specific art style. If you are familiar with the “Alexander” book, you’ll recognize the style:

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!