Murray Superman

Everyone knows that Supergirl is Superman's cousin. Well, meet Murray Superman, his great uncle.

Murray was vacationing near Krypton's sun Ra when the planet exploded. When he came home and found out Krypton was gone, he followed the trail of his great nephew's spaceship and settled on Earth. He dropped the family name of El and adopted his relative's name of Superman (although he pronounces it "Soopermuhn").

Murray wore the costume, but he never fought much crime. He didn't like all that dangerous flying about, and would just sort of slowly hover a few inches off the ground to get to where he was going. He never threw many super punches either; usually preferring to lecture his opponents until they gave up or killed themselves. He spends most of his time these days in his Condo of Solitude (located somewhere near Boca Raton),

Favorite quote: "Oy, again my big shot important nephew saves the world from that shmendrik Luthor, but five minutes he can't find to call his feter Murray?"

Murray's another one of those sketchbook doodles that's been percolating for a long, long time. I first drew him a couple of years ago but was never satisfied with it, so I forgot about him. I recently decided to give him another go, and this time he worked (in my opinion, anyway). Sometimes drawings just aren't ready to be drawn.

I tried to make the colors of his costume look faded, as if he's had it for decades. I hope that comes across. He's had it so long he had to sew patches on the elbows!

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original sketch of Murray. It's OK I guess, but I just couldn't stand his face. It didn't seem to have any character in it, or at least wasn't adequately depicting the character I had in my mind.

Here's the hurriedly drawn second sketch. This one captures the character much better. The glasses, stooped posture and perpetually gaping mouth make the character look much more like an old man.