Samurai Jack Creator Shares Superman Designs for Rejected Animated Project

The DC universe has been home to a wide breadth of interpretations and adaptations over the years, something that Warner Bros. has recently leaned into in a pretty big way. Unfortunately, there are a number of projects involving DC characters – both live-action and animated – that still have yet to see the light of day. Among those is a series of Superman shorts from Genndy Tartakovsky, the animation maestro known for his work on Samurai Jack and Primal. Word of the short film – including some pieces of concept art – has been buzzing around the Internet for years, but it looks like Tartakovsky just shared a major look at the project. On Tuesday, Tartakovsky took to his Instagram account to share drawings of his Superman design, which you can check out below.

The design definitely works on multiple levels – both for capturing Tartakovsky’s approach to proportions in character design, and for including a unique take on elements the S symbol and the Superman trunks. It appears as if the shorts would have been part of the DC Nation block, which aired a series of DC-inspired animated shorts every Saturday morning from 2011 to 2014.

Based off of Tartakovsky’s comment, the Superman shorts probably won’t see the light of day anytime soon (although it definitely would be fun to see in comic form, like his Luke Cage miniseries in 2016). But in the meantime, fans of his have been enjoying Primal, an Adult Swim animated series that aired new episodes last month.

“If there’s a message that people read out of it, that’s great. But certainly, I was never that type of storyteller,” Tartakovsky told ComicBook.com earlier this year. “I think as a kid, we grew up in the seventies and early eighties, and back then, we were talked down to. ‘Don’t do drugs!’ ‘Are you good at this?’ You know what I mean? It’s all very in our face. And so, I hated that as a kid. I wanted to be treated on an equal level. And so, I think I have this kind of being very reserved about teaching lessons. Certainly, It’s like you said, like if you picked it out of that, it’s great. I’m trying to do a character story, and build the relationship, and build characters that are memorable, and that will become alive. That’s kinda the goal.”

What do you think of these character designs for Genndy Tartakovsky’s Superman? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!