Issue # 1 of new DMC comic book
Rapper DMC of the rap duo, Run-DMC, is making huge noise in the mainstream again—but not with music.
The rapper born and raised in Hollis, Queens has set his sights on making comic books.
Last October, DMC, born Darryl McDaniel’s, finally fulfilled his childhood dream of producing comic books. He created his first self-titled hero inventively fashioned after himself, and the comic book has inspired quite a buzz around the entertainment world.
“Hip hop has always been comic books for me when I started,” the well-known rapper admits. “When you listen to my lyrics on the album King of Rock, which is my second album, I don’t say I’m DMC I can rap. I say I am DMC I can draw. Even then, I was still in that realm as a comic book kid pretending to be a rapper.”
DMC became inspired to start his own comic book publishing company after attending a Comic Con event in Philadelphia three years ago.
“I went there to do autograph signings and it brought back my love of comics from my childhood,” he said.
Deciding to take his love of comic books to the next level, DMC immediately teamed up with comic book enthusiasts, Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez and Riggs Morales.
“I met Riggs and me Riggs talked about comics for like two hours,” DMC continued.
Later, with Miranda-Rodriguez and Riggs, they recruited writer Ronald Wimberly (Vertigo’s awesome Prince of Cats), artist Damion Scott (Batman), inker Dexter Vines (Wolverine, Civil War), and legendary Marvel Comics’ artist Sal Buscema (Rom, Captain America, Incredible Hulk).
“I didn’t want to be a guy who, just because he had a hit career, to pollute the comic book culture,” DMC asserted for comic book readers. “It just happens to be that my culture happens to be Hip Hop, but I didn’t want to label this a ‘hip hop comic.’ When you look at my comic book, you don’t just see Hip Hop. You see Andy Warhol. You see a guy dressed like Michael Jackson. You see style.”
That style has resulted in a comic book that casts DMC as an alternate universe version of himself who instead of growing up to be an MC became a super-powered crime-fighter.
“Instead of creating a “rapping” superhero, Darryl McDaniel’s uses superpowers to battle his villains,” he acknowledged, referring to the future DMC comics to come.
Surrounded by a lineup of top-notch talent in the comic book industry, DMC plans on opening doors for writers and artists looking to break into the business.
‘I don’t want this to just be about me,” he asserted. “The whole purpose of the comic book, in the first place, was to give all writers, artists, inkers a chance to do comics. My second issue is heavy with female writers and artists. My universe is for all, young, old, black, white, Spanish, to represent diversity.”
More stories and characters will be forthcoming.
“The same way Stan Lee created Spiderman, the same way DC created Superman and Batman, is the same way I created this property to be,” he admitted. “I’m just the first superhero introduced in this universe.”
DMC intends for that universe to live on for many generations to come.
