From Beats to the Rhyme to beating up crime, Run-DMC rapper Darryl McDaniels is gearing up to take down bad guys in his new line of comics.
The new comic will hit stores Oct. 29 and will feature McDaniels himself as a crime-fighting superhero, complete with DMC brass knuckles, his classic Fedora and a pair of Adidas sneakers.
The new comic company, Darryl Makes Comics, hopes to create an entire ’80s universe of superheroes over time.
“It’s not going to be 2,000 issues of my boring ass,” McDaniels joked with the Daily News. “We wanted to build a foundation for a whole universe from [this first book.]”
He also explained that the comic will tackle some serious issues that don’t usually make debuts in the comic world.
“We’ll be introducing other superheroes and supervillains and deal with a lot of issues: racism, homophobia, AIDS – subjects other comics really don’t talk about,” he added.
One panel of the comic that’s already been released revealed that fans can also expect some clever Run-DMC references as well.
The panels show the masked superhero asking what durable material his suit is made out of.
When he asks if it’s leather, another man cleverly responds, “Nah man. Tougher than leather.”
Tougher Than Leather is the name of Run-DMC’s 1988 album.
It’s only natural that McDaniels would incorporate his hip-hop history in the comic considering his love of comics is part of what fueled many of his legendary lyrics.
“I was a shy kid, so when DJ Run (aka Joseph Simmons) was first putting me on these records, I went back to my comic books for confidence,” he told the Daily News. “I would hear a beat and go ‘OK, what would the Hulk do to this?’ It was all imagination to me.”
Another look at some of the hip-hop icon’s verses confirms that superheroes inspired many of his lyrics.
“That’s why, if you hear my delivery, ‘Crash through walls/Come through floors/ Bust through ceilings’ – all the dominant punching lines came from [channeling] the Hulk,” he added.
Now McDaniels can continue smashing through walls, floors and ceilings in the name of justice.
As he prepares to embark on a new business endeavor, McDaniels admitted that it will be challenging to really enter a market that is being dominated by DC and Marvel.
“We’ve been hitting the Comic Cons for a year and a half, and there are times when we’ve been swarmed by fans, and there are other times we’re sitting at a table and there are crickets,” said Darryl Makes Comics editor in chief Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez. “But one of the things we have that other small publications don’t have is that we’re literally walking around the floor with the actual superhero, the actual icon.”
DMC will make its official debut next month during the New York Comic Con.