I was hired by editor Marc Weidenbaum to create a comic for Red Bull Music Academy. At first I wanted to do something on Afrika Bambaataa (who is responsible for my favorite rap song, "Planet Rock") and then I wanted to do something on Prince (my favorite singer/songwriter/musician) but I soon realized it would take a bunch of research and savvy wit to boil down such icons into 3-pages. So, I tapped music/comix writer/pal, Gabe Soria to mix it up with Marc and they settled on Daniel Dumile aka Zev Love X aka MF Doom, partially because Dumile is a fan of comic books. We decided early on that we would hip-check some of the classic tropes in Silver Age comic books to convey his "origin" (and I got the chance to draw high school chum, Michael Berrin aka MC Serch of 3rd Bass). I then roped in colorist Allen Passalaqua and letterer/writer Vito Delsante to complete the team. Marc and the fine folks at RBMA made animated magic from some of our panels and BOOM, "The Rise of MF Doom" was born.
You can read/see it here: http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/mf-doom-comic/
(be sure to scroll down for maximum viewing pleasure)
(candid Hang Dai Studios pix by studio mate, Christa Cassano)