How a new comic is remixing DC superheroes with hip-hop

Anthony Piper started drawing comic book characters in the second grade, unaware that he would eventually be able to make a living at it. The 31-year-old Chicago artist has worked for Marvel Comics on titles including Guardians of the Galaxy, Invincible Iron Man and an Uncanny X-Men short about Domino, but it all started after a concept he was working on that combined his love of hip-hop and comics went viral after he posted it online.

Called Trill League, it mashes up DC Comics heroes with figures from hip-hop, pop culture (think Beyoncé and Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor and Diddy) and Piper's own community in Chicago.

I got a job with Marvel once they heard about Trill League, so a lot of things have been coming my way.- Anthony Piper

Piper originally attended school to learn how to make video games before trying his hand at music, even designing mixtape covers for local Chicago artists, but it wasn't until he revisited those characters from childhood that he found his calling.

"That's how this whole thing started out, just me sketching characters and putting a hip-hop spin to them," he says. "At first I started with Marvel and was changing their attire to hip-hop gear, and then I decided to move over to DC. They are harder to reconceptualize, as far as their design [goes], so I just completely changed the character. For the first one, I just took those elements I had with the character from second grade, infused them with Robin, and it just went viral."

After a successful Kickstarter campaign that earned over $20,000, Piper's Trill League is finally coming to life as a comic book. Designers such as Chase Conley (Black Dynamite) and Rodney Barnes (the Boondocks) have also expressed interest if Trill League ever becomes an animated series.

While Sparrow was originally described as a "trill Robin," a character who is as obsessed with his social media presence as he is fighting crime, Piper isn't worried about any similarities with DC characters.

"The characters are so much removed, they are parodies, and under parody law you have a lot leeway," he says. "They are inspired by them but they aren't them. You couldn't look at Swolemayne and say that is Superman. They have the same powers, but that's it. … Marvel actually has a direct Justice League, Supreme Squadron, and the character are exactly like the DC characters."

Piper admits that his knowledge of the DC mythologies is cursory at best, so he never went beyond taking what he calls "basic entry-level" stuff and "remixing" it. He also uses it as a chance to satirize society, from the people he grew up with to "the people you meet online," he says.

Below, Piper takes us through more of his inspirations.

Swolemayne

Swolemayne, from the planet Swolton, is the Superman-type character in the crew, but mixed with the stereotypical "narcissistic lady's man," Piper says. "The guy who just stays at the gym, always flexing in front of the mirror, and that's all they are worried about. A lot of people say I designed Swolemayne after myself. I can't say if that's true or not, but I have taken elements. At the time I designed him, my goatee did look like that, but it's filled out now, so."

Blackmayne

"With Blackmayne, there are a lot of people in the black community who have this conspiratorial outlook to racism where they believe that everything and anything is created by the black man," he says, laughing. "So like, you know the computer was created in ancient Egypt, the code for Windows was etched into the hieroglyphs and stuff like that. So that was my way to make fun of those people."

But the character also combines some of the mythology of Batman — he's rich, has a secret identity, etc. — with the humour of Martin Lawrence and the visual aesthetic of the Black Panthers. Blackmayne's parents, both members of the Panthers, were gunned down while leaving a screening of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. The result allows Piper to address societal issues while also retaining his humour with a hero so committed to being the "blackest man he could be" that he can't even put white milk on his cereal. It's high satire, which seems to be one of the main points of Trill League.

Wondeisha

Wondeisha of Kenyattaté is a mix of Wonder Woman, the fictional superhero, and Beyoncé, the real life one, incorporating the best of both women. Like Wonder Woman, she's royalty from a mysterious island with the powers of super strength, speed and agility, but instead of an invisible jet, she rides an invisible surfboard, for instance. "I came out with that around the time Beyoncé had that surfboard line, so it just fit," he says.

Sharkeisha

The characters aren't always famous, nor are they always drawn from music. Take Sharonda Rouzer, a villain whose alias, Sharkeisha, is taken directly from a viral video of a high school bully beating up another girl. In the DC Universe, Wonder Woman's nemesis is Cheetah, so he needed to find another animal-based villain.  

"I also took a lot of elements from things that were taking place on social media," he says. "For instance, at the time, there was a video of a girl named Sharkeisha, and the video went viral and the kids were like, ya, Sharkeisha, so I took that and made her a villain, combined with Ronda Rousey."

Swift and Purple Freeze

Piper also riffs on more sacrosanct characters, playing up the real-life rivalry between two late pop music icons — Michael Jackson and Prince.

MJ's agility and speed made him a natural fit for a character based on the Flash, known as Swift, while Prince's well-documented idiosyncrasies fit perfectly for a play on Flash's nemesis, Captain Cold. The result is Purple Freeze, the leader of a criminal syndicate called the Revolt, and probably the trickiest legal hurdle Piper could run into. It's no secret how protective Prince's estate is of the late artist's intellectual property.  

"I was already conscious of this and I've been very hesitant to even use them, because at the time I just sketched them out for fun," he says. "I'm lucky they don't play a huge role in the series, as far as them being integral, and I know shows like Black Dynamite and South Park have made fun of Michael Jackson, so that's why I'm thinking maybe it's ok.

"As far as making Prince a villain, … I mean I was not a huge Prince fan — I listened to his music but I don't know anything about his personal life. People tell me he is really against guns, so the fact that the character carries a gun to shoot his ice, in that sense we might have to remove that. That is not a big issue."

As far as next moves, Piper is in the process of finishing up the comic series to be released this year, and he has done a round of meeting people in Hollywood, talking about an animated series, but that's still all just in the talking stage. He's actually busier now than ever before.

"There has been a lot of things happening in my career due to the success of Trill League," he says. "I've worked on a few different animated series, I got a job with Marvel once they heard about Trill League, so a lot of things have been coming my way."

One thing that hasn't come his way is any communication with DC, although Piper has little hope in that ever happening.

"A lot of people think I'm making fun of DC characters," he says. "And then there is an X-Men short with Domino where I made fun of Batman versus Superman, and that kind of got a bit of media attention. Two strikes."

For more on Trill League, check out the official Facebook page.

— Jesse Kinos-Goodin, q digital staff