Sugar Cayne
Here’s another one of the Marvel HipHop Album variant covers that I thought was actually good (Because most of them weren’t). This one called Dr. Strange, The Mystic which parodies Dr. Dre’s classic “The Chronic” album cover. This one was nicely done by Juan Doe.
As cool as this parody illustrration (not variant in my opinion) may be, let’s not forget that Marvel has a terrible track record of employing people of color to write or draw any of their comics that feature characters of color or otherwise. And now only after there’s a spotlight on the major (two) comic book publishers to “Diversify”, Marvel is making a move like this to save face. Not to mention indie comics feature characters of color has been on the rise over the past few years on the indie scene so it’s not wonder why Marvel is making it’s move.
I think the biggest beef people have with the HipHop album variants is the comment said by Marvel’s EIC Axel Alonso:
“For years, Marvel Comics and Hip-Hop culture have been engaged in an ongoing dialog,”
Now I don’t want to get into all the politics and culture vulturisms about the subject, you’ll have to do your research on that. But all I have to say is please make sure you support the indie comic book creators, writers, the real creators that are of the HipHop culture, that actually live it and create awesome stories and images from that porspective. Don’t let the Majors do a “Walmart Move” and make it hard for the little guys to get their work out there.
