The Daily Cross Hatch chats with Dawud Anyabwile, one of the creators of the 1990s independent super hero series Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline.

So what led you to create Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline?

The seed was planted as a child when my father recommended that if I wanted to see a Black superhero on TV or in the comics then I better not wait, but instead make it myself. Of course Brotherman did not come into mind at that young age, actually not until 1988, when I drew a character in my sketchbook and called him Brotherman. I would say it was a lifelong journey of various experiences that culminated into a production that began as a promotional gimmick for a storefront that my brother and I were operating in East Orange, New Jersey. Immediately after we introduced the book at the Black Expo in NYC it gained a huge following and we took it more and more seriously and developed the stories more as we went along. The story was always a tribute to the real ‘Dictators of Discipline,’ which are the men in our communities who fight, struggle and teach positive values to the youth but may never get recognized for their efforts. They have no super powers but they do uncanny deeds on a daily basis. The comic began as a parody of the traditional superhero but as Big City evolved and the characters within it, it took on a whole new meaning. You can see the difference between issue #1 and issue #11.

I was a big fan of Brotherman back in the early 1990s and always wondered what happened to the creators, so an update was nice to see. Anyabwile’s work is part of Eye Trauma Comix’ Other Heroes exhibition at Mississippi’s Jackson State University, which runs until April 25.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Comic Books, Creators, Events, Independent, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.