The Hip Hop Doc creates comic

• By JOHN STARR
• Special to 2thadvocate.com
• Published: Jul 11, 2008 - UPDATED: 4:00 p.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Twitter
• Social Media

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

A comic book requires at least two things, a good guy and a villain, but it also helps if there is a message to go along with the story. This is the case for the new locally released comic book series, “The Legion of Health.”

The Legion consists of seven core characters who represent different aspects of healthy living. The characters range from Brainiac, who represents research, to Suga Free, who represents nutrition. There is even a character representing the series creator, Dr. Rani Whitfield, also known as the Hip Hop Doc. However, his character isn’t even his favorite from the series.

“My favorite character has got to be Six Pack,” Whitfield said. “He is a big burly guy. All of the characters are big healthy eaters, but they represent different sectors of health.

“Six Pack represents fitness. He’s a goofy, loveable guy. When it comes down to business, he is ready to roll, and he shuts down the villains,” Whitfield said.

“My other favorite character is the worse guy in the world: Bad Heart,” Whitfield said. “He represents all that is bad when it comes to heath and poor decision making. He is a big, fat, slobbering dude in a wheelchair.”

“You cannot get close to this cat, because he has weird powers and ways of doing things to you. He doesn’t care for or love anyone,” Whitfield said.

Bad Heart wasn’t always evil, which is something Whitfield is looking forward to developing more.

“We want to go back in time to the creation of Bad Heart and see what made him into the evil person he is today,” Whitfield said. “He represents heart disease, but he also represents the bad decisions we are all in control of.”

It is these bad health decisions, which are the true motivation behind the creation of this series.

“The thing is, we are dying as young people from treatable and preventable diseases. We have a group of young people who will have a decreased life expectancy because of poor decision making regarding their health,” Whitfield said.

“Something has to be done. You are going to die from something you don’t even have to die from. The poorest of poor people can live more healthy lives if they were actually aware of the things out here that can hurt them,” he said.

Education is the key to preventing and treating these major health issues, according to Whitfield.

“Suicide, diabetes, obesity, HIV -- these things are treatable and preventable with education. That’s where the book can come and help some of these folks,” Whitfield said.