Dané Shobe
Publisher, Artist, Actor

Dané Shobe is bringing to the world what his mother couldn’t bring to him when he was a child, and that makes him pretty darn happy.

And all while doing it, he gets to live out his childhood dreams and meet several of his childhood heroes.

Dané is publisher and founder of Sun Hero, a magazine dubbed as “America’s Blackest Nerd Magazine” and “Celebrating Black Nerd Culture.” He created Sun Hero to fill a void similar to what his mother discovered while raising Dané, a nerd from a very young age.

“When I was a kid, my mom tried really hard to find cartoons and comics and things like that that had Black people or people of color, and it was always a struggle.” One day, she gave him a toy she found named Sun-Man. Dané wasn’t impressed. “Sun-Man didn’t have a cartoon or a comic.”

He later learned that Sun-Man was created by a mother who wanted her son to have a Black superhero to look up to. “That story is pretty much what my mom went through,” Dané said. “Sun Hero magazine is something for all Black moms, so they can show their kids great examples of Black people in comics or being heroes in toys and games. They don't have to feel weird about anything they’re passionate about. So, Sun Hero is the magazine my mom should have had to give me when I was a kid.”

Fueled by a $10,000 prize from a local pitch competition for minority and woman-owned businesses, Dané is pouring his heart and soul into Sun Hero, and he’s getting to meet some pretty cool people in the process. “Every time I do an interview, almost without fail, I get done, then I lean back in my chair and just kind of sit there and it’s like, ‘Man. That was so cool. That happened.’”

He’s produced three issues and has enough ideas to fill more. “There’s ideas I have on top of ideas, and then I’ve got ideas stacked on ideas,” he said with a boom in his voice.

His booming voice and laugh can put a smile on anyone’s face, and it comes out when talking about things that make him happy and excited. It also comes out when he’s acting, something that gives him great energy, especially while making an audience laugh during an improv performance or in his favorite musical roles, like as Donkey in “Shrek” or Sebastian in “The Little Mermaid.”

“Performance makes me happy - the energy you get from the audience or the energy you get when you're acting with really good scene partners.”

And then there’s the obvious thing that brings Dané happiness – his 2-year-old child. “My daughter makes me happy just by existing. And everyday she gets just a little smarter, a little sharper, a little more mischievous, a little more funny.” Just like her dad.

As a creative person who quit his job to focus on his passions, Dané is driven by dreams. Money and envy get in the way; “People say that’s the thief of joy,” he said. But he fights through. His acting and moviemaking will get noticed. Sun Hero will continue to grow. “Issue by issue, I feel like it’s finding it’s importance. I think it’s going to get where I want it to go.”

He doesn’t want much when he’s made it, just glass bricks, pillars in front of his home – like in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air – and the best birthday parties for his daughter.

​“My path has not brought me there yet. I think it will, but I’m not there yet.”

"Sun Hero is the magazine my mom should have had to give me when I was a kid.”

“Performance makes me happy - the energy you get from the audience or the energy you get when you're acting with really good scene partners.”

“My daughter makes me happy just by existing."

“Every time I do an interview, almost without fail, I get done, then I lean back in my chair and just kind of sit there and it’s like, ‘Man. That was so cool. That happened.’”

“There’s ideas I have on top of ideas, and then I’ve got ideas stacked on ideas.”

“Issue by issue, I feel like it’s finding it’s importance. I think it’s going to get where I want it to go.”