Chadwick Boseman (Captain America: Civil, 42), may he rest in power, brought T'challa to life in the big-screen solo Black Panther movie in 2018, but the character existed in many other forms of media throughout the years.
One of those is the animated series that debuted on BET a decade ago, which featured Djimon Hounsou (Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy), lending his voice to the titular hero. Black Panther ran for a mini-series of six 20-minute episodes in mid-2010, bringing a unique motion comic style to super-hero animation, and the show was especially niche for the station.
When chatting with James Gavsie (Digital Sky, Who Would Win) about his current sci-fi anthology podcast Ride Share, we asked about his inspirations. Unsurprisingly, he touched on Sin City, but he also mentioned the Black Panther series as a primary inspiration for the motion comic animation style they chose to run for the show.
Click the podcast player below to listen to our interview with James Gavsie. We have also included our chats with fellow Ride Share talent Cooper Barnes (Henry Danger) and Julie Nathanson (Avengers Assemble).
1m 30s Literary Joe: How did you become involved with Ride Share?
1m 37s James Gavsie: Digital Sky, created by Zoit media, was the anthology season of scripted audio dramas that they put out. And every episode was this great story involving apps that control their lives and the crazy things that happen. It ranged from the supernatural to superpowers to be able to talk with dogs to just insane stuff. I did a live show at Long Beach Comic-Con for my Who Would Win show. I met the writer and director of Digital Sky, a guy named Scott Zakarin, who is this brilliant mind, great guy, has a list of a mile long on IMDB with movies and films and everything. So I'm walking on the floor. I see the Digital Sky booth, and we get to talking, and he's like, you got to listen to my show. It's the greatest thing you've ever heard. And I stopped. And I looked at him and said, "your show is the greatest thing I've ever heard?" He said, "Oh yeah." And I said, "cool. Here's the deal. I'm going to listen to it. And if it's not the greatest thing I've ever heard, I'm going to tell everybody that I know". He said, "yeah, I dare you to do it." So I listened to it, and I'm like, this is the greatest thing I've ever heard. And I called him up; we start talking. He was like, why don't you become a part of the team. And I'm like done. And that's where it all started. It was that easy, that confrontational, and that quick.
3m 53s Literary Joe: When they folded you into this team and got involved with Digital Sky, what did you contribute to the show? What did they bring you on to do specifically?
4m 2s James Gavsie: I bring sandwiches to our recording sessions. So here's the deal. I'm a host of the Who Would Win show, a very highly intellectual endeavor where we debate who would win in hypothetical matches, like Luke Skywalker versus Spiderman. We brought Who Would Win into the Zeit media family. So that was my first contribution. I've got a little bit of experience creating some content in the world of combat sports and understanding the podcasting world and the social media endeavors that have to come with it. I'm able to go in and help with production on the visual side. I consult with the scriptwriting a bit. That's really Scott Zakarin, by the way, again, a fantastic scriptwriter, he more or less says, here's a script, what do you think? And I'm like, here are my notes. It's awesome to go with this. I help with casting and coordination, and I'm working with our artist and our animator quite closely to develop the motion comic coming along with Ride Share on YouTube.
6m 8s Literary Joe: Are there any other motion comics that you look to for inspiration, or did you mostly look to the medium of graphic novels as a whole?
6m 25s James Gavsie: I've been a comic book fanatic for years, and this was our first foray into that. To take a step back with what's going on in the world right now, live-action content production is way down. And I've heard that we're at 20% of what we were last year. So we had to figure out what our next step is? The first series or the first season Digital Sky was so well received. We were like, do we keep doing audio dramas? And the answer is no. What can we do? Scott Zakarin also has an excellent background in comic books. He was good friends with Stan Lee. He's done stuff with Adam West. I'm leaving out many people, Mark Hamill, William Shatner, just a ton of people. He's got this great background as well. So we talked about it, we analyzed styles. We love Sin City's graphic novel style. That's why it's in black and white with a touch of color every once in a while. There are lots of short-form motion comics that you'll see that advertise new storylines.
7m 33s James Gavsie: An animated show that hugely influenced me was the Black Panther motion Comic-Con series on BET. It was brilliant. The stories are age-old with a limited animation style. I remember watching it going, how are they able to do this so well, because we've all seen fully animated series that just don't do it for whatever reason. And yet the Black Panther series on BET did it perfectly. And that's our benchmark, that's where we want to go. With our first foray into it, you always have to aim high and start that right up to it. So that's where we are right now
9m 7s Literary Joe: Now we know where your influence comes from. The Blank Panther, I think, was only ten episodes or something like that. It's underrated. It's one of those things that you forget existed until you end up on somebody's IMDB.
9m 32s James Gavsie: That's true. That's why it was amazing; it was subtle. And the problem is, I don't think subtle sells as widely as people would want it to. There's a deep appreciation for that series for so many great reasons. I'm shocked it didn't have more of a push. I'll let people know how great that series was if I have anything to do about it.
22m 41s Literary Joe: Can you tell me anything about this character that Eric Martsolf plays?
22m 51s James Gavsie: Let me set it up. When we at least used to take Uber or Lyft, and this Ride Share driver would show up, we would sometimes put our blind faith and trust and say, "well, what's the worst that can happen? I'm sure they're fine. They have been vetted." Imagine someone so smart that they could steal someone's car, phone, disguise themselves, or come across as your Ride Share driver. And all they want to do is con you, rob you or take whatever it is that is the most meaningful to you because that's just how they like to live their life. So I describe Keith as a combination of Dexter meets Bruce Wayne meets Catwoman. I'm involved in the writing process. I knew a lot about the character. And I can't tell you what's about to happen in the next few episodes. But, this character doesn't care about money because he can get it whenever he wants. He doesn't have a place to live because he doesn't need one. That's it. If he ever needs a hotel, he's like, got it. He'll take someone's credit card, steal their identity. He has no requirements. He knows people that well, he's super smart, and he likes to screw with people in the form of a Ride Share driver.
36m 10s Literary Joe: Is there anything else you want to mention about Ride Share, Who Would Win, or any of your projects you want the audience to know about?
36m 20s James Gavsie: All I'll say is that Ride Share is now available to view and listen to on YouTube. Subscribe to Digital Sky on YouTube, like us, leave a comment. We read everything, by the way. Subscribe to us on Apple podcast, find Ride Share by searching for Digital Sky as Ride Share is part of the Digital Sky universe. And Listen to the Who Would Win show on Apple Podcasts, follow me @JamesGavsie on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and follow @theWhoWouldWinshow Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Our audience is insane. Join the insanity.
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
Escape Reality with a thriller fiction podcast to get lost in. Ride Share is the series premier episode of DIGITAL SKY, an anthology podcast series of social and science fiction about the apps that control our lives. Fans of Twilight and Black Mirror will love Ride Share! Trapped in a Car with Strangers!
On his ride share app, Keith decides to choose the carpool option. They all take a drive they never expected. Hang on for an awesome sound experience that will take you on a wild trip, projected like a movie inside your mind. If you’ve ever used a ride share app, it probably crossed your mind that you are getting into the car of a complete stranger. Our hero Keith decides to make it even more interesting by choosing the super-saver carpool option, which adds even more strangers to the ride. Now Keith appears to be trapped in a car with three people, who are very strange indeed.
You can check out Ride Share on Youtube and all other podcast platforms, with new episodes releasing every Tuesday.