Austin Basis is beloved by TV fans from The CW’s Beauty and the Beast, but now he’s changing the comic book world with his new project, The Kinetix.
Austin Basis knows about heroes. The actor starred as J.T. Forbes in The CW‘s Beauty and the Beast, where he helped save New York on a regular basis.
He’s also appeared on a number of other series, including Life Unexpected, Casual, Wisdom of the Crowd and most recently Scorpion.
But when he’s not lighting up our TV screens Austin Basis is busy making a difference in the real world. As someone with Type 1 Diabetes, he’s active in that community and in empowering those who are different. That’s the goal of his latest project, The Kinetix, which focuses on a superhero team that’s comprised of students with disabilities.
Austin and his co-creators have launched a Kickstarter to raise funds for the comic so that they can show kids that a disability doesn’t stop you from changing the world. FanSided spoke to him about The Kinetix and why it’s near to his heart.
FanSided: The idea for The Kinetix came to you from one of the many charity events that you’re a part of. Can you explain how you were inspired with this idea?
Austin Basis (AB): One of the first events I did — which is ironic that this idea has been brewing since then — is what they call Kids for a Cure Lobby Day. The point of the whole event is so that all these kids from all over the country can go meet their representatives in person and present them with a book of what their life is like, having Type 1 diabetes.
I met this kid and his mom, and I was comparing insulin pumps with the kid and talking about toys and normal stuff that kids talk about other than diabetes, and his mom told my wife that he tells people he wears an insulin pump. It’s like a machine attached to you 24/7. [But] what he would tell his friends was that he was a cyborg, and in a sense it would relieve him from the obligation of having to explain to another 7-8 year old what Type 1 diabetes is, what an insulin pump is and what it does. All these complications of what that means.
He just said cyborg and that planted [the idea] in my head. What a cool concept, that there could possibly be a superhero or some sort of comic book character that has Type 1. I hadn’t seen that … so this idea stuck in my head, how I could bring this idea into a story, whether it’s a TV show or comic books?
I was like wouldn’t it be cool if there was a team of kids with disabilities that you don’t see? A superhero in books that kids read when they’re eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 — that they can look at and say there’s a character like me … They can directly see a character that is like them [and] also a superhero. That their disability is not necessarily what defines them, it’s actually what makes them superheroes in a way.
FanSided: You brought the idea to your partners Dave Maulbeck and Josh Taub, and it’s a team effort for all three of you. How did you work together in the creative process?
AB: We each serve different functions in our group. What I provide is that kind of organizational skill, and the outreach and the publicity, and I usually wear the executive producer/director hat, kind of running the meetings. On a TV show I’d be like the showrunner — not that I come up with all the ideas, but I’m the one who starts saying this goes in this box, this goes in that box. And then I’m somewhat of the vehicle that gets it out into the world.
Dave is the creative mind and he’s the artist behind all the art that we have for The Kinetix. If we raise enough money, we’ll also bring in a team because it’s a big load for him. Once we have the stories and the scripts are finalized, he has months upon months of work in his little cave. He does all the art.
He’s the historian. He’s grown up on comic books. So as we’re coming up with ideas and we want to make sure the ideas haven’t been used before or character names, he’s always the go-to person. He was always like in one comic book there was one character that showed up once or twice that had this power and was like this character, just so we’re not competing with characters that exist in the DC and Marvel universes. He’s that specialist.
Josh is the literary mind. He’s a freelance writer so he’s constantly, for his job, writing and putting people’s words into written pieces. He came up with the mythology of The Kinetix, and he is that creative writing mind in the room.
I think what’s great about our little group is years ago we did improv and sketch comedy together so there’s that trust that you have with another performer on stage, where you know they have your back. We performed in a bigger group, but in that group, Dave and Josh were the two people I trusted when [I felt] a little lost.
FanSided: WIth The Kinetix, you’re not just representing kids with Type 1 Diabetes, but several different disabilities. And there’s also a really fun mythology here. What has Austin Basis the most excited about this project?
AB: This has been a passion project for all of us. We all come with heartfelt interest in telling stories like these. Josh also did a documentary about a woman with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease called Bernadette. She’s an amazing woman and he spent years on it. CMT is the most commonly inherited disease that no one’s ever heard of. It’s a hereditary neuropathy that effects one in 2500 people. It’s a degenerative nerve and muscle disorder which leads the body to deteriorate over time. He did this documentary about this amazing woman that suffered from CMT, but was living her life and being an advocate for the disease.
There’s a lot of things people don’t talk about or people haven’t brought to the public’s attention. With that motivation in mind, there’s nothing that I like better than when I work with the [Juvenlie Diabetes Research Foundation] and attend these events, where I can see that kind of inspiration happening in the moment with kids and their parents. To see their kid is eight and maybe having a hard time right now but in 20-30 years, that they’re going to be able to do the normal things that adults do — whether it’s relationships, be parents, have careers.
I think the thing that we’re most excited about is getting this type of story and these characters into the hands of kids that will most directly benefit from seeing that. It’s a very simple thing, but we want to make sure that when those comic books get into the kids’ hands that we’re telling the right story, giving the right message, and inspiring them.
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Learn more about The Kinetix and support the comic now through the Kickstarter page. For more Comics news, follow the Comics category at FanSided.