Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Image | Tagged: image comics, NYCC 2024, one shot, pornsak pichetshote, Skylar Patridge, The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers, VIta Ayala

The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers: One-Shot Coming to NYCC

The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers One-Shot from Image Comics will be at NYCC 2024 with creators Vita Ayala and Skylar Patridge.

Powerhouse comic book writer Vita Ayala (New Mutants, Static: Season One) is partnering up  with on-the-verge star artist Skylar Patridge (Absolute Power: Ground Zero, Supergirl) for The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers, a brand-new action-adventure comic that twists the genre in a way that's never been done before. Fans of Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and Tomb Raider will enjoy this thrilling, fresh take that re-envisions this style of storytelling with new energy and perspective. Hitting shelves in January 2025, this marks the final installment in The Horizon Experiment series of one-shots.

The Horizon Experiment centers on original protagonists from marginalized backgrounds set in a popular genre or inspired by a famous pop culture character, with each unique comic putting a diverse spin on a fan-favorite story. The  initiative at Image Comics is led by Eisner and Harvey Award-winning creator Pornsak Pichetshote (The Good Asian, Infidel) and award-winning editor Will Dennis (SOMNA: A Bedtime Story, Gideon Falls).

The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers is a reverse Indiana Jones story that follows Puerto Rican archeology grad student Ines Guarua, who plans to steal an important cultural artifact from a famous museum in order to bring it back home to where it belongs in the heart of the rainforest. If she fails, then a curse may bring about the destruction of Puerto Rico. This leads Guarua on a quest to smuggle other artifacts from museums and institutions to return them to their native cultures. Finders//Keepers flips the script on traditional action-adventure tales in a fun and exciting way, opening up a new path for protagonist Guarua for potential future stories.

Vita Ayala and Skylar Patridge on The Horizon Experiment

"I've always loved action-adventure stories, but the archetypal protagonist and most of the traditional setups weren't really ever going to work for people like me," said Ayala. "Working on The Horizon Experiment, I knew I found a way to open that world up to anyone who wanted a shot of being the hero! What a thrill to get to be on such an amazing team on one of the most fun projects of my career!"

"Out of all the projects announced as part of The Horizon Experiment, Finders//Keepers has generated the most anticipation, and I'm not surprised," said Pichetshote. "Nothing has made me want to come back to comics editing more than the prospect of working with Vita Ayala, so I just crossed my fingers and hoped they'd be interested in joining in. Skylar Patridge is a superstar that still manages to grow in exciting directions with every new high-profile project, so I knew their working together was going to be special. They delivered and then some."

"Finders//Keepers is a dream project—narratively, artistically, and thematically—and The Horizon Experiment has provided a much-needed stage to tell stories like this," said Patridge. "It's rare that a project aligns so perfectly, and working with Vita, Pornsak, and Will to build and shape this world has been both gratifying and deeply inspiring. Add to that the incredible work of colorist Jason Wordie and letterer and designer Becca Carey, and it truly feels like hitting the creative lottery."

Like the other titles in The Horizon Experiment, this one-shot serves as the equivalent of a pilot for a creator-owned series, with the potential of continuing should there be demand for more. Along with a cover featuring art by Patridge, the issue will feature variant covers by Eisner Award-winning artist Tula Lotay (SOMNA: A Bedtime Story, Barnstormers: A Ballad of Love and Murder), part of a series of connecting variant covers across all five Horizon Experiment one-shots.

Pornsak Pichetshote's Inital Line of Diverse Genre Comics

The Horizon Experiment series kicked off on September 25 with The Manchurian, written by Pichetshote and illustrated by superstar artists Terry and Rachel Dodson (Adventureman, Harley Quinn), featuring a Chinese super spy inspired by James Bond. Other upcoming issues include the Muslim exorcism horror The Sacred Damned (by Sabir Pirzada and Michael Walsh), East African werewolf horror Moon Dogs (by Tananarive Due and Kelsey Ramsey), and "Evil Dead for blerds" horror-comedy Motherf*ckin' Monsters (by J. Holtham and Michael Lee Harris). The five issues will be released on a monthly basis.

The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers #1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, January 15:

• Cover A by Patridge
• Cover B by Tula Lotay (connecting)
• Cover C by Tula Lotay (1:25 foil incentive, connecting)
• Cover D (blank sketch)

The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers #1 will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play. Pichetshote will be discussing The Horizon Experiment on the "Image Comics Presents: Breaking Ground" panel at New York Comic Con this Sunday, October 20, from 11:00 a.m–12:00 p.m. EST in Room 406.2. Pichetshote will also be at booth I32 during the event.

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