Ahead of its appearance at New York Comic Con 2024, Image Comics has announced the final one-shot in its The Horizon Experiment initiative. Written by Vita Ayala and illustrated by Skylar Patridge, with colors by Jason Wordie and letters and design by Becca Carey, The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers #1 will hit shelves in January, completing the initial run of five one-shots from the publisher.
The Horizon Experiment is an initiative led by Pornsak Pichetshote that puts a new spin on popular genres and pop culture characters with new, original protagonists from marginalized backgrounds. Ayala and Patridge’s Finders//Keepers is described as “a reverse Indiana Jones story” that follows Puerto Rican archaeology grad student Ines Guarua as she plans to return an important cultural artifact from the museum that stole it to the rainforest where it belongs.
But the stakes are high. Per the solicit text, “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.”
Like other one-shots in the series, Finders//Keepers doubles as a creator-owned “pilot” issue, meaning Ines could star in more comics in the future.
“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 in the announcement. “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!”
Patridge added, “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. 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.”
Check out interior art from Finders//Keepers below, along with main cover art by Patridge and variants by Tula Lotay that connect with variants across all five The Horizon Experiment one-shots.
“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.”
The Horizon Experiment launched with The Manchurian in September, written by Pitchetshote and illustrated by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson. Released on a monthly basis, other issues in the series include 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 horror-comedy Motherf*ckin’ Monsters by J. Holtham and Michael Lee Harris.
The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers #1 will be available at your local comic shop and digitally on January 15, 2025.
English (US) · 