The Horizon Experiment - Paperback

by Pornsak Pichetshote (Author), Sabir Pirzada (Author), Tananarive Due (Author)

A comics anthology that puts a new, diverse spin on popular genres and pop culture icons.

THE HORIZON EXPERIMENT collects five one-shots by some of the most celebrated names in comics, literature, TV, and film, providing pilots for new series featuring a Chinese James Bond, a Muslim exorcist, a reverse Indiana Jones, East African werewolves living in Miami, and an Evil Dead for black nerds.

Everyone's challenge was the same: Create a protagonist from a marginalized background in a popular genre where if their background changed, so did the entire story.

THE HORIZON EXPERIMENT stories include:

The Manuchurian by Pornsak Pichetshote, Terry & Rachel Dodson: a thriller featuring a Chinese super spy by inspired by James Bond.

The Sacred Damned by Sabir Pirzada: a love letter to classic horror and follows a Muslim exorcist.

Moon Dogs by Tananarive Due: a family of Black lycanthropes of East African descent find themselves caught in a war when the truth comes out that werewolves aren't just a myth.

Motherf#cking Monsters by J. Holtham & Michael Lee Harris: a nerdy Black kid from Brooklyn and his friends stumble upon demon-worshipping frat brothers trying to take over the world.

Finders/Keepers by Vita Ayala: a reverse Indiant Jones adventure that follows an archeology grad student who steals artifacts from museums to return them to their native cultures.

Author Biography

Pornsak Pichetshote started his career as a Thai-American rising star editor at DC's Vertigo imprint, his books being nominated for dozens of Eisner awards -- from the award-winning Daytripper to critical darling Sweet Tooth. He left Vertigo to become an executive in DC Entertainment's media team, where he started and oversaw DC's TV department. His critical and commercial horor book INFIDEL marked his first major work as a comics writer.

His current work with Image Comics is the Eisner- and Harvey-winning THE GOOD ASIAN, which he's currently adapting for television with James Wan's Atomic Monster.

Sabir Pirzada is a Pakistani writer and the creator/writer of the forthcoming graphic anthology Dandelion. He is known for his work in TV writing on such hit shows as Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Roswell New Mexico, and more. Pirzada also wrote Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant and co-wrote the comic book miniseries Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace with Iman Vellani.

The "Octavia Butler of horror," Tananarive Due has been a leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years. Her novel The Living Blood won an American Book Award and she has also won an NAACP Image Award, a World Fantasy Award, and a British Fantasy Award. She also has had her writing included in multiple best-of-the-year anthologies. Having written for TV, she is also an executive producer on the groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Her latest novel The Reformatory has debuted to rave reviews, earning praise from such horror luminaries as Stephen King. With her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, she co-authored the graphic novel The Keeper. The Horizon Experiment: Moon Dogs, published by Image Comics, marks her first solo full-length writing in comics.

J. Holtham is an African-American playwright, TV writer, and Co-Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-winning The Handsmaid's Tale. No stranger to critically beloved shows with passionate fan bases, he's also written on such TV series as Marvel's Jessica Jones and Cloak & Dagger, DC's Supergirl, and Pitch. He's recently expanded to writing for Marvel Comics, his work ranging from podcasts to Infinity Comics to the comics series Bishop and Night Thrasher. The Horizon Experiment: Motherfu*kin' Monsters marks his first creator-owned comic.

Vita Ayala is a queer Afro-Puerto Rican writer out of New York City and one of the most in-demand writers in comics. An author of comic books and prose, they have worked on some of the most iconic franchises currently published, ranging from the X-Men to Wonder Woman to James Bond to Batman to Static Shock to Star Wars. The Horizon Experiment: Finders//Keepers marks their long-awaited return to original, creator-owned work.

Terry Dodson is an Oregon-based creator known for working on Harley Quinn, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Superman, Wonder Woman, the X-Men, the Avengers, Count Chocula and the Image Comics series RED ONE with Xavier Dorison and ADVENTUREMAN! with Matt Fraction.

Terry works with his wife, Rachel, who adds her talented inking to his work.

Michael Walsh is an Eisner Award-winning artist and writer from Southern Ontario, Canada.

In 2013, Michael broke into comics with the Image Comics book series COMEBACK. Shortly after, Michael contributed art on a follow-up comic to the hit television series The X-Files for IDW. Then, in the following years, he worked primarily with Marvel Comics on superhero properties such as Spider-Man, The Avengers and the X-Men. He also adapted the Star Wars film The Last Jedi as a comic book mini-series. And created art for the DC/Dark Horse crossover event comic, Black Hammer/Justice League.

In 2021, Michael returned to creator-owned comics, creating the hit ongoing Image series THE SILVER COIN and the viral webcomic The Sleep Stories. In 2022, he released his middle-grade fantasy original graphic novel The Oates & The Elphyne, published by Humanoids BIG.

Illustrator Kelsey Ramsay exploded on the comics scene with works featured in Joan Jett and The Black Hearts 40 x 40: I Love Rock n' Roll and FAB Breakout Book 1: Mad World before becoming one of the most sought after artists in comics and illustrating Dark Spaces: Good Deeds, part of IDW's Dark Spaces imprint curated by comics superstar Scott Snyder. Alongside award-winning horror writer Tananarive Due, Kelsey is making her Image Comics debut with the werewolf comic The Horizon Experiment: Moon Dogs.

African-American cartoonist Michael Lee Harris is one of indie comics' most singular voices. A jack of all trades, he is the creator, writer, and artist of Black Hitler and Choco Leche while also illustrating such eclectic and distinct titles as The Black Wraith, Berlin, and 1945: The True Untold Story in his unique style.

Freelance comic artist, illustrator, designer, and occasional writer, Skylar Patridge is a fan-favorite artist. Her work has become hotly in demand by every major comics publisher, whether it be working on original material such as Relics of Youth and Resonant, both for Vault Comics or drawing some of the most beloved characters in pop culture, including Batman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.