Eisner and Harvey Award-winning The Good Asian and Infidel creator Pornsak Pichetshote is collaborating with an all-star creative team from across entertainment—including comics, literature, film and television—for The Horizon Experiment, a series of five one-shot comic books, all featuring original protagonists from marginalized backgrounds set in a popular genre and inspired by pop culture icons, where each character’s unique background allows the stories to go into new directions.

“I’m fascinated with taking popular genres, like horror and noir, and seeing what they’d look like from diverse perspectives—I explored this in my Image Comics books Infidel and The Good Asian. But, I’ve been limited to my own experiences.

So, for The Horizon Experiment, I decided to use the same mentality but open it up to other people, inviting some of the most talented people I know to work on it,” said Pichetshote. “Each one-shot is the equivalent of a pilot for a new creator-owned series, with the potential of continuing should there be demand for more. Each team of creators have had different approaches—all of them have knocked me out, and I couldn’t be more proud that the end result is five very unique books, all connected by the same ambitious spirit.”

Co-edited by Pichetshote and acclaimed editor Will Dennis (Descender, Gideon Falls), the series kicks off with The Horizon Experiment: The Manchurian, written by Pichetshote and featuring illustrations by superstar artists Terry and Rachel Dodson (Adventureman, Harley Quinn), a thriller featuring a Chinese super spy inspired by James Bond. A first look at a selection of pages from the one-shot showcase the first scintillating sneak peek at the scandal and secrets within the story. The Horizon Experiment: The Manchurian #1 hits shelves on September 25 from Image Comics; the other four one-shots will be released one-by-one on a monthly basis. Starting with The Manchurian, the series will feature connecting variant covers by Eisner Award-winning artist Tula Lotay.