The Horizon Experiment: Finders/Keepers #1 – Healing History

The Horizon Experiment thus far has been a proving ground for why true authenticity matters in cultural representation in comics. This series has been a place for creators to come and truly bring their lives to the page with all the power, complexity, and creativity that follows, giving ‘color-blind casting’ a ‘color-rich’ perspective. Finders/Keepers #1 makes good on that promise.

Like with all of these books, the ‘thing you know but race-swapped’ is the one-sentence pitch to get folks in the door before serving up something so uniquely its own that you quickly forget about its inspirations in the first place. That’s the benefit of authentic and conscious representation. This book isn’t the story of a ‘Brown Indiana Jones,’ and that’s all. It’s the origin of Ines, her complex relationship to her culture, and her role in restoring the integrity of her people—both past, present, and future—from an internally corrupt system of exploitation that wears the mask of preservation.

In concept and execution, this one-shot succeeds for the most part in taking that concept and morphing it into an engaging tale of growth for Ines in a mere thirty-two pages. It’s not a perfect ‘one-shot,’ in that it takes what could’ve been a longer, more impactful origin story and shrinks it down to fit the format, as opposed to being the kind of story that is more effective because of its format limits. On occasion, the time jumps and pacing trip over themselves in order to get to the next story beat, with no time to breathe and no narrative framing to help focus all that happens here.

Regardless, the issue still excels at what it’s trying to do and say, which is impressive to say the least with the format. Sure, some characters come out a bit more shallow than others, and in the process, the potential for thematic depth is lost, but the fact that Ayala squeezes as much depth out of the cast in this story as she does is the mark of a truly complete idea. You really get a sense of Ines’ internal struggles and her relationships to the world and people around her. Although her struggles in this story are deeply personal and specific to her upbringing, there’s still a blanketing sense of understanding for the character that gives her an almost universal, Peter Parker-esque relatability.

One thing I took note of during my read of this was how Ayala specifically pens the cultural complexity—both in love and criticism—that Ines experiences. This isn’t a ‘savior story’ in which the ‘educationally enlightened’ hero does good all on her own. Although Ines calls into question her grandmother’s comfort with a simpler life and what comes with that, we get to see characters living that life work alongside Ines, such as Ana, to help her accomplish those goals.

It’s a more well-rounded approach to this kind of story that doesn’t shy away from representing the different kinds of perspectives within a people, illustrating that while Ines is working to restore the ownership of a people’s history, those represented within this story are not done so with the sheen of a joyous monolith. It adds depth to the world and more weight to Ines’ choices than if she were simply handling all this with nothing but adoration from those around her.

As for the art, Patridge’s pencils are a perfect fit tonally for this story and bring a lot to the table in terms of tone and personality. Their flatness is distinctly reminiscent of comics from a generation long past, where pulp stories like this one were more commonplace, but still maintains all the blessings of modern storytelling techniques, with varying camera shots and brilliant coloring from Jason Wordie. There are no sacrifices with backgrounds, environments, or atmosphere here in order to meet an express deadline. Every character gets a distinct visual personality, and every setting a clear, concrete place in the world that helps give this one-shot a leg up in depth to make up for the lack of pages. Becca Carey’s lettering also does a great job of giving certain vehicles of conversation a bit more texture than standard lettering normally would.

The purpose of this one-shot is, as per the initial previews for this book and the introduction at the front, to get enough people hooked to later fund full-blown series born out of this one-shot. I, for one, am absolutely locked into what comes next for Finders/Keepers.