Renowned writer Tananarive Due, known as the “Octavia Butler of horror” and recipient of prestigious awards such as the American Book Award, NAACP Award, Shirley Jackson Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize, has joined forces with the up-and-coming artist Kelsey Ramsay to craft a thrilling lycanthrope-centered comic called The Horizon Experiment: Moon Dogs. This marks Due’s first solo full-length writing project in comics and Ramsay’s debut series with Image Comics. The one-shot horror comic, with captivating colors by José Villarrubia and sharp letters by Jeff Powell, is set to be released in November as the third installment in The Horizon Experiment series of one-shots. This series focuses on original protagonists from marginalized backgrounds in popular genres, and is spearheaded by Eisner and Harvey Award-winning The Good Asian and Infidel creator Pornsak Pichetshote.
Co-edited by Pichetshote and award-winning editor Will Dennis (Somna, Gideon Falls), The Horizon Experiment: Moon Dogs follows a Black family of lycanthropes of East African descent—who call themselves Moon Dogs—as older sister Nala, her parents, and her boyfriend try to protect her teen brother Kai as he gets caught in the middle of a burgeoning war between a savage pack of werewolves and the Miami police force. After a violent attack, Miami locals are starting to learn that werewolves are not just a myth, and Nala’s family—who are minorities within a minority—find themselves drawn into a very dangerous situation.
The Horizon Experiment: Moon Dogs explores themes of privilege, power, and oppression, highlighting sharpened conflicts over identity and community in society, told through the lens of a werewolf story. 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 an original cover by Ramsay and Villarrubia, the issue will feature variant covers by Eisner Award-winning artist Tula Lotay, part of a series of connecting variant covers across all five Horizon Experiment one-shots.
“As a writer who is known for novels and short stories—and who has written screenplays—delving into comics has been the best of both worlds: granting me the immediacy and freedom to tell stories my way, and the benefit of working with talented collaborators to bring the images to life on the page,” said Due. “Moon Dogs is an homage to my roots in Miami, where I grew up and worked as a newspaper reporter. Anyone who has been to Miami knows that its eclectic population is the perfect home for undercover werewolves—like, OF COURSE.”
Continued Due: “With great guidance from my editors, Pornsak and Will, I wanted to tell a story of what it feels like to feel doubly marginalized—and also how we can learn to exercise power without being corrupted by it. The great thing about comics, as in Hollywood, is that the script is only the starting point for the story, so seeing the thrilling illustrations by Kelsey Ramsay and the great artistic team is like getting a movie adaptation in record time. I’m so excited to share it!
“It wasn’t difficult deciding whether I wanted to be a part of The Horizon Experiment. An innovative and inspiring group of creators that are undertaking something original and exciting, you say? It was a fast yes for me. Tananarive’s vivid and character-rich Moon Dogs script solidified that decision too—it made me feel like I was right there in Miami hunched between the rival werewolf clans,” said Ramsay. “It was so much fun and such a pleasure to work on. I’m so happy this fresh take on lycanthrope horror was created by Tananarive and supported by powerhouse editors Pornsak and Will. It came together with incredible collaborators José doing colours and Jeff doing letters. It’s an honour to be a part of this project.”
“I’m jealous of readers discovering Tananarive and Kelsey’s work for the first time. Tananarive’s latest novel was praised by no less than Stephen King and now she’s bringing her uniquely intimate mythology building skills and lyrical prose to comics,” said Pichetshote. “Meanwhile, in a very short time, Kelsey has rocketed up every comics editor’s radar to the degree you’ll be seeing her in non-stop high-profile projects soon. So, watching these two combine their awesome talents to create something distinctly unique has been an utter delight. I can’t wait for readers to discover the world of Moon Dogs.”
