Milk White Steed

The mournful, tragicomic tune of wanderlust undercut by the longing for a home seemingly lost. 'Have I settled down yet?' The question rings eternal across all ten stories in this highly anticipated debut collection of comics fiction by New Yorker and New York Times contributor Michael D. Kennedy. A series of individuals leave the West Indies and attempt to find their footing in the damp dinge of England s counties. A child on his daily trike ride is stalked by a sinister, shape-shifting ligahoo. A blues singer s wife hallucinates untoward revelations in the grips of high yellow fever when she inhales spores from psychedelic mushrooms growing unchecked in their apartment. A man dwells on his absent father, paints the man into a duppy myth, and bears the consequences of this fantastical undertaking. Inspired by the folk tales and oral traditions of his Caribbean roots, Milk White Steed is a dreamlike venture into the messy truths of everyday West Indian lives: the abiding pursuit of the familiar and the vicious appraisal of their own otherness, all at once. Phantom desires, unchecked reveries, and surreal visions of the future flood the page in full-color. Kennedy s decisive woodcut-inspired brush-strokes draw a striking portrait of the Black diaspora as it sees itself, always searching and yet forever seeing.

Michael D. Kennedy is a cartoonist and illustrator from the English midlands. Influenced by old British children s comics and annuals, his stories seek to present the lives of overlooked folk and and the lower classes. Notably, he is the author of the small press series Mint, a collection titled Mr Hardee and most recently Biffa. He has had comics work published by McSweeney s Quarterly and The Believer. Working as an illustrator since 2020, Michael has been published by the likes of The New Yorker, New York Times and The Atlantic. He has lived in Tamworth, Aston, Olton and currently lives in Balsall Heath with his wife Carli. When the weather agrees with it, he can be found at their allotment in Highbury Park.