Milk White Steed

by Michael Kennedy

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.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Short Stories

284 pages, Paperback

Published February 18, 2025

About the author

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

for Michael Kennedy the music critic and biographer, see George Michael Sinclair Kennedy

Reviews

[Benny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is going to become one of those books I never shut up about. Stunning, vibrant, compelling - hate the word 'unputdownable' but it's all that's coming to mind. Duke Ellington Moves To Mars is such a funny tone break in the middle of this incredibly complex, sincere, almost mystifying collection of stories. The two alien life-forms connecting across the universe of a human body to return the sparkle to the eye of a boy whose father has gone to war... I'm going to be revisiting this over and over for a long time. THE COWBOY AND THE WEREWOLF! HELLO?????? IS ANYBODY ELSE SEEING THIS???? Ask me what comic to read this year I will tell you MILK WHITE STEED!!!!

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milk White Steed is a collection of ten comics from UK cartoonist Michael D. Kennedy. His debut collected work, the various pieces here tie into his Caribbean heritage such as describing the migrant experience and exploring folklore, though much of the stories do take on obtuse and even abstract presentations. A good half of the stories here are a fair bit impenetrable, owing largely to the cryptic designs Kennedy utilizes. At times, his art resembles blocky silhouettes as if rendered in woodcuts with minimal details. The use of spot colors (though I believe all the color work is digitally applied) provides a garish contrast that is simultaneously gorgeous to behold whilst also being a fair bit of a challenge to decipher to visual language. His art shifts throughout, but the minimal use of color and detail are fairly conserved throughout.

The stories - varying in tone and style (and even genre) - do tie together broadly under the themes of assimilation and the migrant experience. The dominant culture of the UK and the US are explored through the eyes of both fictional and semi-autobiographical protagonists, but even with this, Kennedy gets playful and experimental. A story like "Duke Ellington on Mars" takes the migrant premise to a whole new level when a jazz musician comes to terms with being the only person on Mars. Themes of racism, colonialism and oppression are prevalent in stories like "Green Men", "Yellow Bird Blues", "Duppy Town" and more, but Kennedy opts into pretty subversive and/or speculative fictional depictions of these issues. It's somewhat likely that some of the characters are based on Kennedy himself of people he knows, but they all present a substantially cartoonish and heavily eclectic characterization to be deemed mostly fictional. The comics here aren't fully substantiated or comprehensible, though the vibes are strong with Kennedy's forceful and distinct art style.

A book that demands a few read throughs, Milk White Steed is stunningly mature work as a debut collection. There's a clear inventive and experimental edge to his work, and I'd be interested to see how this translates into longer form work one day.

[Peter Hollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard one to review. It's brilliant, but quite opaque to me and presumably a lot of readers.

Kennedy writes about the migrant experience of black people from the so-called West Indies in the UK. The stories are dense with allegory, with strange retellings of Caribbean legends - the duppy, the loup-garou, Anansi. I understood some of these references, but Kennedy gives no help to the reader.

The art is also both gnomic and beautiful, with meaning imbued in the single colour in each story or episode, and the style changes from scrappy to carefully detailed to caroonish depending on what's being communicated.

These stories also clearly draw from Kennedy's own experience, as a kid and an adult, with a character called Kenny in the second-last story apparently writing a science fiction graphic novel while succumbing to alcoholism and some kind of psychological episodes. Again, it's hard to unpick, but nevertheless touching and evocative.

I think I will need to re-read this soon, to uncover the connections between the stories and learn a bit about the folk tales Kennedy's drawing on. At every level there are cross-references and self-references. The appearance of a zebra that may or may not be there in the last story is a reference to the half-caste background of some of the characters - but is there a deeper meaning?

However challenging this is, it's a work of incredible artistry.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thread that runs through all the stories in this GN is a thread of searching; trying to find a way to fit into a new culture, striving to become a member even as membership is not offered. There is a profound sense of sadness and longing in all of the tales, 'outsidership' that is given and can never be taken away. Sure I would have gotten much more from the tales if I were better informed on West Indies mythology and religion.

[Julie]

Did not finish, on page 139 if I ever want to come back. First one really hard to get into/understand, loved the yellow bird one, Langston Hughes on mars really funny, then was getting into My Love-struck by some of the imagery and concepts but then I got too high and it was hard to finish. Happy for him

[Jonathan Hawpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Kennedy's comix are somewhere between jazz, surrealism, Greek tragedy and Krazy Kat. Suffused with the grain and pain of hard luck life, these strange tales dot along the timeline of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora like messages from the Gods drawn in blood and fruit juice. 8/10

[Thebulversaint · Rating 2 out of 5]

It definitely won't speak to everyone. Case in point? Myself. To say it's abstract and metaphorical is to say nothing really. A lot of the stories, although very imaginative, went over my head, so naturally I didn't enjoy them. The last story was the one that spoke to me the most.

[Mattie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pictures like poetry. Some real and true magic here, though you’ll need a PhD and a machete to get to some of it. These are stories of sadness and otherness - the whole thing is bleeding and beautiful every page, and a heartbreaker each frame.

[Galen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not entirely sure wha ‘tis going on all of the time but this book is undeniably art. With some light googling learned a bit about Caribbean folklore and was fascinated by it. The messages of xenophobia and racism are accessible and sadly universal.

[Miriam Kumaradoss-Hohauser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, damn. I wanted to like this more than I ultimately did—like a ton of other readers, I found this kind of opaque and hard to get into. It was intriguing, though, and I can't help but wonder if I'd have gotten more out of it if I was more familiar with the West Indies?

[Chris Brook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Understood a small percentage of this until I realized what it was doing. It's written to frame Kennedy's background of being a Brit with Caribbean background, laid over folktales. Well drawn, great art - but could probably read this again and appreciate it more.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Putting this back the to-read pile! The first pass some of the stories were impenetrable but I really quite liked the first chapter on a second read. It feels like a strange British Gilbert Hernandez story.

[Carol Tilley · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whirlwind -- I emotionally absorbed SOMETHING(s) very intense and important even if im not sure what it all was or meant

[katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

the illustrations were really cool but i understood maybe half of what was going on. i can enjoy surrealism but like all of my brainpower was going towards comprehending what i was looking at

[Kelly Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of existential and social dis-ease with a twist of humor.