King Comus: A Novel

by William Demby

Past and present collide in this posthumous, semiautobiographical masterpiece, which tells the stories of two Black World War II servicemen, their white commanding officer, a famous gospel singer, and an enslaved man making his escape in the early nineteenth century.

In the present day, a Black American expat to Rome called D. reconnects with his former Army friend Tillman and their former commanding officer Joe Stabat to organize a gospel summit for the singer Little Antioch. In the 1940s, as D. becomes enmeshed in Tillman's large and boisterous family, Tillman recounts the story of his fabled ancestor King Comus. And in the early nineteenth century, master musician King Comus embarks on a grand journey to freedom. 

William Demby, author of the "masterpiece" Beetlecreek (Kirkus Reviews), employs a cinematic style in this time-bending tale of survival and kinship, which weaves elements of the neo-slave narrative and Afrofuturism into a panoramic vision encompassing the forces of empire, race, gender, and religion. The product of 20 years of literary labor, King Comus was completed shortly before William Demby died in 2013 and was subsequently published by Ishmael Reed in 2017.

288 pages, Paperback

Expected publication May 12, 2026

About the author

African American novelist William Demby was born on December 25, 1922 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

In 1950 Demby published his first novel, Beetlecreek, which he situated in West Virginia. Fifteen years later he published his second novel, The Catacombs. His novels carry themes of race and national identity, and although he spent much of his life into Italy, his novels were focused on American experiences.