About The Book
Milk White Steed presents ten comics focused on migration and transformation, combining the storytelling of folktales with classic comics genres.
Characters range from jazz and blues musicians, Science fiction writers and children. They encounter spirits such as the Duppy, the Ligahoo and new spirit creations from the author designed in response to multiple generations of Caribbean life in England.
The book and the story Red Snapper in the Rea have been nominated for an Eisner award, an Ignatz award, the LA Times Book prize and a Ringo award. The book made the Guardian’s Best Graphic Novels of the 2025 list.
Selected Review
“There’s deep beauty in Milk White Steed that deserves your time and patience. Michael D. Kennedy’s debut graphic novel is nothing short of a color-filled scream into the world of comics. It takes the medium’s ability for audience participation in meaning-making and helps stretch those boundaries of what we understand as comics.”
The Stories
The ten stories in the book reimagine multiple folk spirits from the Caribbean and places them in environments reflective of the Diaspora and contemporary story genres.
The Duppy, an undead spirit appears in kitchen sink dramas. The Ligahoo, a transforming werewolf haunts children as they play. There are Soucouyants hiding in bins and empty car parks. The trickster Anansi features as a manifestation of imagination and anxiety in the life of a woman living through the handsworth riots.
In Green Men, there is an adaptation of the classic english spirit to tell a story about Afro and Indo-caribbean immigrants trying to find success in business and art in the mid-twentieth century.
The book introduces new spirits created by the author to tackle socials issues specific to the Midlands.
In the acclaimed story Red Snapper in the Rea, a science fiction writers whole life experience is haunted by a cosmic horror he dubs after the caribbean fish.
In the autofictional title story Milk White Steed, the main character struggles to shake off the spectre of a zebra as racial tensions climb in the city and on public transport.
Selected Interview
“With the Duppy, I sensed a really validating way to to fold things back towards African folk traditions and what I knew. With the silhouette I can play in a graphic way, I can challenge things freely. This tracks with multiple African retained traditions of the Caribbean. Traditions of slave resistance and mockery of colonisers through pouring molasses on bodies, wearing cow horns, and other traditions”
The Comics Journal — Milk White Steed’s ‘zone of weirdness’: an interview with Mike Kennedy
About Michael
Michael is best known for his comics collection Milk White Steed and illustrations for the New Yorker. His work ranges from surreal autofiction to historical genre narratives that explore themes of social tension, racial identity and introspection.