Silk Cotton

Drawing on the mythology and oral storytelling traditions of her Guyanese childhood, Douglas (the Titan series) teams up with cartoonist Gan for a potent yet tangled supernatural tale. Young Peter gets bitten at bedtime by a spider, setting off a chain of events that leads to his mother sacrificing her life to save him from Ol’ Higue, a malevolent force hell-bent on killing Peter to fulfill a mysterious prophecy. He then falls into a dreamlike space where he’s given a magic wood staff—and cryptic advice—from the trickster god Anansi. Peter sets out to find Grace “Silk Cotton,” the Churlie Queen—a demigoddess and matriarch of those who die in childbirth, who sports a crop top that says “A** Kicker” and may be the only one who can save Peter from his fate. The artwork brims with rich colors and expressive linework, but the pacing stumbles, as the story races and then slows unexpectedly. At each odd turn, a confused Peter is told he’ll learn more with time. Unfortunately, readers are likely to lose focus before they can unpick this knotty narrative. (July)