In Lillie J. Harris’ If I Had Known… Dearly’s sister, Ida Jean has died, and she suspects white men will steal Ida Jean’s body —as they have with other Black people who have died recently. Dearly will travel through the woods to a deep cave with a other-worldly presence, and then beyond in order to protect her sister from grave robbers.
Lillie’s multi-media cartooning seamlessly tells a supernatural story based on a terrible history. Lillie’s storytelling is complex, and we are encouraged to slow down and take in all the details of their pages.
Several pages of this comic are left in thumbnail or penciled states. In the back of the comic, Lillie suggests the weight of the subject matter is part of the reason the “unfinished� pages are left the way they are. But the “unfinished� nature of the comic suggests an unfinished nature to both Dearly’s quest to protect Ida Jean, and our own unfinished task of confronting our shared past.
