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UM is a magical girl comic about Eugenée, a Black, nonbinary, aspiring birth-worker who finds themself mixed up in a millennia-old conflict between the powers that be and a faction of cosmic, shamanic midwives.

UM is an ongoing webcomic, updated most Saturdays. buttercup mixes mysticism, superhero tropes, and slice-of-life drama into a compelling narrative. With UM, buttercup seeks to craft a text with the essence of the storied history of resistance within the African Diaspora against global imperialism using imaginative play and science-fantasy as a liberation praxis, and a foundation for realizing Black continuity into the distant future.

UM Vol.1 collects the first six chapters of the webcomic, along with minicomics that support Eugenée’s story. This first volume is edited by Jamila Rowser (Washday Diaries, Ode to Keisha) and Steenz (Heart of the City, Archival Quality).

buttercup (b. 1988) is an Afroindigenous animator, illustrator, and sequential artist whose previous works include Dawn Richard’s Voodoo (Interlude) video clip, various bumpers for Adult Swim, and illustrations for Real Realm, a minicomic written by Jamila Rowser. Their illustration series ARTHROPOD explores the eponymous phylum of animals through the playful imagination of a Black, gender-nonconforming child. buttercup views their work, including and especially UM, as an exploration of the Black Imaginary and Prophetic Tradition as well as a visual excavation of the esoteric through a materialist lens.

The campaign ends April 1st, and uses an all-or-nothing crowdfunding model.