Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor has released the cover for her new children’s graphic novel The Space Cat, coming out August 12, 2025!

The cover features a graphic rendering of Okorafor’s gorgeous cat Periwinkle Chukwu, aka The Space Cat himself — the inspiration and protagonist of the book.

The idea for this book came to Okorafor during lockdown and has been four years in the making. The story follows Periwinkle, a well-loved house cat by day and an spaceship adventurer by night, as he adjusts to his new life in the town of Kaleria, Nigeria after living in the United States.

Tana Ford, a Hugo and Eisner award–winning artist, is the cover designer and illustrator for The Space Cat. She has illustrated comics for Marvel, Dark Horse, Vertigo and IDW. You can find her work on LaGuardia, Silk, The Amazing Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, New Warriors, Jem and the Holograms, Star Trek, and Black Panther: Long Live the King. Ford is a recipient of the Prism Comics Queer Press Grant and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

Ford and Okorafor have collaborated before on Black Panther and the graphic novel LaGuardia.

The Space Cat is Okorafor’s first graphic novel specifically for children (per the publisher’s page), but she insists “This is a book for ALL AGES (a category which apparently doesn’t exist). I wrote it *for* adults (because adults deserve to have fun ,whimsical, colorful tales to enjoy, too!), and kid will also definitely dig it.”

We can’t wait for the book release in August!