We follow the story of the first black student accepted at St. Ivory Academy, a historically white wizarding school.

The perfect action packed first volume exploring racism in a modern world fantasy setting. At some times it might have felt a bit simple  but it was funny and entertaining and I liked the main characters and the art style.  I thought the pace was a bit fast and I feel like I would've enjoyed it even more if there was more back story, about the characters and about the school.

 For me it lacked development and world-building, and all just happened too fast but this series still has a lot more to offer and to explore so the reader can get excited about what is still to come. All in all this was a great first volume about racism, wizardry and friendship

DNF 

It has been a while since I got this book and unfortunately I don’t really have any interest in reading the book anymore. I am also now a lot more picky with the books I request and choose to read.

I want to thank NetGalley for a copy of The Black Mage for an honest review.

I had so much fun reading this as I have never read a graphic novel like this before. It was a quick, fun and has a great message. It had a lot of action and the art was just beautiful. 
.

When I first read about the premise of The Black Mage (a magical school desegregating with nefarious motives), I was DEFINITELY intrigued, and it delivered. 

The plot is full of mystery and suspense, and it provides distinct commentary on issues of racism at large and racism in education. Much of it is delivered through heavy-handed (but honestly fun and funny) satire, such as the main character being named Tom Token and having a pet crow named Jim. 

The art is vibrant, fun, and cartoony. Not only was the art fun and enjoyable, but it delivered some really great action scenes, giving us the kind of fights you hope for when you open comics promising magical fight scenes.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this one, both for the serious issues it dealt with and the great fun of the humour and the action. I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you to Oni Press and Netgalley for the chance to review this copy of The Black Mage. I really enjoyed the writing style and the colourful graphics. This was a fun and enjoyable read and will defiantly will be picking up more by the author duo in the future.

I unfortunately was unable to read this book before it was archived. But I look forward to grabbing a copy.

I liked where The Black Mage was heading but components of it fell a bit flat for me. I love pulling the race conversation into comics, and especially into fantasy comics, but components fell a bit on the nose for me. That being said, I ordered multiple copies for my library and have hopes that it will be a continuing series even though it finished up very neatly. Kirkland's artwork was fantastic which is always a high point for me. While the race conversation doesn't hold punches, I would recommend it for tween readers and not just teens.

A delightful graphic novel! A wonderful world with great accompanying illustrations.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Firstly I would like to thank Netgalley for giving me early access to this book, I just forgot to review it 🙈

This is such a cute and colourful graphic Novel, as others have said reminds me of a anime more than a GN but I still love the drawing style. This is an easy to read story that covers some difficult topics in a short amount of pages! But I can’t wait to find out what happens next 🙌🏻

This was a cute comic. I can only hope to read more by this duo again! It was definitely similar to the description given and exactly what I expected.

This was incredibly well done. It really sends a message about the way society views and treats racial minorities, with a touch of magic that was absolutely beautiful.

Oh, can I see cranky old white people getting up in arms over this book! I say, let them expose themselves as the horrid racists they are! It took me way longer to read Black Mage than it really should have. I finally sat down and read the provided PDF after watching a webinar on recent graphic novels where one of the speakers described it as "Harry Potter if Harry Potter was the only black kid at Hogwarts and Hogwarts was run by the KKK." Black Mage is definitely that, but also so much more. I loved that our protagonist is named Tom Token (TOKEN!) and his crow familiar is named Jim (JIM CROW!) and so many other things! Some would probably call it a little ham-handed, but I'm pretty sure my teens aren't going to care. If I give them the pitch that sold me, I'm pretty sure they'll grab it out of my hands!

A teenage boy, Tom Token is invited to join St. Ivory Academy. Everyone thinks it's a initiative to inclusiveness..but is that actually the reason? The black Mage is a graphic novel. I have read it's ARC which I acquired from Netgalley. 


I really don't know what I should say about this book. I am not good at reviewing graphic novels, in fact I am the worst in reviewing them. 

Some concepts were ravishing, again some were confusing(At least for me, they were).


Tom Turner, a black boy is invited to St. Ivory Academy, which is a historically white wizarding school(Yes, it only teaches wizarding to whities). But everyone thinks that this attempt is towards inclusivity, but is that actually the case? But Tom soon starts to unfold some mysteries along with his friend Lindsay and some other ghost which leads them back to the American Civil War of 1852. Would this cost Tom his very soul?


Rating:

3/5


According to me, racism and magic were perfectly mixed with one another. Why can't a black boy be a wizard? Just because he's black?(Ugh, foul logic!) But I think there was no need to bring American civil war in the middle of this. I mean history, fantasy and racism doesn't blend well. At a point, I felt that the author was rushing to put an end to the book, no matter however the end seemed to be.


It wasn't a delightful read but the it actually deserves the rating. I guess the author mainly tried to focus on racism more than anything else. So, there was a lost of track. This is for the first time I am seeing a fantasy book with a concept like racism. Friendship between Lindsay and Tom was awesome. Lindsay's friendship was honest and sacrificing. She didn't value racism over real friendship. She wasn't even afraid to give up on her life. So, basically the book was knowledgeable in some ways.


According to the description I read about it in the Netgalley it says-

Harry Potter meets Final Fantasy in this subversive original graphic novel where race, history and magic collide. 

I noticed a lot influence of Harry Potter in the book, in it's graphics and teachers. I loved the graphics of the St. Ivory Academy, it really gave me that Harry Potter feeling. But I really have no idea about Final Fantasy so no comments about this.


Tom Turner, the main protagonist of the book is surely not my favorite character at all. Not because he is black(I am not a racist). But because his behavior sucks. Yeah, Lindsay is cute(I like her). Bryce and Alexis played their role as negative characters well. Headmaster's son Bryce and his girlfriend, Alexis bullied Tom Turner just like it happens in real life. The Headmaster Lynch has been a mystery to me. I actually couldn't relate to his behavior at a lot of times throughout the read. 


I specially loved the invitation of Headmaster Lynch to Tom Turner to St, Ivory Academy. It also gave me the Harry Potter vibes. 


A part of the invitation is:

As the country's highest ranking magical institution, St. Ivory is committed to giving you the very best education in all things pertaining the arcane arts. 

Sounds too Dumbledore, right?


So a lot of things in the book were catchy. But I would still say, it really needs some improvement.

I thought the premise was so interesting,  and I felt the book delivered! It felt a little short to me, I actually would've liked more. I thought the drawings were great, and the characters made me smile. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Black Mage is a graphic novel that takes racism into a fantasy setting. 
A wizarding school that has been known for it's exclusively white attendance, takes in Tom, a black boy in the name of a new initiative. Does this signal the end to discrimination or is there something much bigger in the works behind the scenes?

I just really wanted more out of this book. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad. It was actually a pretty decent read, and I don’t have to drag myself through it. I just wanted a little bit more to top it off.

Tom Token, the first black student at a magical school vaguely similar to Hogwarts, wrestles with constant microaggressions and eventually discovers a menacing secret at the root of the school's powers. The headmaster is named Atticus Lynch and wears a Klan hood so it's definitely not subtle but it's a fun adventure story!

Tom was the first black student admitted to the magical academy, St. Ivory. He discovers that there was another black student who went there before, which sends him on a search to find out what happened to her.

There was a lot of racism in this book. The school was completely run and attended by white students, and the teachers all wore white hoods like the Ku Klux Klan. That was really disturbing to see.

The racism in the story made me really uncomfortable. I understand that the story was meant to show how extreme racism is, but it was disturbing to see illustrated in this book. Even though it isn’t the intention of the book, I worry that this could normalize the racism, rather than point out how wrong it is.

I liked the idea for the plot, but I think it should have had less racism.

Thank you Oni Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the art style of this book, which is what caught my attention. However, all of the characters were so flat; everything was so up in your face (a familiar named Jim Crow, his last name is Token, etc). I get that the author was probably just having fun with it, but it came off as a bit cheesy. 
I feel like a little more subtlety in every part could have benefited this book and also getting to spend more time developing the characters and plot.
I hope other people enjoy this more than I did, and I think they could, but it was a little bit of a miss for me.

Didn't get a chance to read the Netgalley copy I was sent, but finally got to read it after publication. It was a cute comic, definitely more middle grade than YA, and was a bit on the nose with some of the names and images. Would recommend to lovers of wizard school type books with a budding interest in social justice and anti-racism work.