Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

I don't understand this graphic novel as much as I understand it. I think it's meant to show the struggle of being a black gay teenager in modern-day America, but it does it in an incredibly odd way. The overarching plot of Oscar trying to get to this wildfire isn't really explained and doesn't make much sense because of it. Many things happen in this novel that I think are meant to be allegories to other things, except that they make no sense. Except for the incident with the cop, I understood that one, but only because it was extremely blatant. I feel like this is meant to have a much deeper message, but instead, I'm left with confusion instead of understanding. The ending was also baffling and abrupt. None of the questions asked are ever answered. I'm also not a fan of the art style at all. Everything feels half-done and almost rushed in a way. This was just a huge miss for me.

Oscar is struggling with strange new powers and an inexplicable need to travel towards a raging wildfire on the news. He's also feeling isolated, unable to talk to his mom about his feelings and just having dealt with a rough breakup. On the way, he is visited by a few characters good (a stranger becomes a friend; a hallucination becomes a companion), bad (an evil entity in the form of a racist human cop), and mysterious (a strange woman leading/following him on his journey towards the fire seems to know much more about his condition than he does).

I loved this story! I was very invested in Oscar's emotional rollercoaster and I enjoyed the sci-fi/fantasy elements as well. I need to read the second installation to know more about these aspects of the story because right now I'm still a little fuzzy on a lot of it but I am eager to read more so that's a good sign. I felt the intro was a bit jarring and the writing could have been edited a bit more for better flow but hey - for a YA/NA comic dealing with a lot of story lines, it worked for me!

A story about a boy on the run with some kind of ice powers. He's on the run for something unexplained but some kind of incident with his ice powers. That's a lot of my issues with the book. Nothing is explained. This kid is on the run and for some reason he can't talk to his mom but he doesn't know why. He's supposed to be a gay black man of 17 but I only know that from his inner monologue. The comic's in black and white and there's no gradient in skin tone to indicate he's black. From the art I'd think he's a white kid of about 8. He sees some alien things crawling on things that no one else can see. There's an incessant inner monologue that drones on and on as he second guesses himself. Since he is travelling alone, he rarely talks to anyone else. There's elements of a better story within this, they just didn't come out in this first volume.

This was a super emotional and interesting first in series. The themes of homophobia and racism were heavy. This, mixed with Oscar’s newfound powers and his journey to the fires while on a road trip definitely kept me intrigued. Since it’s an introduction we deal with the micro mostly! However the macro conflict seems very interesting and I will definitely keep up with this writer and world!

This book follows Oliver who is a boy who has these powers out of no where one day and doesn’t know where they came from. In this graphic novel we follow Oscar as he goes on a journey to find out what is happening to him. Along the way he gains friends as well as enemies but this was a wonderful graphic novel that showed the struggle of being a black boy in society and how your viewed as well as dealing with a mom who does not understand him and because of that their relationship is struggling. This book gives me miraculous lady bug vibes and that is a show I love . But one of my favorite parts of the novel is how I find similarities between me and Oscar like how he dissociate from the world by listening to the music and just vibing. Overall this was a quick and enjoyable read that i definitely recommend

I’ve received this ARC from Netgalley and honestly, this graphic novel was fantastical!
It is very rich on emotions and a story I hope I get to see to continue.
A person named Oscar is on a journey to a wild fire which seems to not be stoppable by humans. And with the strange abilities which have manifested over night, Oscar is also trying to find out why they are there and where they come from.
It was a phenomenal read.

Even though the blurb isn't particularly well-written imo, I really liked the premise: a boy with ice powers develops the inexplicable urge to go into the heart of a wildfire. My brain immediately created this story of self-destruction and loss and I was looking forward for an emotional and metaphorical journey.

Black Ice is none of these things. It's very surface-level and literal and I was sorely disappointed, probably because my expectations were too high. The comic deals with issues of racism from the pov of Oscar, a gay black teen. If not the gut-wrenching story I'd expected, it could've been an intricate examination of real-life issues of discrimination. But again, it is not. Instead of letting situations speak for themselves. the author spells out every single thing, almost as if they fear their audience is too dumb to get the (very obvious) examples of racism. That would be fine if Black Ice were made for younger readers, but from what I understand, it's not. "Show, don't tell" would've been a good guideline here.
What I found absolutely baffling was the scene with the police officer Oscar runs into. He's your typical racist cop, enjoying violently shoving Oscar on the ground. When he draws a gun, Oscar freezes him and accidentally kills him and we see this horrible display of a man pointing his gun right at a teen's head, frozen in his act of murder. It was great imagery - but the scene was completely pointless because it's later revealed that the cop was really a shadow monster (yeah, there are shadow monsters) in disguise and not even a human. The racism is kinda mitigated by the fact that the perpetrator wasn't human and I absolutely hate that.

Also, the art. I can tell the artist knows what they're doing - lines are clean, designs work. It just seems weirdly unfinished. I wouldn't even call it "black and white", it felt more like outlines only since there were no differences in values. Oscar supposedly wears black clothes, but we can't see that. He has striking blue eyes people constantly notice, but again, we can't see that. It's such a weird choice to draw attention to color and then not add any.

It's a shame, but I think Black Ice was not successful. It felt like it didn't know what it wanted to talk about, the themes were all over the place and the art didn't compensate for the lacking writing. Such a shame because the premise held tons of potential.

- ARC provided by NetGalley -

Have to say, the art work was beautiful. I loved how Oscar's story was drawn in. I hope that this is just the beginning of a series because that cliffhanger at the end was intense.
I am hopeful for a story that would tie in many things because sometimes, I was like what is going on here but overall, I enjoyed this story and looking forward to other works by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book.

I enjoyed the graphics of this, I thought they were quite simple, but really work with the story. I like the social commentaries of that the author made in the book about race and discrimination. However, I did find that there was little to no conversations in the book and we pretty much only had Oscar’s inner monologue throughout the book which I was not a fan of. I also feel like I can’t really comment on the plot because most of the story was Oscar going on the journey to a wildfire and once we finally get to the wildfire, it’s cut short and the book ends without us getting any answers.

I’ll be interested in reading the second one if there is a second book coming out because the story felt incomplete.

In Black Ice, Bradford D Smith, offers a new imaginative take on a classic awakening mystery. He takes you a cross country ride that that promises the answer to a thrilling mystery of how our main character Oscar wakes up on day with powers. While the graphic novel is very imaginative and fun to read, the ending leaves a little to be desired. Without any idea of how far in the narrative this Graphic novel was supposed to take us, the reader is left to ponder when and if any of the questions raised will be answered. While I overall enjoyed the ride, the abundance of space in the pages can leave the reader wanting more at times. The series has a lot of heart and is very easy to read, but now that I am invested, I will expect a lot of answers in the next installment.

So many issues, so many confusing attempts at joining together to make a story. Not much of it made sense, and I actually had to go back to the book summary to understand a little of what was going on. And that was after I finished reading. Where did the ice powers come from? Who were the black-ish ghosty things? It was a confusing read.

I read this in one sitting and HOLY SMOKES WAS IT AMAZING!!!!

The black and white pages did not deter me one bit. I was completely engrossed. The narration was quick allowing space for the illustrations to tell the story as well. Especially the clever social media clips.

For some reason, I found the little shadow creatures adorable until we came to "certain ones". There is still so much we don't know about them, let alone where they came from. But I am devested in this story now and need the sequel A...S.....A......P!!!!!!

Rate: 3 Stars

'Black Ice' is a story that follows Oscar and his journey of traveling to an area that is calling him, after he woke up with ice powers and the ability to see black entity like creatures.

The first thing that I noticed when reading was the art style in which the illustrator used, it felt sketchy at some points with a lack of defined lines, but then again it was digital, and people can enjoy this kind of art style without complaint. The story itself was confusing in some parts, and it was as if it would be set up to be a series (which I have not checked if it is). How it was paced was fine with no complaints, and I liked how it portrayed Oscar's thought process.

As a series I can see this book excelling in marks, but as a stand alone it unpacked questions in need of answers, with an open ending that just feels somewhat rushed and leaves a reader confused. I expect a sequel of some kind with actual answers.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
Oscar wakes up with mysterious ice powers. Since waking he feels pulled to a large fire. He runs away from home to follow that pull. As he travels he thinks about his past and his power.
The premise of the story is interesting. It is very introspective. My only problem is that nothing really happens, both in the outer world and in Oscar's thoughts. The author leaves a lot of opportunities unexplored. While the story is about a transition period, they could have developed his thoughts about the past more.

So a Black kid runs away from home, travels by bus, and it turns out he can see shadow creatures, ethereal beings..? The kid also has elemental superpowers, but all of that takes a backseat to the real story, which is the experience of being a young Black person in current day America. And that part works, I think. It sometimes feels a bit on the nose, and it doesn't help that he only intermittently has someone to talk to, so it's a lot of inner monologue. There's a particular visual reference to Trayvon Martin that's especially poignant.

The part with the ethereal beings also kind of works.. it's more general genre stuff, and a lot less interesting to me, but it's okay. Only thing is, I'm not sure the real life Black experience part works with the magical/mythical part. They don't mesh very well.

The art constantly borders on manga-ish, regularly hopping and skipping over that border. There's something curious here. The main character is Black, but has light eyes (blue maybe?), which is frequently commented on. But the book is in black and white, and it could've really used the nuance of actual colour. It's confusing.

I'm not a huge manga fan, but the art is certainly proficient. Smith has chosen to make most of the other, smaller characters faceless, which becomes kind of spooky, and creepy in its own right (reminds me of people online seeing other people as 'NPCs').

The writing isn't bad, the art isn't bad, but the whole package is a bit confusing but also sort of interesting..? Even the book's confusingness is a bit confusing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This graphic novel is definitely the start to a series since it ends on a cliffhanger and I felt it was a decent start. I think Oscar is an interesting character and I liked the themes and ideas established in this volume. I'm curious to see what happens next.

The art style took me a bit to get used to, since it could be very minimalistic at times. I can't help but wish that this graphic novel was in full colour because I feel like it would be absolutely gorgeous.

Overall, I rated it 3.5/5 (rounded to 4/5 for NetGalley).

This is an interesting start to a story; the author cleverly uses supernatural elements to guide Oscar through his struggles as a gay, Black, teenage boy. The art style was simple to the point of occasionally looking unpolished, but I loved the design of Oscar himself, as well as the characters who are important enough to look distinctive. It's not yet clear what's really happening, and this volume ends on a cliffhanger, but it definitely leaves you wanting to know what happens next.

I think this would be a great addition to a school library, but unfortunately since my library is for middle schoolers, the one use of the f-word rules it out.

This graphic novel series has some real potential. The art work is fantastic and the characters are nicely developed. This story managed to tackle some pretty heavy topics in such a short period. The only thing I wish is that it hadn't jumped in so abruptly and that there was a bit more of a backstory provided. I kept finding myself having trouble focusing on where the story was headed.I look forward to more from the artist and author.

I got a netgalley arc of this and i didn't know what I was getting myself into but watching oscar go through his journey made me feel things. What a baby. kids with superpowers way bigger than them remains the most superior trope. Totally recommended <3

THE ART

The art style in this comic is really interesting - simple, yet very effective, with fantastic understanding of shape and a minimal use of shading. The main character, Oscar, is the most detailed subject in the entire comic, with his intricate hairstyle and layers of clothing, while most other people are often quick simple shapes reminiscent of Moomin. There are also really cool creature designs that Oscar can see around him, which look like smokey/wispy animals and monsters.

Panel work in the comic is excellent, too. In particular, there's great movement and a sense of urgency in the action scenes, and there's some really creative pages of Oscar dancing that were really fun.

THE PLOT

I feel like it's a little difficult to give this comic a full review, as I'm not sure enough has happened in the plot yet to really be able to talk about it in-depth.

Oscar is fleeing home after some sort of accident happened to him, which has given him bright blue eyes and some kind of ice powers, as well as the ability to see smoke creatures/spirits around him. He feels a pull to travel toward a giant wild fire nearby, and is taking multiple buses to get there. Most of this story takes place on buses, bus terminals, and hotels.

While traveling he questions what is happening to him. In the beginning of the story we see him reflect on how Black people are treated in his world, and how white people sometimes react to him with fear and distrust, as well as images of black people with the word MURDERED in bold over them. Then, we see some snip-bits of the incident that gave him his powers, as well as an argument he had with his mother over the fact that she'd read his journal and was angry at him for not disclosing to her that one of his friends is gay.

So there's a lot happening in the story between the racial discrimination Oscar faces, the vague hints toward his sexuality and his fight with his mother over it, the mystery as to how he got his powers and the woman he keeps seeing around, the mystery of what the smoke creatures are, and why he is being drawn towards these fires (and maybe there's a mystery as to what caused the fires too, who knows). And then the book ends with a WTF cliff-hanger.

CRITICISMS

Some of my problems I had with this comic were with the dialogue. It's often a bit stilted and confusing, and often when Oscar was thinking to himself I couldn't understand if he was just talking to himself or if he was hearing a second voice in his head. With a plot as convoluted as this one in, the dialogue often times made things more confusing instead of easy to understand.

I also think the blurb to this comic needs some work. There's a lot of commas in there that don't need to be there, and the way the blurb reads may end up scaring potential reads off.

I wish this comic had just a little bit more editing going on with the dialogue and blurb.