The Black Mage

Subtlety, thy name is not The Black Mage. While I do want more books to take on issuess like racism in fantasy, this was pretty awful satire that was dreadfully on the nose and ripped straight out of 1990s anime. Definitely a skip.

This parody satire smacks you in the face with its references to popular fantasy worlds that really are not far off from the racist halls of St. Ivory School Of Magic. Humorous and direct in its criticism, The Black Mage is something that will feel more familiar then you wish it was all the while prompting you to evaluate the institutions, stories, and characters you take part of and consume. Mr. Token and Jim the Crow save the day.

I received an ARC copy of ‘The Black Mage’ via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. How I wanted to love this. The idea is such a great one, tackling racism in a Harry Potter style setting? Yes please. Unfortunately it didn’t deliver in the way I wanted it to. The one thing that I really enjoyed was the art style. It definitely draws inspiration from manga and really worked for this kind of story. The magic fighting scenes weren’t my favourite as the art made it hard to tell what exactly was happening but I got the gist. I don’t say this often but I wish that this had been a longer graphic novel or a series. It has a great premise but was executed in a very formulaic way and if it’d been given the time for a decent plot to happen, it could’ve been wonderful. The blatant references really bugged me. It was mostly the same joke over and over again. What if the only black student had a crow called Jim? What if his last name is ‘Token’ because, get it, he’s the token black character? What if the white students of St. Ivory dressed like the KKK? Hilarious. Just so obvious that nothing about it was funny. What’s even more ironic is our main character really is the token black character. He doesn’t have much of a personality and has zero character development. He’s just a bland hero. There’s nothing much of substance to any other character either other than some being comically evil. Overall, a wonderful premise with poor execution.

Well, for this book I was so amazed on the quality of the graphic novel. I saw on a book tubers video that went to BEA and bookcon. That they received it and was talking about this one and it got me intrigued and remembered seeing it on NetGalley. So I had to pick it up I read it in one sitting cause I needed to find out what it was. 1- It’s a really quick read, very short graphic novel. 2- The images are so beautiful and colourful I just loved that about it. 3- It is a type of story I would read any day rain or shine. Cause anything that’s about magic, and school, I just love it. Now, in conclusion, I just want to say I gave it 3 stars just because I wanted more. And the story was a bit too quick. It could have had more fillers or even more stories in one story. But go pick it up it is way worth the reading experience.

I wanted to like this soooo much. I ended up really not liking it all actually. It felt really brash and on the nose 90% of the time. The rest was relatively cheesy. Tom is at St. Ivory for like five seconds and then the "action scene" is just there. It started and ended way too quickly, and had very VERY little plot/depth/point. It felt like a parody to be honest.

My gosh this was incredible. First of all the plot was beautiful and well done, pulling on tropes in magic and combining them with black history to create a strong message. While set in the past it still has much to say about America today. The artwork was also beautifully done, I can only hope to illustrate as well as this one day. Something I loved was the names. Mr Token, the token black student, and Mr Lynch, white headmaster/magic KKK leader. Little things like this along with the heavy nods to other magic from pop culture gave lighter parts to this graphic novel that is full of serious and important subject matter. I would highly recommend picking this up! I do have a soft spot for graphic novels but this one was one of the best I've read!

The ARC of this graphic novel was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Tom Tolken is a first black mage who was accepted to the St. Ivory Academy for your magicians. His first days at school are not easy because of the color of his skin. He meets Lindsay who keeps his company from the first day there. Besides the high rate of racism in the school, everything looks normal until someone sends Tom an I.D. student card of a black girl Summer who also was a student of this school. He tries to find out more about this mystery girl and how it is possible that there is no information about her in school records and the internet. Together with Lindsay, he tries to resolve this mystery. The modern story combination of Harry Potter and The Magicians' Guild, which speaks loud about racism and power of friendship. Speedy book with amazing story and art. Tom is a fantastic example of a person who doesn't take words of other people to his heart and instead shows them how much he is worth and stronger than they are. He doesn't resign even if the situation is very tense and hard to solve. He's caring about people he cares about and let no one hurt them. I enjoyed reading this book, even if it took me less than an hour to finish it. However, the book has a lot of important values inside that should be pointed out to everyone. I'd like to recommend this book to all of Harry Potter's fans but also YA fantasy lovers.

This comic presents a tongue and cheek satire related to racial prejudices that exist and how their boundaries can be broken. They present a respectful representation of a strong minority character, which is sadly still really missing from the majority of literature, and tackle racial issues that unfortunately still exist. The creators of the comic chose to take on these issues with humor and smartly placed ways to reference racial issues. The fact that to main character, who is the only black student at his school, has the last name Token had me cracking up from his introduction. He is literally the token black guy. Better than that he has a pet crow named Jim and that the antagonist is named Lynch and clearly designed after the KKK. This comic is highly recommended to all readers, but especially those that enjoy a good social commentary.

I loved this graphic novel! To be fair, I love all medias with witchcraft, wizardry and school angst The racism in this book was done to a point that I felt physically disgusted. But that only shows how well it was portrayed. We follow Tom Token who is starting his first year at St Ivorys, he is the first black sorcerer to ever have been enrolled to the school as part of the initiative for St Ivorys to become more accepting. (I legit hated writing that sentence). I really do like the way they portray racism and its affects. Tom does not appreciate being treated as special as he doesn’t understand why St Ivorys is making such a celebration of something that should be natural, acceptance of all. I would love there to be more of this as it’s a really awesome concept, I’d love there to be a prequel about Harriet Tubman and sequels as to where Tom goes. The art style was disney meets anime and the colours were vibrant and fit the feelings of each page. All in all really enjoyed it, I just want more!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Listennnnnnnn... This is the first time I've reviewed a graphic novel ARC, and I don't know why I never thought to do it before. I need to do this more often because it was an awesome quick read with amazing graphics (shout out to Illustrator DJ Kirkland for the work) and a nice break from all the long novels I've been reading back to back. But on to the actual review... LISTENNNNNNNNNNNN Total shout out to Daniel Barnes for having this graphic novel have no qualms about talking about the Klan and all that. Like, literally the "reason" why Tom Token (get it? "Token" black guy?) is even accepted into this school is through their "Magical Minority Initiative". Like that's gotta be a load of crap right? How is Tom the first ever black student in the era of freaking cellphones? It looks like he had an iPhone too but that's besides the point. There's no way. Then you have people asking if black mages restore their mana by drinking damn grape juice. Stereotypes at its freaking finest. What really sold me immediately was seeing Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass about to get into a fight with some of the Klansman in the past. Like yes, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass are a couple of bad ass historical figures, and with magic that we had no clue about? Sign me the heck up! This seemed to have ended as a standalone, but I could see the potential for more issues. I hope there's at least another one - well let's be honest, I hope this becomes an actual series. You just have to read this. Like, go download it from Netgalley and read and review it. Or you can be like me and get the paperback copy when it comes out later this year. But I can't even imagine waiting that long!

I really enjoyed the artwork and story but i was really craving more background info for everyone and the school.