Blackbird Volume 1

I loved reading and absolutely loved the art. I know it takes time to create but I was so disappointed when I found out there wasn’t anymore in the series yet.

I pre-ordered this as soon as I finished reading the first issue. Some of the themes are very similar to the tv show The Magicians, but where that show disappointed, this story did not. I absolutely love the artwork, and the story is interesting enough to keep you engaged. I devoured this volume in one sitting and felt satisfied and yet hoping for another volume. Would recommend!

Trigger warnings: depiction of natural disaster, depiction of death via car accident, grief, depiction of overdose due to pills, depiction of substance abuse, gaslighting by family members, character called "Crazy Baby" as nickname and insult by family members. Oof, so I won't lie - I wanted this one for Jen Bartel's GORGEOUS art. And y'all, the art was even better than I expected it to be frankly. The colors and characters and just all of it was stunning - totally the kind of quality I expected by one of the authors I've been following the longest. The story was... OK? It was a lot darker than I expected it to be, dealing more with family secrets and lies than it did with the supernatural in some ways. I didn't actually end up liking many of the characters honestly - except for Sharpie who I loved and want to adopt no lie LOL. I also didn't feel like the revealed answers to the mysteries quite made sense to me. I think this one may have suffered from needing more space for the story either as a longer single volume or multiple volumes unfortunately. It left off well for a continuation, but what was on the page still felt like it could have been expanded and clarified. But overall I enjoyed it.

Love this comic, I’m just now getting into comics and this was a great starter!!! Was super unique and spontaneous , love the twists and turns. The whole vibe was on point. 🙌🏽

It took a little bit of work to understand everything that was going on, but I wasn't confused overall, the artwork is gorgeous, and I like that the main character is kind of a mess. I went into this not knowing anything about it, including the genre, so everything was a surprise. There are wizards, called paragons, and beasts and magic and secrets and lies! This was a lot of fun.

Highly recommend this book for its story and visuals! Was not too happy with the condition the book arrived to me in, as it looked like it had some water damage on it's binding. Nonetheless, the story was well paced and the visualization of the world and characters was amazing! I'm a big fan of Jen Bartel's work and Sam Humphries writing and I cannot wait to see what this duo cooks up next.

I rolled the dice on this one because Jen Bartel's art is stunning. That is undeniable. It's seriously transcendent in its beauty. It's like glowing black light neon fever dreams. I love it. But the writing? It's not good. The dialog is obvious and plodding. Characters spend a huge amount of time saying the thing that is happening in the panel like the characters think they're in an audio drama. You're in a story that is a fully visual medium, guys. I don't need you to tell me there's a big monster on panel. I can see it. There is virtually no poetry to the captions. The attempt to capture the hip, youthful voice of the young main characters feels...so painfully forced sometimes. It hurts me to read some of these word balloons. The plotting is Ok. I'll give it that much. Though it is a story about being gaslit by essentially everyone in the main character's whole life, the motivations of which are essentially never revealed in the first volume. Just gesturing at undescribed machinations. The degree to which you have patience for this may vary. But, once again, the art is sublime. If that's enough for you, it might carry the book.

I enjoyed this once I got into it. If you like feminist and magic comics and fantasy stories, particularly ones which are also more ethnically diverse, you will likely enjoy this graphic novel. I was just sad that not that many volumes have come out yet, but that just means more to look forward to hopefully. I was looking for something fun after catching up on Saga and this satisfied that need for brightly colored fantastical feminist diverse graphic novels. (Semi-spoiler) A few of the elements of different magical clans battling out and a girl who doesn’t know who she was then finds herself in a magical Romeo & Juliet situation was a bit predictable given current fantasy trends but it still had its own unique spin. I also recommend this for fans of Buffy, Angel, and Charmed given its magic wars in modern California setting.

Blackbird is a captivating story with oustanding art by Jen Bartel, you won't be able to put it down. It's truly a masterpeice, cover art for each chapter is amazing too & I can't wait for the story to continue.

Great story and beautiful art! I found this comic after reading about Jen Bartel in the awesome book Women of Star Wars. I hope there is a second volume of blackbird.

Art was amazing, story was fun and light!

Bought as a present for my husband and he loved it and wants the next part. Art looks amazing ❤

Hab die Story auf einer US-amerikanischen Seite zum Thema die "Top 25 Graphic Novels 2018/19" gefunden und war dementsprechend gespannt. Die Rezensionen auf amazon.com waren durchweg positiv. Der Stil der Zeichnungen und vor allem die Farben sollten an Bladerunner 2049 heranreichen. Für mich DAS Kaufargument. Umso herber dir Enttäuschung. Kurz zur Story: Kleines Mädchen erlebt Erdbeben in L.A. und sieht dabei, wie alle anderen Menschen auch, "magische" Dinge vor sich gehen. Leider wirkt der "Vergiss alles was du gesehen hast"-Zauber der Magier nach dem Beben nicht bei ihr und so bleibt sie ihr ganzes Leben eine an Magie glaubende Eigenbrödlerin. Bis zu dem Tag, an dem sich irgendeine Magiertröte bei ihr vorstellig macht und sie in die Luft springt und schreit: "juhu...ich hab's gewusst!" Warum der Typ zu ihr kommt? keine Ahnung. Wird nicht erklärt... Zeichnung und Farben: Das Ganze hat wenig Details, wirkst viel zu clean und die Farben sind alles andere als "Bladerunner 2049"! Der ganze Stil scheint mir arg auf das Altersegment 12 bis 16 angelegt. Weil ich noch schlechtere Graphic Novels kenne (bspw. Simon Olivers FBP...) gerade noch 2 Sterne.