There are various story elements in Apple Black that feel very familiar, various character and journey tropes that can seem quite stale when considered in isolation, and if you dissected it analytically, you could certainly boil it down to some common base ingredients. However for younger readers who aren’t so cynical, that of course isn’t so much of a problem.
Despite this though, I’d have to say that this story really drew me in. It starts with a classic tease, a very dramatic first spread to set the scene before the slower atmospheric character introductions start, but before you know it, it becomes a bit of a page turner.
The art style is often fairly straightforward, with some pages played entirely straight in a comic book fashion, just faces and speech bubbles for the dialogue and little else. At times it does feel a little exposition-heavy, and I did think of the old storywriting adage “show don’t tell” a couple of times. But when it comes to life with action and drama, the art works really well- energetic, high-contrast stuff with some lovely juxtapositions and set pieces. The contrast between white-backed and black-backed pages works well.
For parents of younger readers, there are some minor points of concern- a bit of broody smoking of cigarettes and of course a little bit of cartoon violence akin to a Marvel film- but not much by way of bad language or, shall we say, excessively feminine costumes, that kind of thing.
And of course, it leaves you hanging at the end, teasing the Saturday Wars…
If your kids want to watch some anime or another Marvel film and you want them to have a screen break, try chucking them this!
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From the Publisher
Sano begins his training among a group of other talented new magic-users at Black Bottom Island’s guild for young sorcerers . . .
. . . to learn to use his Arodihs arm—the ultimate wand.
Sano and some of his fellow young sorcerers, including Opal Wantmore (far left).
Good manga style and engaging story
This manga-style graphic novel comes as a fairly chunky novel as is traditional with manga, rather than the larger thinner format DC and Marvel might use.The story concerns a world of magic and features a diverse range of characters, all drawn in that familiar manga style. The themes are familiar but the plot flows pretty well and kept my interest throughout, doing a good job as the first in a series with good potential for directions to take the story in in future instalments.The art is great, with the majority of the pages in stark black and white but there's a colour page every so often and it never looks too samey.I rate the visuals more than the dialogue and was impressed with the manga stylings, but having said that I'm probably not the target audience - my nephew is a big manga fan and he loved everything about it so I am happy to recommend Apple Black Volume 1 and look forward to Volume 2!
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