Review by Frank Plowright

Not every kid with magical talent makes Hogwarts Wytchdusk Manor. If you’re talented, but from a family that can’t afford the fees then Lowborn High is your source of magic tutoring. However, it can also be the shock secondary placement for layabout wastrels who can’t be bothered putting the effort in at Wytchdusk, scion of rich alumni or not.

That’s how Andy Dunwich ends up at Lowborn, figuring he’ll coast for a year there, be contrite and head back to Wytchdusk. On a fearsomely awful first day he manages to make an enemy of the school bully, and his sabotage manifests a demon capable of trashing the entire school.

Lowborn High has been running in the all-ages editions of 2000AD Regened, and there’s something very 1970s about David Barnett’s approach, as if he’s been sucking in Pat Mills’ subversive stories for girls’ comics after watching a run of Grange Hill. The social divide slightly distances the parody from its obvious source, but it’s not until Barnett puts aside the satire and begins investigating the cast, their backgrounds and their concerns that the series acquires greater depth.

Unfortunately just as Barnett begins to consider his set-up a little further, first series artist Anna Morozova takes her leave, and much of the charm departs with her. She creates a distinctive cast, delicately defining them as people you either want to get to know or dislike immediately, and she also seems to have been looking at those 1970s girls’ comics for the overall style. There’s fluidity to the movement, and the layouts sparkle. It’s quite the shock when Mike Walters takes over the art. On his opener the figures are stiff, the backgrounds basic or non-existent, and the storytelling poor. Under an art editor Walters would have been sent home for more practice, but there’s talent, though, and definite improvement almost episode by episode, and while he’s never as good as Morozova, by the end Walters has grown into the strip and it’s obvious he’ll improve further.

What he’s drawing involves greater problems than a lazy entitled student, and while the paths of some characters are predictable, Barnett surprises with others. There’s a background to Lowborn High, and what’s set in place generates as many questions as it answers leaving readers wanting more. This isn’t a series that’s fulfilled its potential yet, but it’s getting there.