Preview: Welcome To The Magical World Of ‘Lowborn High’ — The Council Estate Hogwarts Gets Collected

by Richard Bruton

One of the highlights of 2000 AD‘s all-ages Regened issues, Lowborn High is a magical teen adventure where you’ll discover where the lowborn wizards get their schooling…

This was definitely one of the big hits of the 2000 AD all-ages Regened Progs, a delightful thriller that mixed Hogwarts and Grange Hill and all the best elements of those classic girls’ comics of the ’70s for a magical tale of a different sort of wizarding world.

Coming out later in the month, Lowborn High is all about mixing the magic and the school days, two staples of comics through the ages, but David Barnett’s tale, ably abetted by some beautifully stylish art from both co-creator Anna Morozova and new boy to the strip Mike Walters, mixes things up perfectly to give us something that feels shiny and new, despite wearing it’s obvious influences on its sleeve.

To give you an immediate idea of that it’s all about, here’s the 2000 AD PR for this one…

“For as long as anyone can remember, Wychdusk Manor has been the school to which all the top magical novices are sent, where they are trained to become the world’s greatest wizards. There, students are taught every form of spellcasting by the wisest of mages, and to be part of Wychdusk’s alumni is an incredible honour. But what about those that don’t make the grade, that don’t have the talent or the family name to make it to this prestigious establishment? For them, there’s LOWBORN HIGH, a rundown inner-city comprehensive that is often struggling with funding, but its pupils can still be capable of some truly amazing feats…”

Into Lowborn High comes Androgeus Frost, son of one of this wizarding world’s most illustrious and powerful families, just booted out of Wychdusk for terrible grades and an even worse attitude. He’s our in to the school, watching him do all the usual new boy in a strange (a very strange) school things that are all immediately familiar to us from Hogwart’s, Grange Hill, all those great ’70s girls’ comics, and many more.

But although Lowborn High‘s influences are quite obvious, it’s the execution of it all that makes it work so well. So expect fun and thrills, kids getting into trouble, Androgeus trying to fit in, finding a place in the Deadbeats Club rather than with the cool kids, the teenage clashes and crushes, but all of it set against both a magical background and the unfolding backstory of the Frost families troubled history.

Oh, not to mention homicidal Pandas…

Co-created by Barnett and Morozova, it was a bit of a surprise when Walters took over on art – scheduling conflicts and a busy, busy workload for Anna unfortunately – but, as you’ll see from the preview below, Walters art might be somewhat different from the super stylised and light art of Morozova but its no less effective and good to look at.

This is the whole first book of Lowborn High, one that ends on a real cliffhanger for the future, all tied into the dodgy and dangerous past of the Frost family and the troubles both the Deadbeat Club and Androgeus have got themselves into with the big bad of the series…

Of course, we’ve recently found out in the Prog that there’s going to be either no more Regened 2000 AD issues or a temporary halt to Regened. The one-off strips can easily be fitted in to regular 2000 AD or bumper issues and the like. But Lowborn High is a problem. Where will it fit in? The great joy of reading it in Regened was that it was allowed a lot more than the regular 5/6 pages per strip in a regular Prog.

All of which means that I’m having to keep my fingers seriously crossed here that we will actually get the second book of Lowborn High – it’s certainly good enough to warrant it. However, whether we get a second book or not, don’t let that stop you from picking up this one, it’s a bloody lovely book of magic and teens and everything in between.