3 out of 5

Sooo much Lowborn High, and I still don’t get why exactly, unless it’s either really popular (not sure how this is polled – the forums seem mixed) or just burning through pages to a conclusion? I thought this entry was better than others, as it dialed down the teen soap for something more focused – some kids were trapped with monsters; other kids were trying to get them out – and it’s shifted slightly away from the Hogwarts riff to having its own slowly, vaguely building fantasy world… but it’s still the most indistinct thing here. Mike Walters takes over on art from Anna Morozova, which is fitting for the tonal change (Anna’s work was good for the soapiness), but also comparatively amateurish looking, with very stiff characters and a lack of detail. If Walters sticks to the strip long enough to get comfortable with it, and if David Barnett’s scripts similarly continue to tighten up, maybe this will become someting, but it feels like we’ve given it quite a few pages to do so already.

Elsewhere: A Finder & Keeper from John Reppion and Davide Tinto; about par from the series: nice, animated Googe-esque art from Tinto, with a good setup – our ghostbusting kids investigate a weird teacher – that ends up getting very clunky in terms of exposition and action in its last few pages.

A Future Shock from Georffrey D. Wessell and Zander Cannon (! – first time in the prog?). I love Cannon, but some of the “animation” in the panels felt off here, and the premise is a bit been-there-done-that sci-fi – recently, Time Before Time is doing something similar with time-displaced fugitives. All that said, I remind myself we’re doing a kid’s book, and so this is a great nudge into science fiction for that demo. I’m not sure if the page layouts – which all have a left-handed border with the strip’s title – are referencing something; it makes for an interesting look but is a bit weird.

Wrapping back to the start: this was, hands down, the best Cadet Dredd yet. Neill Cameron has a really distinct style that kids Joe and Rice looking like kids, but balances comedic elements with a more “serious” look (the color palette is a big help here) that really feels like classic Dredd. Liam Johnson’s scripts similarly juggles the difference between the brothers, and the difference between a young Joe and a current one – this really reads like an event that would’ve made sense for the both of them as canon, and not necessarily an in-a-vacuum one-shot.