Monster, a comic strip published by Scream! from authors Alan Moore (Watchmen) and John Wagner (Judge Dredd) is coming back to store shelves this July. After being out of print since the ‘80s, the series is coming back via 2000 A.D.. The title is being printed in an 190-page graphic novel. The Guardian has the first new details on the reprinted comic. The strip was drawn by an artist known only as Heinzl.
Moore wrote the first installment of the comic in 1984 before Wagner finished Monster. The series started in March of 1984 after being cancelled June of the same year and eventually absorbed into Eagle comics.
“While Alan was beginning his groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing for DC Comics in America in the early 80s, he was still working for the UK industry where he’d cut his teeth,” said 2000 AD spokesman Michael Molcher. “The late 70s and early 80s were a heyday for British comics, with shelves groaning under the weight of a myriad of titles all the way from classic war comics through to horror comics. [But] despite teaching a whole generations of kids how to read and appreciate good stories, this period of classic British comics has been woefully neglected and with our reprints of Monster … we’re bringing great comics from some legendary names back into the light.”
The series follows a deformed boy who grew up in an attic, following the footsteps of EC in terms of tone. While the first story was credited to Moore, subsequent comics were attributed to writer Rick Clark, a pseudonym for Wagner. Monster is Moore and Wagner’s only comics collaboration. Molcher explained that tracking down copies of Scream! to reprint this collection has been difficult, “but we have substantial experience with ‘2000 A.D.’ collections of restoring neglected comics back to how they looked in the 1970s and ’80s.”
Is it fair to say this wasn’t actually written by Moore at all, except for the first episode? While I’m a fan of Wagner’s stuff in 2000AD, it seems a bit dishonest, even Marvel-esque, to put Alan’s name on the cover in big letters when he only wrote 5 or 6 of the 190 pages, and that was just a lad burying somebody.
The rest of the story, which I’ve read some of, is basically a young lad wandering round while his bonkers uncle murders people, “No, Uncle Terry, murdering people is WRONG!”.
It’s not Wagner’s greatest work. I love some of the older comics, and 13th Floor was a good one, but they’re not in the “literature” category of comics, closer to one of the “serious” stories out of “Buster” or something.
Really can’t recommend it. Talking of Marvel btw, their Miracleman reprints of a little while ago, in comic and (hardback) book form, each issue was half Miracleman reprint, then the other half the same thing again, except pencils only, or uncoloured ink. Often pencils and inks are included at the end of collections, for a few pages, for fans who want to see how the art is done. But filling half the comic with them is straight-out ripoff. Desperately squeezing every penny out of The Original Writer’s fans (since Alan doesn’t want his name on it), the hardback-only being another few quid on top, to squeeze every drop from the very limited amount of Miracleman there is (about 15 issues).
I can see why Alan isn’t impressed with the business practices of these people.
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