Written in the 1980s, tale of a man who grew up locked in an attic before going on a murder rampage will be collected in a 190-page book in July. See original panels from the series below

A “forgotten” early work by the Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell author Alan Moore, about a disfigured man who murders those he doesn’t like, is to be brought back on to bookshelves after being out of print for more than 30 years.

Comic legend Moore created the series Monster for the weekly horror anthology Scream! in the early 1980s. According to the comic 2000 AD, which will release a 190-page book collecting the story’s dozens of episodes in July, it borrows from the gothic horror of Frankenstein and the banned EC horror comics of the 50s, telling of a “gentle monster on the run”, who grows up locked in an attic, but escapes and turns to a life of murder.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alan Moore’s comic Monster, on which he worked with John Wagner, the creator of Judge Dredd. Click to expand and read. Illustrations: 2000 AD

Moore wrote the first episode of the series, which launched on 24 March 1984, before Judge Dredd creator John Wagner finished off the story. The Monster comics had been out of print since the 80s, said 2000 AD; Scream! was cancelled on 30 June 1984 after a printer’s strike and absorbed into the Eagle comic, with Monster and the popular The Thirteenth Floor series the only two strips to transfer to Eagle.

“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.”

Monster, added Molcher, is the only time that Moore worked on a series with Wagner. “Finding good quality copies of Scream! has been difficult as the original film of the story has long since disappeared, but we have substantial experience with 2000 AD collections of restoring neglected comics back to how they looked in the 1970s and 80s,” said Molcher.

“And while people usually focus on the big UK comics names that went across to the US, such as Alan, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, John Wagner has been consistently one of comics’ greatest writers across four decades.”

Quick guide The five Alan Moore comics you must read Show Hide V for Vendetta (1982 - 1989) This dystopian graphic novel continues to be relevant even 30 years after it ended. With its warnings against fascism, white supremacy and the horrors of a police state, V for Vendetta follows one woman and a revolutionary anarchist on a campaign to challenge and change the world. Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow (1986) Moore's quintessential Superman story. Though it has not aged as well as some of his work, this comic is still one of the best Man of Steel stories ever written, and one of the most memorable comics in DC's canon. A Small Killing (1991) This introspective, stream-of-consciousness comic follows a successful ad man who begins to have a midlife crisis after realising the moral failings of his life and work. Tom Strong (1999 - 2006) A love letter to the silver age of comics that nods to Buck Rogers and other classics of pulp fiction. Tom Strong embodies all of the ideals Moore holds for what a superhero should be.

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (1999-2019) One of Moore's best known comic series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the ultimate in crossover works, drawing on characters from all across the literary world who are on a mission to save it.

Molcher cited Wagner’s creation of Judge Dredd, his “gritty noir crime thriller” Button Man, which has just been optioned for TV development by JJ Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, and his graphic novel A History of Violence, adapted for film in 2005 by David Cronenberg. “He’s not as lauded, but he should be; and it’s a joy to republish a forgotten series by this titan of British comics,” said Molcher.

Alan Moore’s second novel, Jerusalem – a fantastical exploration of his hometown of Northampton that ran to more than a million words in draft form – is slated for publication in September 2016. A blurb released on 5 January described it as: “An opulent mythology for those without a pot to piss in, through the labyrinthine streets and pages of Jerusalem tread ghosts that sing of wealth and poverty; of Africa, and hymns, and our threadbare millennium. They discuss English as a visionary language from John Bunyan to James Joyce, hold forth on the illusion of mortality post-Einstein, and insist upon the meanest slum as Blake’s eternal holy city. Fierce in its imagining and stupefying in its scope, this is the tale of everything, told from a vanished gutter.”