Fans of the surreal, the bizarre and sardonic anthropomorphic cows are in a fervour after The Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson’s website was updated this weekend with promises of “a new online era”, 24 years after the reclusive creator retired at the age of 44.

Larson’s iconic Far Side cartoons were syndicated in more than 1,900 daily newspapers from 1980 to 1995, treating readers to daily offerings from his offbeat visions of the world. In one of his most famous cartoons, a female chimpanzee finds a blonde hair in her mate’s fur, and asks him: “Been doing more ‘research’ with that Jane Goodall tramp?” (Goodall approved.) In another – voted one of his best by scientists – a boffin with a large rectal thermometer stands behind a brontosaurus, the caption reading: “Professor Higgenbottom was never heard from again, leaving the cold-blooded/warm-blooded controversy still unresolved.” His image of a caveman pointing to the tail of a stegosaurus and letting his audience know that it is called “the thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmonds”, led paleontologists to adopt the invented term.

Larson retired The Far Side in 1995, citing “simple fatigue and a fear that if I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer or at the very least ease into the Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons”. Hugely publicity-shy – he has long refused to have his picture taken – he has since then released a compilation of Far Side cartoons, but worked to keep his pictures from being reproduced digitally, explaining in a letter the “emotional cost” of having his work “offered up in cyberspace beyond my control”. “These cartoons are my ‘children’ of sorts, and like a parent, I’m concerned about where they go at night without telling me,” wrote Larson. “And, seeing them at someone’s website is like getting the call at 2am that goes, ‘Uh, Dad, you’re not going to like this much, but guess where I am.’”

But the updating over the weekend of thefarside.com, which had previously remained virtually unchanged for more than a decade, has left many fans hoping for Larson’s return. A new image, in which some of Larson’s most iconic characters – the cow on two legs, the bee-hived woman, the nerd – are being defrosted from an iceberg, has appeared on the site, along with the promise: “Uncommon, unreal, and (soon-to-be) unfrozen. A new online era of The Far Side is coming!”

One social media user harvested thousands of “likes” after tweeting: “Now that The Far Side is coming back it’s a good time to remember that Gary Larson actually predicted Twitter.” Their post highlighted The Far Side cartoon in which a man opens the window to a crowd bearing placards reading “Down With Wayne” and “Wayne Must Go”. Its caption reads: “The world was going down the tubes. They needed a scapegoat. They found Wayne.”

Larson’s publisher did not respond to questions over the nature of the new era – whether the return would be new material, or the digital release of already-published cartoons. How much cows will feature also remains unknown, but Larson has always been clear about his fondness for bovine ruminants. “Cows, as some Far Side readers know, are a favourite subject of mine,” he wrote. “I’ve always found them to be the quintessentially absurd animal for situations even more absurd. Even the name ‘cow’, to me, is intrinsically funny.”