The iron-jawed Judge Dredd might be the law, but he's been a law written only by men – until this week, when for the first time in the comic book character's 36-year history, his story is being written by a woman.

Author Emma Beeby has co-written the three-part Judge Dredd story Suicide Watch with Gordon Rennie, beginning in this week's Prog 1826. Set in a future world ravaged by nuclear war, where judges in vast cities have the power to summarily execute criminals (or "perps"), and where Dredd is the greatest judge of them all, Beeby's story will also feature the comic strip's first ever portrayal of a Muslim Mega-City One judge in PSI Judge Hamida, a woman who uncovers a possible suicide cult.

"There's certainly no reason a woman can't write Dredd, and to be the first to do so … does make you wonder why it couldn't have happened before. But it's more complicated than some simple male bias," said Beeby. "Comics are starting to shake off the reputation that they are 'for boys'."

The author said there are "plenty of women working in comics now - writing, drawing, lettering, editing", and "as many different kinds of graphic novels as there are novels".

"I go to comic conventions, and there are lots of girls there now, which is really encouraging," she said. "I think we'll see lots more female creators emerge as a result of this changing market. Dredd's is a very masculine character, but that's not all he is, and I really enjoyed writing and exploring that."

Beeby's take on Dredd sees Mega-City One recovering from a recent disaster which killed the majority of citizens. "We wanted to do a story that was going to show what was left, with all the resulting pain and horror. Dredd pairs up with a female PSI-Judge, Hamida, a Muslim suffering a crisis of faith. So we put Dredd in quite a serious story, but the world of Dredd allows a lot of flexibility in storytelling – which is one of the reasons for it lasting 35 years," she said.

"It was funny in planning the writing – Gordon I think assumed that since he has years of experience writing Dredd, I'd rather start off leading on the scenes with the female judge. But I was itching to write him, and insisted it be the other way around. If I was going to write Dredd, I was going to write Dredd. I hope I can do more, and I hope to see more women do so."

Running since 26 February 1977, when it first appeared in 2000AD, Judge Dredd was described on launch by the Guardian as "the comic with the thermonuclear impact". It has been voted best comic, and Dredd himself was named the seventh best comics character by Empire magazine.