By d. emerson eddy — Depending on your perspective and interpretation, for better or worse, Alan Moore is one of the most influential comics creators of the past four decades. I say “for better or worse” because it largely depends on how you rate the different influences and what your takeaways are from them. It could be something as simple as elevating the form's maturity through Swamp Thing, influencing the “sophisticated suspense” that fed the Vertigo imprint. Or you could flip that on its head and say that a similar “maturity” brought about decades of grim and gritty potentially influenced by the “wrong thing” from Watchmen or Batman: The Killing Joke. Regardless of anyone's opinion on the results, his influence is undeniable.

So I find it interesting when there are a number of properties where Moore did the seed work, but largely left the rest of it up to others. It doesn't happen often where that's intentional, but you see it in Crossed+100 (where he and Gabriel Andrade took Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' Crossed, pushed it into the future, and then left the world for others to play with) and Albion (crafting a story with the old IPC characters which John Reppion, Leah Moore, and Shane Oakley then fully realized), and in one of the virtual forgotten works of his early British period, Monster.

Monster was a serial that started within IPC's horror magazine, Scream!, that centered around a 12 year old kid, Kenny Corman, on the run with his developmentally challenged uncle, Terry. With the series as a whole largely following their misadventures as they flee from the police trying to stop Terry, the Monster, from killing again. It's understandable why anyone would have missed this one in Moore's catalogue. Although credited with co-creating the series, Alan Moore and Heinzl only did the first episode of this serial. Only four pages. I'm not really sure why they only did the initial outing, the introduction in Rebellion's 2016 collection only cites “other work commitments”, but the remainder of the serial was written and illustrated by Rick Clark (the pseudonym used by Alan Grant and John Wagner) and Jesus Redondo.

What's somewhat funny is that the titular Monster doesn't even appear in Moore and Heinzl's initial four pages. It's a taught piece with some overwrought narration building tension of Kenny suffering abuse at the hands of his father, while wondering what secret is locked behind a forbidden door. It's evocative of the pulpy narration from some of the early EC Comics horror and crime thrillers. It's very good, building to a cliffhanger of Kenny finding out how his father died and by whom. Beautiful black and white art from Heinzl, utilizing a fairly realistic style also reminiscent of those old horror comics.

When Uncle Terry does appear, it's at the hands of Rick Clark and Jesus Redondo, who change the tone a bit, not quite as over-the-top with the narration, but Redondo delivers a similar style for the artwork. From a modern perspective, it is fairly problematic to cast someone who's been locked away and abused by family, possessing the mental faculties and understanding of a child, with physical afflictions as a “villain” in the same sense as The Incredible Hulk or Frankenstein, but I do have to say that the book doesn't make fun of Terry for it. His role is tragic, like the other monsters mentioned, and the series repeatedly makes it clear that he has remorse for killing, even though he only kills when someone hurts him or his nephew.

Overall, Monster is an interesting excursion from Moore's body of work, making you wonder what might have happened if he had have continued on himself with Heinzl and Bensberg. Still, though, it's an entertaining serial as Wagner, Grant, Redondo, Bensberg, and Skomski guide Kenny and Terry across Britain and eventually overseas to Australia.

Monster - Alan Moore Comic

Monster
Writers: Alan Moore, John Wagner & Alan Grant
Artists: Heinzl & Jesus Redondo
Letterers: Paul Bensberg & Tim Skomski
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: July 2016
Twelve-year old Kenneth Corman buried his abusive father outside his creaky old family home. The thing that had killed him was inside, lurking in the darkness of a locked room. For all of his young life, Kenneth had been plagued by a feeling that there was something horrific dwelling in his house of secrets. But he had to know what was up there. He had to know what had killed his dad. Now it was time to face the horror behind the door…Co-created by Alan Moore (Watchmen) and Heinzl (Doomlord), with additional story by John Wagner (Judge Dredd), Alan Grant (Batman) and Jesus Redondo (Return to Armageddon), this fear-inducing tale from the pages of Scream! is collected here in its entirety for the first time!
Price: $9.99 digitally
Buy It Here: Monster