"Beware the creatures of the night – They have lawyers!" That tagline heralded the first issue of Batton Lash's
Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre when it hit comics shops in May 1994. Since then, Lash and his wife, Jackie Estrada, have published 40 regular issues in the series (whose title changed to
Supernatural Law at issue 23), 4 issues of the spinoff series
Mavis, and 7 trade paperback collections.
As one of the few self-publishers in comics to hit the decade mark, Lash is commemorating the occasion by revealing how Alanna Wolff and Jeff Byrd, the main characters of
Supernatural Law, first met. In July Lash's company, Exhibit A Press, will publish
Supernatural Law 101, a one-shot special in which young law students Alanna and Jeff work on their first project together and get their first glimpse at the intersection between the judicial system and the supernatural.
"Readers have been asking me for years when I'm going to tell the 'origin story' of Wolff and Byrd," says Lash. "Well, this is it."
Lash is also celebrating the 25th anniversary of having first developed the concept of a law firm representing monsters and the supernatural: The weekly "Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre" newspaper strip first appeared in
The Brooklyn Paper in September 1979. In addition to that paper, the strip appeared in
The National Law Journal for 17 years.
To honor both anniversaries, Comic-Con International: San Diego has made Lash a special guest for its big show in July and has made the 10th anniversary of
Supernatural Law one of its souvenir book themes. The 32-page
Supernatural Law 101 (priced at $3.50) is expected to hit comics shop shelves the week of that event.
More information can be found at
www.exhibitapress.com.
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