Batton Lash (October 29, 1953 – January 12, 2019) was an American comics creator who came to prominence as part of the 1990s self-publishing boom. He is best known for the series ''Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre'' (a.k.a. '' Supernatural Law''), a comedic series about law partners specializing in cases dealing with archetypes from the horror genre, which ran as a strip in ''

The National Law Journal ''The National Law Journal'' (NLJ) is an American legal periodical founded in 1978. The NLJ was created by Jerry Finkelstein, who envisioned it as a "sibling newspaper" of the '' New York Law Journal''. Originally a tabloid-sized weekly newspa ...

'', and as a stand-alone series of comic books and graphic novels. He received several awards for his work, including an

Inkpot Award The Inkpot Award is an honor bestowed annually since 1974 by Comic-Con International. It is given to professionals in the fields of comic books, comic strips, animation, science fiction, and related areas of popular culture, at CCI's annual conv ...

, an Independent Book Publishers Association's Benjamin Franklin Award, an Eisner Award, and nominations for two

Harvey Awards The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

Career

Batton Lash was born Vito MarangiBatton Lash — RIP
by D. D. Degg, at ''Daily Cartoonist''; published January 12, 2019; retrieved January 29, 2019 in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, and studied cartooning and graphic arts at Manhattan's

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

. In 1979, he began writing and drawing ''Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre'', as a weekly newspaper strip which appeared in ''

The Brooklyn Paper ''Brooklyn Paper'' is a weekly newspaper that covers news related exclusively to the New York City borough of Brooklyn. ''Brooklyn Paper'' covers news and cultural events throughout the borough, using different mastheads for neighborhoods such as P ...

'' until 1996 and ''The National Law Journal'' from 1983 to 1997. In 1980 Lash was a

courtroom sketch A courtroom sketch is an artistic depiction of the proceedings in a court of law. In many jurisdictions, cameras are not allowed in courtrooms in order to prevent distractions and preserve privacy. This requires news media to rely on sketch a ...

artist during the trial against John Gotti. In 1994, he and his wife

Jackie Estrada Jackie Estrada (born September 10, 1946) is an American comic-book convention organizer, book editor, co-publisher of Exhibit A Press, administrator of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, and past-president of Friends of Lulu. A San Diego re ...

founded Exhibit A Press to publish the series as a full-length comic book stories, renaming it ''Supernatural Law.'' It was later made available as a digital download on the Comics+ and Graphicly apps. In 1994 he wrote ''

Archie Meets the Punisher ''Archie Meets the Punisher'' or ''The Punisher Meets Archie'' is a one-shot comic book and intercompany crossover written by Batton Lash with art by Stan Goldberg, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer. It was published jointly by Archie Comics and ...

,'' a well-received crossover between the teen characters of Archie Comics and Marvel Comics' grim antihero the

Punisher The Punisher (Francis "Frank" Castle, born Castiglione) is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru. The Punisher made ...

. He wrote eight issues of '' Radioactive Man'' for

Bongo Comics Bongo Comics Group was a comic book publishing company founded in 1993 by Matt Groening along with Steve & Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison. It published comics related to the animated television series ''The Simpsons'' and ''Futurama'', as well a ...

, which received an Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication in 2002. In 2009 he began working with writer

James Hudnall James David Hudnall (April 10, 1957 – April 9, 2019) was an American writer who began his career in the comic book field in 1986 with the series '' Espers'', published by Eclipse Comics. He later worked for Marvel and DC on such titles as '' A ...

on "Obama Nation", a conservative political comic strip on

Andrew Breitbart Andrew James Breitbart (; February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012) was an American conservative journalist, and political commentator who was the founder of ''Breitbart News'' and a co-founder of ''HuffPost''. After helping in the early stages of '' ...

's website BigGovernment. The series drew national attention in 2011, when

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...

commentator

Lawrence O'Donnell Lawrence Francis O'Donnell Jr. (born November 7, 1951) is an American television anchor, actor, liberal political commentator, and host of '' The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell'', an MSNBC opinion and news program that airs on weeknights. H ...

criticized one of the strips as racist, accusing it of caricaturing Barack and Michelle Obama using stereotypes of African Americans.

Death

He died at his home on January 12, 2019, from brain cancer at the age of 65.

Awards and nominations

*1996:

Don Thompson Award The Compuserve Comics and Animation Forum's Don Thompson Awards (also known as the Thompsons) were given for achievement in comic books, comic strips, and animation. Initiated in 1992, they were originally known as the Compuserve Comics and Animat ...

– Best Achievement by a Cartoonist (tie) *1997: Don Thompson Award – Best Achievement by a Writer & Artist *2002: ''Radioactive Man'' – Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication *2003: ''Mister Negativity and Other Tales of Supernatural Law'' – nominated for Harvey Special Award for Humor *2003: ''Supernatural Law'' #35 – nominated for Harvey Award for Best Single Issue *2004: Inkpot Award *2009: ''The Soddyssey, And Other Tales of Supernatural Law'' – Independent Book Publishers Association's Benjamin Franklin Award for Graphic Novel

Bibliography

Comics

* '' Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre'' #1-23 * ''Mavis'' #1-3 (featuring Wolff and Byrd's secretary) * '' Supernatural Law'' #24-45 * ''Radioactive Man'' volume 2 (eight issues) * ''Simpsons Super Spectacular'' #1-5 * ''

'', one-shot * Archie Comics "The House of Riverdale" * Archie Comics "Archie Freshman Year" *''The Big Book of Death'' (contributor) *''The Big Book of Weirdos'' (contributor) *''The Big Book of Urban Legends'' (contributor) *''The Big Book of Thugs'' (contributor)

Collections

* ''Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre''—"The Red Book" (comic strips from the mid-80s) * ''Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre: Supernatural Law'' (comic strips) * ''Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre: Case Files'' Volumes I-IV (#1-16) * ''Tales of Supernatural Law'' (#1-8) * ''The Soddyssey, And Other Tales of Supernatural Law'' (#9-16) * ''Sonovawitch! and Other Tales of Supernatural Law'' (#17-22, ''Mavis'' #1) * ''The Vampire Brat, And Other Tales of Supernatural Law'' (#23-29, ''Mavis'' #2) * ''Mister Negativity, And Other Tales of Supernatural Law'' (#31-36, ''Mavis'' #3)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lash, Batton 1953 births 2019 deaths Writers from Brooklyn American webcomic creators American cartoonists American comics artists Courtroom sketch artists Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from brain cancer in the United States Inkpot Award winners