Welcome to Exhibit A Press!

Vampire Brat Introduction

by Will Eisner

The straight-faced adventures of a couple of lawyers practicing in defense of supernatural creatures is more than unique: It is an idea whose time has come. We are now in an era that has seen the probability of the impossible. The magic of genetics and the incredible visitation to other planets are only a few of the unbelievable things with which we live day to day. All of which, by the way, was once in the realm of the supernatural. It is therefore hardly surprising that today’s readers find Batton Lash’s world of the macabre so acceptable and engaging.

With hysterically funny situations and smart, fluid dialogue, Wolff and Byrd, a really cool team of lawyers, defend vampires, monsters, and creatures from the nether world. They take on cases that range from the question of the equity of a soul to the problems of a vampire brat shnook who can’t even hypnotize Mavis, the law firm’s cute secretary. And the stories are cunningly set in an ambience of no-kidding realism.

As a practitioner, I have always adhered to stories of reality. Only occasionally did I ever have the courage to attempt anything other than a candid separation between reality and supernatural. That is probably why I recognize in Batton’s work the genius of wedding the two so seamlessly. There is something uncanny about the lingering residue of reality that remains at the end of any of Lash’s stories. In stories like "Black Market Souls" with its Vincent Price/Peter Lorre B-movie characters and "You’ll Never Suck Blood in This Town Again," the outrageous situation is leavened by the slick, funny, real-people conversation. In the end, readers are left with a nagging sympathy for the bizarre clients and an acceptance of the incredible premise that monsters, vampires, and other-world creatures are in desperate need of legal defense. Too long have they been an abused and ignored minority.

I say hooray for Wolff and Byrd and bravo for this assembly of the best of their stories.

Here is a collection to keep, read, and reread.

There is a personal addition I must make. I know of no greater reward for teaching than the success of one’s students. I’ve been following with shameless pride the burgeoning career of Batton Lash since he graduated from my class at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I remember him as a dedicated student who took seriously the subject of sequential art. At the time I knew he had a visceral interest in the law, so it is hardly surprising to me that he now uses that interest so effectively in this unique series.

Batton’s command of the narrative power of sequentially arranged imagery is what makes Supernatural Law so readable; his keen sense of humor is what makes his work so good and so enduring.

Will Eisner
Florida 2001