Mr. Negativity

Tales of Supernatural Law #5

by Batton Lash, Tom De Haven (Introduction)

In 1979, Lash created the comic strip "Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre," about two attorneys specializing in cases dealing with supernatural matters. Unlike Wolfram & Hart, the law firm with a similar clientele on the TV show Angel, Alanna Wolff and her partner, Jeff Byrd, have always been on the good guys' side, and their exploits are comedies. Over time, Wolff and Byrd have migrated from one comics venue to another, and now star in their own comic book, Supernatural Law, from which the stories were collected for this paperback. The stories aren't laugh-out-loud funny, but instead deal in quiet, gentle whimsy. The appealingly cartoony art maintains a light tone even in the more morbid scenes; the firm's secretary looks as if she grew up in Archie's Riverdale. Lash is overly fond of some of comics' and soap opera's kitschier clichEs. His characterizations tend to be one-dimensional; Wolff and Byrd have little personality and function as the straight men to a supporting cast of eccentrics. What's most impressive about this book are the inventive concepts. In the title story, a man with an obsessively negative attitude visually transforms into a "photo-negative" version of himself. Lash parodies pop culture targets ranging from Stephen King and Harry Potter to other comics. The high point is a satire on Dave Sim's Cerebus comics, which should delight even readers unfamiliar with the target. After a full quarter century, it's remarkable that Wolff and Byrd's saga still demonstrates such imaginative vitality.

Genres: Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2003

About the author

Batton Lash was a comic-book and comic-strip writer-artist.

Reviews

[tony dillard jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the volume that got me started on Supernatural Law. I don't know why but for some reason my local library has only had volume 5 in it's stacks. It's been like 10 years since I read the book and my library still refuses to add any other Supernatural Law books to the graphic novel shelving units.

The main story is about a man with the ability to turn even the brightest of situations into a real bummer. Mister Negativity isn't being sued. Instead, he's suing for damages due to his now permanent sour disposition, which in a word is repelling!

Paralleling this case is a suit filed against a medium. Seems that a fortuneteller promised a man a long life. Only the guy gets hit by a bus or something right after. As a result, he keeps digging himself up feeling misled about the fortune he was issued.

The connection between the two stories is kinda telegraphed. But the ending was still pretty powerful.

Another story I enjoyed a bunch involves a demon. No, I haven't started warming up to the darker sides of horror. I just really appreciated the Dave Sims tribute to the aardvark Cerebus in this story. Yeah, I know I've never read a Cerebus story before. But I still appreciated it.

One tale that I wasn't a fan of takes place in the dream world. A horror writer is in a coma as a result of a mysterious hit and run. As death creeps even closer, the author reaches out to Wolff & Byrd through their slumber. It's a rare episode where Mavis gets to save the day for once. But I felt that this take on Stephen King's near-death experience was full of parodies that just weren't funny. It just was too serious. This poses the questions: can a parody be serious?

I like it better when Batton Lash is light-hearted and this story was far from being happy-go-lucky. A good volume of Supernatural Law. Not the best one of the bunch. But still fun to read!

[Paul Calhoun · Rating 5 out of 5]

These only get better as I read them, though it seems like court issues are becoming less and less prevalent and solutions tend to happen outside the courtroom. That's probably closer to the truth, anyway. The relationships are believably complicated, and magic only makes it seem more real.

[ISMOTU · Rating 5 out of 5]

More great comics about the world's strangest law firm and their creepy clientele.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Beware the creatures of the night—they have LAWYERS!” So reads the tag line for Lash’s series Tales of Supernatural Law, but the real horror in these tales is the horrible puns inflicted on the reader by author and artist Lash. But these are mitigated by generous helpings of sight gags, laugh out loud jokes, and satire conjured up by these comics. In this 2004 collection, the Brooklyn law firm of Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre, in addition to the title tale of Nagy D’Viti, who just exudes bad attitude, they must also deal with clients like the born again, but misogynist demon Huberis the Dybbuk, who is suing to be admitted to a church, a young wizard named Perry Otter who has an affliction that has got him expelled from boarding school, and Nicky Gorillo, a mob boss who’s been turned into an ape and is now desperately bidding for social respectability.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Humorous, but like an old Archie comic--not REALLY funny, only sort of....cute.