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.
