![Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre #[nn] cover](https://comicbooks-covers-449901518064-us-east-2.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/covers/isbndb/0933773129.jpg)
Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre #[nn]
The 1987 Andrion Books softcover — affectionately known among fans as 'The Red Book' — holds a singular place in the history of Batton Lash's Wolff & Byrd universe as the first time those characters ever appeared between two covers as a collected edition, years before Exhibit A Press formalized the series. It gathered mid-1980s newspaper strips from both The Brooklyn Paper and The National Law Journal, giving those stories a book-format permanence they had never previously enjoyed, and it marks the earliest collected print introduction of secretary Mavis Munro as a named character alongside the two lead attorneys. For readers tracing the full arc of an independent comic strip that would eventually earn an Eisner Award and attract trade-paperback introductions from Neil Gaiman and Will Eisner, this volume is the ground floor.
In "Merger with the Macabre," young lawyer Henry Bellwether finds himself haunted by the spirit of Clarence Darrow, turning his legal career into a bizarre spectacle. Sent to Los Angeles to keep him out of their way, Wolff & Byrd soon realize their solution might be just as troublesome as the problem. Written and illustrated by Batton Lash, with colors by Judy Shepard and letters by Rick Parker, Victor Gorelick, and Phil Felix, the cover by Batton Lash captures the eerie tone of this 1987 tale from Andrion Books.
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Batton Lash — born Vito Marangi in Brooklyn and trained at the School of Visual Arts under Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman — launched the Wolff & Byrd strip in The Brooklyn Paper on September 19, 1979, inspired by the concentration of law offices along Brooklyn's Court Street. The strip was picked up by The National Law Journal in 1983, giving it national circulation among legal professionals; Andrion Books, a small New York publisher now long defunct, compiled the earliest run of those strips into this 1987 softcover. Lash himself eventually lost track of the book's remaining print run until his former publisher discovered leftover inventory in a storage facility years later, at which point Exhibit A Press — the imprint Lash co-founded with his wife Jackie Estrada in 1994 — made surviving copies available directly to readers.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published 1987 by Andrion Books (New York); ISBN 0-933773-12-9; black-and-white softcover, approximately 64–68 pages, 8.5 × 11 inches.
- First collected-edition appearance of Alanna Wolff and Jeff Byrd in book format, predating all Exhibit A Press trade paperbacks.
- Collects newspaper strips originally published in The Brooklyn Paper and The National Law Journal during the mid-1980s — content that predates the stories reprinted in the later Supernatural Law and Fright Court trade collections.
- Marks the collected-edition introduction of Mavis Munro, Wolff & Byrd's secretary, including a strip depicting her first day joining the firm; the character's look was inspired by actress Jessica Harper in the 1982 film My Favorite Year.
- Contains a flashback strip showing Alanna Wolff and Jeff Byrd's shared history as law students.
- All writing, pencils, and inks are by Batton Lash; tones credited to Judy Shepard; lettering on various stories credited to Rick Parker, Victor Gorelick, and Phil Felix (per Grand Comics Database).
- The volume is informally called 'The Red Book' by fans and Lash himself, distinguishing it from all later Exhibit A Press collections.
- Wolff & Byrd would not receive their own ongoing comic-book series until May 1994 (Exhibit A Press), making this 1987 collection the only standalone book format the characters had for seven years.
Cast · 5 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Young lawyer Henry Bellwether is possessed by the spirit of Clarence Darrow and makes a nuisance of himself around Wolff & Byrd; they send him to Los Angeles to keep him out of their hair.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).