Batton Lash

Greetings family and friends, today's memorable character vignette is about Batton Lash, talented artist and creator of a unique comic book series....Bill

Memorable Character

BATTON LASH - Comics Creator

“Beware the creatures of the night - they have lawyers!”

Where do monsters, zombies and the supernatural go when they need legal advice? Who do they see if they need to hire a lawyer? Or, where do you go if you are in a legal conflict with a supernatural being?

Why to Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre of course! The popular humorous comic book series, stand alone graphic novels and web comic series were written and illustrated by Vito Marangi, alias Batton Lash, with the assistance of his wife Jackie Estrada who handled the editing and lettering. Beginning in 1979 the humorous bi-monthly satire publication could be found in Comic Book stores throughout the country and a corresponding comic strip in national legal publications. Lash and Estrada, co-owners of Exhibit A Press in San Diego, were publishing customers of mine and selected our book manufacturing company to print several of their popular graphic novels. Neither were actual lawyers but Lash got a taste of the legal world as a courtroom sketch artist after graduating from Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts, and where he was able to develop a resource team of licensed attorneys to advise him of questions of law. In addition to balancing bi-monthly deadlines, content spin-off’s and writing crossovers with Archie Comics and Marvel Comics, Lash and Estrada were active in the local comic book community and were involved in the early days of Comic Com, the highly popular annual comic book industry convention. Lash received numerous nominations and awards throughout his career including the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication in 2002 for “Radiation Man”. Sadly, talented and soft spoken Batton Lash passed at an early age but is a memorable character that I was very fortunate to have crossed paths with.   -Bill    

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/l/lash_batton.htm