Comixology: Mavis #5 has just come out. Start off by telling us about the comic. Make sure to introduce us to Wolff and Byrd!

Batton Lash: Alanna Wolff and Jeff Byrd are attorneys who represent vampires, werewolves, and things that go bump in the night. And it's only expected that the Brooklyn law firm of "Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre" would have an efficient, can-do office manager. That's Mavis Munro, who has no problem referring herself as "The World's Greatest Secretary"! Wolff & Byrd's monstrous clientele don't faze Mavis... but dealing with her friends, love life, and family can be a little daunting for this 23-year-old secretary from Astoria, Queens!

Cmxlgy: Tell us about the origin of Wolff and Byrd. How did you get started writing it, and what inspired you?

BL: I was inspired by the world of Court Street, in downtown Brooklyn, known for its countless small law firms. The courts and the municipality of the borough is there. Court Street has all of the hustle and bustle of a Manhattan avenue. When I got the green light to do a comic strip for the local newspaper I was working for at the time (The Brooklyn Paper), I thought I should do something involving lawyers, since the paper was primarily distributed along Court Street. I wanted to do a humorous strip, so I had the attorneys - Wolff & Byrd - represent the supernatural. That would also open the strip up for some fun visuals. I've always loved comics and wanted to do comics for a living. I thought I'd tool around with Wolff & Byrd until my "big idea" for a comic book hit me. Within a year, I was having such a ball writing and drawing the bizarre legal exploits of Wolff & Byrd, it occurred to me that this was the idea I was waiting for! I've been doing Wolff & Byrd continuously since 1979 (from strip, to comic book and webcomic) and still very much enjoy working on it!

Cmxlgy: Supernatural Law had a pretty long print run in comic books but now you're doing it as a webcomic. Tell us about it.

BL: The webcomic gives me a chance to do color Wolff & Byrd stories, as well as some topics in a timely matter, "ripped from today's headlines," as it were. More important, the webcomic reaches a wider audience and has introduced Supernatural Law to readers whose comic stores don't carry the book or who would otherwise never enter a comic store! It was never my intention to replace the comic book with the online strip. I consider the webcomic "works in progress," with the definitive version being the one that goes into print. In fact, the new Mavis issue was originally done for the webcomic. I expanded, edited, and redrew where needed for the story to work in print. That was my original conception. The webcomic would be my "out of town" tryout before I take it to Broadway: the printed comic book! Having said that, this approach isn't necessarily the rule. The next issue of Supernatural Law, for instance, was produced exclusively for print.

Cmxlgy: So you haven't given up the "floppy" for the webcomic?

BL: Not at all. I haven't abandoned the printed comic by any means. Mavis #5 has just been released and I'm about to solicit Supernatural Law #45 for June shipping. And I plan more after that. Even though I believe the "floppie" is a bit of a dinosaur, I'm staying with that format for now because I personally like it! I enjoy the idea of a periodical filled with "departments" such as editorial, recommendations, pinups, letters, etc. But realistically, I don't know how economically sound a "floppie" is.

Cmxlgy: Are you thinking of switching to a graphic novel format?

BL: I think I'll wait until I get to issue #50 before I make that decision. Three, four bucks for a 32-page comic seems to be a lot to ask for, especially for a black and white, independent title. Jeff Smith once told me that the price on an indie doesn't matter; the reader knows what to expect and is willing to pay. That may very well be. But the economics of the business for an indie artist seems to be going in the direction higher-priced, higher-page-count graphic novels. Fans of the "floppies" hate when I say that. Hey, I'm a fan of the "floppie" too, but one look at a younger generation now growing up on comics shows they have embraced a new form, introduced to them by manga: square binding, hundred-plus pages, and a higher price that isn't a deterrent. There's more bang for their buck. I think the "floppie" will always be around (the way music "singles" are still around), most likely as a promotional tool for a trade paperback edition.

Cmxlgy: What has it been like keeping Wolff and Byrd going, in various formats, for almost thirty years? Has it been easy?

BL: A labor of love, really! I have just enough Supernatural Law readers to keep publishing. As far as how easy it's been, there've been good days and bad days, to be totally honest. From the very beginning of the feature, I've subsidized Wolff & Byrd with other work. That said, I am able to spend a lot of time working on Supernatural Law projects... but when the coffers need to be filled, I'm very fortunate that I can earn money in comics by writing (and sometimes drawing) scripts for such publishers as Bongo and Archie.

As I said, doing Wolff & Byrd has been a joy to do and I look forward to every new story I do... I even like "rebooting" the older stories, when I prepare them for the trade paperbacks and the webcomic.

Cmxlgy: What's the readership like now? Has it been consistent over the years, or have there been ups and downs?

BL: I have a very loyal readership, but frankly, orders in the direct market have been flat for years. However, there is a continuous upward spike in sales with booksellers and libraries. And we do extremely well at conventions, where we constantly hear from consumers that their local comic store won't carry Supernatural Law. Readers are discovering the book on their own all the time. We get a lot of orders directly through our website. The Internet and personal appearances help a great deal.

Cmxlgy: A lot of small presses, and some of the larger ones, are looking at the current state of the market, and shifting away from the serial comic book format. Do you see Exhibit A Press going in that direction as well, or does this new issue of Mavis signal a continued commitment to 'floppies'?

BL: I've already had my say on "floppies." As for the marketplace - that is, the direct market - I think indie creators are learning that the periodical nature of their work isn't as necessary as it was in the past. The direct market has settled into an economy dominated by Marvel and DC's "event" oriented comics. The indie comic has a different audience - one that doesn't have the need to be at the comic store every Wednesday for the new shipment. The indie comic reader, more likely than not, doesn't even rely on a comic store for comics! The way comics are sold, packaged, and even promoted is changing rapidly. I think a creator/publisher learns what best suits their readership and goes in that direction.

Cmxlgy: Who are some of your influences as an illustrator, and as a writer?

BL: From comics, my main influences would be my favorites: Steve Ditko, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Milton Caniff, and Johnny Craig, among many others! As for writing, I've been influenced by a lot of authors, if not in style, but in structure. Woody Allen is, I believe, a master of structuring a story. My earliest influences were the short stories of Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch. And while it may not be apparent in my work, I've been influenced by the writings of Roald Dahl, Donald Westlake, Peter DeVries, and George MacDonald Fraser. Each of their works hit my sensibilities between the eyes when I discovered them, and I continue to be influenced by them. I also learned from the work of playwrights as diverse as George S Kaufman and Tennessee Williams, believe it or not!

Cmxlgy: You've been writing Bongo's Radioactive Man for a while, though I believe it only comes out irregularly. Can you tell us about how you got involved in that?

BL: Bongo editor Bill Morrison was aware of my writing from Supernatural Law and asked me to write a story for Bongo's Treehouse of Horror (1998). We hit it off while working together. In 2000, when Bongo was expanding its line, Bill asked me if I was interested in writing their new Radioactive Man title. The conceit behind Radioactive Man is that there have been a thousand issues, over fifty years. Each issue parodies a different era and comics company. Bill said I had a "encyclopedic mind of comics trivia" that would work with the book's mandate. I had no idea I wore my geekiness on my sleeve! Still, it's a hoot writing it, and I've worked with some terrific cartoonists, including Dan DeCarlo, Dan Brereton, and most recently, Tone Rodriguez. And Bongo even lets me draw my own scripts once in a while! Even though Radioactive Man has been cancelled, I'm still writing it as a regular feature in the quarterly Simpsons Super Spectacular, sharing the title with super-hero versions of Homer, Bart, and the Springfield community.

Cmxlgy: Can you tell us about some of the other projects you've worked on over the years? I know you did some stuff for DC's Paradox imprint, among lots of other things.

BL: I was hired to do an online humor strip called "The InterGnat" during the "dot com" boom. It was short lived, but fun! I've written Archie meets The Punisher for Archie and Marvel Comics, as well as "The House of Riverdale" trilogy that appeared in Archie, Betty & Veronica and Jughead. Doing Supernatural Law and Mavis keeps me pretty busy, but I'll be "returning" to Riverdale this summer, writing Archie: Freshman Year. It's a five-issue story arc that will appear in the flagship Archie title, detailing (for the first time!) Archie and his friends's first year in high school. Bill Galvan is the artist (it was his concept, as well). I also did a Radioactive Man story with Galvan, spoofing an early sixties Mort Weisinger story (with Bill doing a spot-on Curt Swan!). That will appear in Simpsons Super Spectacular this spring.

Cmxlgy: Where do you think Wolff and Byrd will be in ten years?

BL: Wolff & Byrd will be where they've always been - working through the night in their Court Street office! Seriously, I've always been a little nervous to predict where the characters will be in ten months! Regardless, come 2018 (yow!) I hope there will be a long line of Supernatural Law trades available, as well as new stories of Wolff & Byrd (and Mavis, of course!) continuing to entertain new and old readers alike. What medium those new stories will be in is another matter, though. Probably not a "floppie"!