Even though I’ve been writing and drawing Supernatural Law for years, and while Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre ( my main characters) remain a passion for me, there are times when I get an idea that just doesn’t fit in the Supernatural Law concept. And very often, usually on a bike ride to and from my studio, I’d think of ideas that, on consideration, might warrant its own series. The First Gentleman of the Apocalypse is one such idea. It grew out of a love for vintage clothes, a distain for bureaucracy, and a concern for where we’re all heading!

 I came up with The First Gentleman of the Apocalypse several years ago, developing in on the side while I worked on scripts for Archie: Freshman Year, Radioactive Man for Bongo Comics and, of course, Supernatural Law. But I never had an outlet for my new character; I didn’t want to self-publish, since self-publishing, as well as writing and drawing Supernatural Law was a full time job already! 

In conjunction with the print comic, I began to move Supernatural Law online as a webcomic to reach a wider audience and the chance to do the strip in color. It was becoming evident, in this digital age, that readers didn’t mind getting their comics online. I thought a cartoonist had the best of both worlds now: reach the new reader online with new material, eventually collecting that content in print.

In a nice bit of timing, enter David Lloyd. He contacted me about his exciting new start up, ACES Weekly, and inquired if I had a new series to contribute. Well! In the time it took to publish four volumes of ACES, I finally cleared my drawing board and got The First Gentleman of the Apocalypse cleaned up, dressed and presentable enough for him join the other unique comics in ACES’s volume V.

I hope you enjoy the series and let me know what you think. But keep it civil . . . after all, aren’t we all “looking for a little class in a world shot to hell?”

Batton Lash