Interlac

Interlac is the designated communication language of the 30th century United Planets in the DC Comics fictional universe. It is also the name of a similarly-used language in the TV series Babylon 5.

DC Universe

Basically, the Interlac alphabet is a simple one-to-one substitution cipher. The Interlac alphabet corresponds perfectly to the twenty-six letters of the Latin alphabet and the numbering system corresponds to Earth Base-Ten form. Although nominally protected by differences in font spacing, the numbering system itself suffers from a minor stylistic flaw due to the potential for confusion of 6 with 41 and 7 with 42. Anyone writing it by hand could certainly introduce an error when read by another, and this could create problems with handwriting recognition, as well.

The first reference to Interlac as the "intergalactic universal language of the 30th century" was in Adventure Comics #379 published March, 1969. It was also frequently referred to in the Super Friends comic book series (in which all of the Super Friends, including Wendy and Marvin, speak it) as a token explanation of how the Super Friends could understand the language of visiting and/or invading extraterrestrials. The Interlac alphabet was codified years later by writer Paul Levitz and artist Keith Giffen in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #312 (June 1984).

Interlac (APA)

Interlac is a bimonthly amateur press association devoted to the DC Comics science fiction superhero team the Legion of Super-Heroes. It was the first APA devoted to the Legion and, despite the decline of APAs due to Internet forums, continues to operate to this day.

Interlac’s name comes from the designated communication language of the 30th-century United Planets confederation (the milieu in which the Legion of Super-Heroes operates).

History

Rich Morrissey founded the APA in June 1976, calling it LEAPA (the LEgion Amateur Press Association); it changed its name to Interlac three mailings later. There were 15 founding members, and the first mailing was 26 pages.

At the time, there were few general-interest comics APAs, CAPA-alpha and APA-5 being the exceptions. But never before in comic book fandom had the fans of a single comic book come together in a single APA. So while Interlac’s form came from CAPA-alpha, its membership came from the Legion Fan Club (started by 13-year-old Mike Flynn in 1972) and The Legion Outpost (a fanzine started in 1972).