| Terry LaBan | |
|---|---|
 Terry LaBan, photographed in 2007. | |
| Born | (1961-07-19)July 19, 1961 (age 63) Michigan, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer, Artist |
Notable works | Unsupervised Existence Cud Edge City |
| terrylaban | |
Terry LaBan (born July 19, 1961)[1] is analternative/underground cartoonist andnewspaper comic strip artist. He is known for his comic book seriesCud, and his syndicated stripEdge City, created with his wife, Patty LaBan, a couples and family therapist.[citation needed]
LaBan is known for his sympathetic and believable characters, real-life dialogue, tight cartooning style, and straightforward storytelling.
LaBan grew up in the suburbs ofDetroit,[2] graduating from theUniversity of Michigan.[3]
LaBan began his career in 1986, freelancing political cartoons for theAnn Arbor News.[2] He's been staff illustrator and political cartoonist for the progressive political magazineIn These Times since 1990.[4]
LaBan's first foray into comics was his seriesUnsupervised Existence, published byFantagraphics beginning in 1989. Loosely based on LaBan's own life at the time,[5]Unsupervised Existence was a semi-humorous comic book soap opera that followed the adventures of Suzy and Danny, a young, bohemian couple living in Cleveland. Suzy, an underemployed intellectual, spends a lot of time hanging around with her friends and trying to figure out what to do with her life. Danny, her boyfriend, supports them both by driving a cab, but his true vocation is poetry, which he self-publishes, along with the work of his fellow cabbies.Unsupervised Existence garnered LaBanHarvey Award nominations for Best New Artist and Best New Series in 1990.[6][7] The series was collected in its entirety in two paperbacks,Love's Not a Three-Dollar Fare (the main Suzy and Danny story) andInternational Bob.
International Bob focused on the series' most outrageous character, rock musician/performance artist Bob Binkum. In the book, hulking, morose Bob comes into his own after he leaves the United States in the wake of breaking up with his flighty girlfriend Annadette, who decided she was more into women than men. Fleeing the soap opera, Bob treks from Greece to India in search of exotic escape. LaBan vividly evoked the nothing-to-lose, anything-can-happen world of the unfettered, impecunious vagabond as Bob tries everything from selling junk jewelry on the street to getting ripped off after a romantic encounter.[8]
Unsupervised Existence was followed by another series,Cud (also published by Fantagraphics), in 1992. Patterned after books likeDan Clowes'Eightball andR. Crumb'sZap,[9]Cud featured a continuing story called "You Can't Spank the Monkey If It's on Your Back", which followed the rise and fall of a performance artist named Bob Cudd. Cudd was lifted fromUnsupervised Existence, but he was a different character in the new series. The rest of each issue featured random stories, several of which went on to appear in other places at other times. "Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard-Boiled Shaman", for instance, became a DC Comics miniseries.Cud lasted eight issues.[8]
In 1995, LaBan moved over toDark Horse Comics,[10] where his third seriesCud Comics ran another eight issues, until 1998. ThoughCud Comics had almost the same name as the Fantagraphics series, it was otherwise very different. LaBan described it as "an attempt to create a sort ofGeneration XFreak Brothers". Every issue featured several stories about Eno and Plum, a "slacker" couple living in the city. Eno was a lazy Gen-X stereotype interested chiefly in watching cable television, while his girlfriend Plum was more of an active go-getter. Other major characters included Plum's dad, Seymour Riverpeace, a wealthy aging, pot-smoking hippy; Catherine, Plum's unhappily single girlfriend; and Edgar Reamington, ayuppie who was always trying to steal away Plum. Most of the stories in the first four issues were collected in a 1997 paperback. Laban cites bothArchie Comics andGilbert Shelton as influences for Eno and Plum.[11]
Starting in 2001,King Features Syndicate began syndicatingEdge City, adaily comic strip drawn by LaBan and co-written with his wife, Patty LaBan.[12][13]Edge City (e.g., a community outside the boundaries of what people traditionally think of as the city and its suburb) looks at modern family life through the eyes of the fictional Ardin family. In the strip, Len and Abby Ardin are a Jewish-American couple dwelling in the far reaches of suburbia, in a life very different from the one they lived growing up. Between managing their careers and taking care of their kids, Len and Abby barely have time to wave to each other as they hurry off to yet another meeting, carpool or errand. And while their neighborhood is incredibly diverse, it seems like everyone, no matter where they're originally from, lives pretty much the same way.[4] AnEdge City paperback collection was published in 2007. The strip ended syndication in 2015.[2]
LaBan's comics, cartoons, and humorous illustrations have appeared in a vast number of magazines and anthologies over the years, includingBlab,Mad,Nickelodeon Magazine andDetails. He works as a freelance illustrator and writer for various comic book companies, most notablyDC Comics and the European behemothEgmont, which publishes books featuringDisney characters. Laban wrote Donald Duck comics for Egment for 14 years.[2] He wrote theGrendel Tales miniseries "The Devil May Care," and a number of miniseries forVertigo, including the opening story arc ofThe Dreaming.[2]
Later Laban serialized an original full-length graphic novel about his character Muktuk Wolfsbreath, a "hard-boiled" Siberian shaman living in an unspecified past. Gods, spirits, and demons were the usual case load for this "Philip Marlowe of the Tundra."[citation needed] New episodes were posted twice a week atwww
Laban teaches graphic narrative at thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[14] He is a dues-paying member of theNational Cartoonists Society.[14]
Laban is working on a middle-grade graphic novel forHoliday House calledMendel the Mess-up, due to be published in December 2024.[14]
Laban spent much of the 1990s in Chicago and now lives in Philadelphia with his wife and children.
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