Patty and Terry LaBan to retire Edge City

Terry LaBan has announced that his strip, Edge City, that he co-created with his wife Patty will be retired this month after a 15-year run.

Along with citing the grind of churning out a strip day after day as part of the rationale, Terry also cites that comics no longer hold a position of relevance in today’s society.

Besides sheer exhaustion, there?s also widely recognized fact that being a syndicated cartoonist isn?t what it was. It?s rare to meet anyone who reads a newspaper anymore, at least anyone under the age of 50. Comic strips, which once occupied a place at the center of pop culture, have fallen completely off most people?s radar. As much as we love it, it?s depressing to work in a form that seems to have lost its relevance and is, for the most part, ignored.

That all being said, producing Edge City has been an extraordinary experience and one for which we?re profoundly grateful. Being a syndicated cartoonist was my childhood fantasy and one I never expected to realize. Creating a daily comic allows one to have a unique dialogue with oneself and the world, and nothing has been more affirming than seeing it in our local paper each day. One of the things that attracted me to newspaper strips was the way they pervaded the world. I loved the notion of seeing my work lying around on train seats and blowing down the sidewalk. As it turned out, I had the experience many times, and it was satisfying indeed.

My congratulations to the LaBans for a good, long run and best of luck in whatever projects are to come.