Unsupervised Existence

(Fantagraphics, 1991-1992)
™ and ©1992 Terry LaBan

Terry LaBan’s Unsupervised Existence is essentially a comic book soap opera based on the lives of a few friends struggling to reconcile their creative and personal aspirations with the cruel realities of life at the bottom of the economic ladder. Danny, sensitive poet and taxi driver; his girlfriend Suzy (an ambitious but inertia-bound scholar); and their friends and co-workers live out their “unsupervised existence” amid the backdrop of early 1990s urban café culture.

LaBan’s dense black and white artwork contrasts the homely caricatures of his cast of characters against dense and detail-rich backgrounds, thus creating a completely believable milieu for the story. Unfortunately, LaBan abruptly ended his saga after seven issues, leaving many plot threads unresolved.

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