Terry and Patty LaBan: 'Edge City'

The hours are brutal, and the commute is, too. You don't see your family as much as you'd like, and the older you get the less cool you become -- which amuses your kids but bruises your ego.

If this describes you and every other parent in your cul-de-sac, you might identify with "Edge City."

Created by Terry and Patty LaBan, "Edge City" twists the traditional family strip in a number of modern ways. Len Ardin owns his own business. His wife, Abby, is a therapist and is also her own boss. She practices yoga. He plays guitar in a garage band. They both squeeze in as much time as possible for their kids, Colin and Carly.

Oh yeah -- and the Ardins are Jewish, perhaps the only such family in a major syndicated strip.

Terry's original idea for the comic was to feature a couple who lived in the inner city, which was more or less the LaBans' situation at the time. Then Patty suggested that "the real issue isn't where people live, it's how people live."

So they switched to a couple with young kids living the frenetic life and based it on their own. Terry works from home. Patty is a therapist. They have two kids, just like the Ardins.

The comic strip couple live in an "Edge City," a term for the newish, outer-ring suburbs. (Think of the way Holly Springs has grown in recent years). It wasn't that long ago that the Ardins lived near Glenwood South, let's say, and enjoyed the nightlife. Their suburban lifestyles have taken some adjustment. Len used to play in a punk-rock band.

"He's always trying to figure out the intersection of the image he had of himself for so long and the new reality of his life as a suburban dad," Terry says.

Terry, 45, and Patty, 42, live near Philadelphia and have been married 14 years. Terry handles the illustration of the strip, and the couple share the responsibility of storyline and character development.

The couple work to illuminate the humor of the situations confronted by the modern family: too much to do, too little time. Technology might help, but watching your family on video via the computer will never replace old-fashioned family time.

"On one hand, you're trying to be what you think a family ought to be, and on the other hand, you're pulled in so many directions," Patty says of her own life, and of the strip. "There are a lot of very funny and sort of disjunctive situations that families find themselves in right now. I think we're trying to portray that in a funny way and sometimes in a poignant way."