Book Talk: "Mendel the Mess-Up” with Terry LaBan

Sunday, November 16, 2025
10:00 - 11:30 AM

Join GJC member Terry LaBan for a discussion of his new middle-grade graphic novel, Mendel the Mess-Up, a National Jewish Book Award finalist and PJ Our Way pick. Terry will talk about his career as a 90s alternative comics artist, creating with his wife Patty the syndicated comic strip Edge City, and his new book about an unlucky boy who finds himself single-handedly defending his village from a band of Cossacks. Plus cartoon spirituality, communing with ancestors, and the shtetl that lives in our heads.

Terry LaBan decided to be a cartoonist at the age of 6. He grew up to draw political cartoons and illustrations, create alternative comics series for Fantagraphics Books and Dark Horse comics, and write for DC Vertigo and Disney Egmont, where he spent 14 years writing Donald Duck comics. From 2001 to 2015, Terry and his wife Patty, created the daily comic strip Edge City, which was syndicated by King Features. Terry has two kids and two cats, and lives just outside Philadelphia. His first middle-grade graphic novel, Mendel the Mess-Up, was published in December 2024. Read more at www.terrylaban.com.

Please register for this free event!