In an interview with Bored Panda, creators also shared whether there are any new or unexpected themes in this year's collection that they hadn't delved into before.
Artists wrote: “We found ourselves drawn to the idea of time this year – not in the broad "we're all hurtling toward entropy" sense, but in the small ways it bends and stretches. Like how a two-minute microwave countdown feels eternal while a good conversation with a friend disappears in a blink. Our comics flirted with these little temporal dissonances, asking questions like, “What if the universe’s best secrets are hidden in loading screens?”
War and Peas often balances humor with poignant or satirical commentary. We asked whether there were any specific moments in 2024 where this balance felt particularly challenging or rewarding to achieve.
Creators replied: “This balance, to us, feels like juggling a flaming torch, a rubber chicken, and a live goldfish. Sometimes, the goldfish flops right into the torch, and we’re left wondering if humor and poignancy were ever meant to coexist in the first place.”
As to unique creative blocks or breakthroughs in 2024 that reshaped Johnatan’s and Elizabeth’s approach to storytelling or illustration, they wrote: “Oh, there were blocks. One afternoon in June, we both stared at a blank sketchbook for four hours, convinced it was mocking us. The breakthrough came not from some profound epiphany but when we admitted that the blank page wasn’t mocking us – it was just...blank. We realized that storytelling doesn’t always have to be clever or layered; sometimes, it’s enough for it to simply be. After that, our approach softened, like we’d given ourselves permission to let the stories find us instead of hunting them down.”
Lastly, the creators added: “If life feels absurd, it’s because it is. Lean into it. Laugh at it. Draw silly pictures about it. And when all else fails, remember: someone out there is crowdfunding a smart toaster with Wi-Fi, and they think you’re the weird one.”
