Review: War and Peas – Jonathan Kunz and Elizabeth Pich
War and Peas: Funny Comics for Dirty Loversby Jonathan Kunz, Elizabeth Pich
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
Genres: Graphic Novel, Humor
Pages: 160
Source: NetGalley
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
My rating:
“Hilarious, morbid, and sometimes oddly touching, War and Peas is amongst the best of the best in modern comics. You’ll be laughing out loud.” — Sarah Andersen, creator of Sarah's Scribbles
"One of the most exciting and funniest webcomics in the world," — Bored Panda
From the creators of the hugely popular Instagram comic War and Peas, this offbeat four-panel comic features a dark, fairy-tale aesthetic and a twist ending each time. War and Peas: Comics To Die For combines twisted humor with a beloved cast of characters including the grim reaper (seen here as an unintentionally lethal man of leisure), a robot in hopelessly in love with his scientist creator, and a promiscuous yet self-assured witch. Unlike most webcomic collections, this one tells a story using dozens of never-before-seen comics to chronicle the lives of several different characters and their follies during life, death, and their glorious reunions in the the afterlife (and the after-afterlife).
I don’t follow the webcomic War and Peas, though I have seen a few of their comics before on social media, and I picked up this comics collection based on that small sample.
Each page is separate 4 panel comic with a title, usually a description of the comic or a continuation of the punchline. The art is simple and quirky but it works well with the humor. Some of the comics can get a bit raunchy, but for the most part it’s absurd and macabre nerdiness, usually with a humorous twist. In other words, it’s pretty classic web comic humor.
There’s a set of reoccurring characters, like a robot, a ghost boy, a self-described slutty witch (and her vampire boyfriend), and the grim reaper, which build on previous gags, but otherwise there’s no overarching theme to the collection. Sometimes the characters cross paths, with the witch and the grim reaper as my favorite. The simplistic style means that the book is a quick read, though I think it also has decent rereadability.
Some of the comics worked really well for me (I loved the printer overlords), while some felt like they were trying too hard to be edgy. I think it’s the nature of this style of humor that each particular joke either works very well or not at all for a person, which can make the collection as a whole feel uneven.
Overall, though, any collection that has Death rolling off on a skateboard after breaking up with someone gets a thumbs-up from me!
