The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Carriage Barn Arts Center.
People start writing with different goals in mind, whether it’s for fame, money or popularity.
‘Peanut Butter Warfare’ cartoon strip
Other times, such as for New Canaan’s Matt Hepler, it can just be a way to escape the mundanity of day-to-day life.
You might not have heard of “Peanut Butter Warfare” before, but among its 300 followers on its primary publication site, “Webtoons,” it has received a user rating of 9.4 stars out of 10.
Inspired by classic comic strips such as “Peanuts” or “The Boondocks,” Hepler’s comic describes itself on the official Webtoon page as a “dysfunctional family comic that reminds us that what’s important isn’t to have all of the answers but to be what people hold onto when life takes a turn.”
A brand strategist by trade, Hepler said he has always enjoyed writing on the side, having done work on several plays and childrens books in the past. However, since settling into his new career, finding time to put toward larger projects became increasingly difficult.
That was how he got the idea to start creating comics.
“I had a good job at the time, but it was kind of slow,” Hepler told NewCanaanite.com. “I needed a creative outlet.”
He originally started creating small strips as a way to “scratch the itch,” and soon found himself sitting on a surplus of around 700 to 800 comics.
“At some level it made sense, because the way I write, I need to get lost in my writing,” he said. “If it’s a bigger book, I can get lost in a thought and it can become relatively convoluted, and then I spend a lot of time editing. The beauty of a comic is that it was quick, it was easy. I’m not saying it’s good, but at the time—through the comic or the framework of a comic—I felt like I wasn’t putting myself in the position of getting lost, because I only had four panels to work in.”
While sitting on such a large pile of potential stories, Hepler admitted that he “couldn’t draw to save his life,” with much of the work he had done being rough storyboards on an Excel spreadsheet.
In order to turn his sketches into a full fledged comic, he began seeking out an illustrator, and last fall, he began working with Matt Young to create the artwork for the first 120 issues of “Peanut Butter Warfare.”
While Hepler draws some of his inspiration from the struggles he has faced in his daily life, he was clear that his story is not “a mirror image of my life.” Rather, he says it “reflects the spirit of his life.”
Hepler’s main reason for this is that he wants to differentiate the colorful lives of his characters from the actual lives of his children.
“I don’t want to fall into the trap of ‘Winnie the Pooh,’ ” he said. “Not to compare myself to A.A Milne, but in the day, there came a point in time where his son, who the little boy was based on, Winnie the Pooh became an albatross over him, and I would never want that.”
The comic strip’s title is an analogy for childhood struggles, Hepler said.
“Peanut butter is reflective or could be used as a metaphor of childhood and warfare, to a certain extent, could be reflective of struggles,” he said.
Anyone interested in reading “Peanut Butter Warfare” view new issues of his comic on the webtoon page here. New issues are also posted on instagram under the handle peanutbutterwarfare.