Gardening, eco comics offer colorful education
Interest in gardening has grown so much since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related stayat-home orders, now there’s a flurry of new books aimed at those new to the green game.
“The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food” is ideal for beginners, offering clear and concise information with a lot of enthusiasm for the subject. And, yes, it’s a comic book, out now from Ten Speed Press.
With it, author Joseph Tychonievich and artist Liz Anna Kozik take readers step-by-step through the process of starting and maintaining a garden.
“I wanted to reach a different audience and present gardening information in a different way,” says Tychonievich, whose previous books include “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener” and “The Complete Guide to Gardeners,” during a recent video call. “I wanted to do something more fun.”
Tychonievich studied plant breeding and genetics in graduate school but opted to take another career path. He launched a blog about gardening, which led to writing books on the subject.
“Since I was a little kid, I’ve always really been into gardening,” he says.
Meanwhile, Kozik was a home decor designer looking for a career change. “I really wanted to be use
ful,” she says. That desire led the artist on her current path toward a PH.D. focusing on environmental communication.
This gardening comic book is certainly useful. The book covers everything from finding the right location for your garden to weekly tasks to what to do with your harvest.
“Vegetable gardening is fun, and it’s enjoyable,” says Tychonievich. “I wanted to convey not just how to do it, but also what the payoff is like.”
That payoff is not just food for you and your family, but others as well. “You can just give these gorgeous garden tomatoes to people. It’s a really fun thing, so I wanted to tell that part of the story too.”
As it turns out, “The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food” is part of a recent wave of comics titles that delve into nature. The “Maker Comics” series from Macmillan imprint First Second Books includes the recently released title “Grow a Garden!” Forthcoming books in the series, geared toward readers ages 9 to 13, will handle wilderness survival skills and sustainable living.
“Grow a Garden!” follows the adventures of Garden Gnome Academy students Will, Violet and Basil and their distinctly unusual, gleefully composting and veggie-growing teacher, Mr. Butternut. Along with teaching gardening basics, the book offers the how-tos for six family-friendly projects, including building a compost bin, making potting mix, creating a grow-light shelf and planting a container garden.
Boom Studios is set to publish “Seen: Rachel Carson,” a biographical comic about the marine biologist and nature writer whose book “Silent Spring” brought attention to the side effects of pesticide use and helped ignite public concern toward environmental issues. The book, by writer Birdie Willis and artist Rii Abrego, is the second in the publisher’s “Seen: True Stories of Marginalized Trailblazers” series.
Meanwhile, “Guerrilla Green,” also from Boom Studios, will be published on Wednesday, just in time for Earth Day. The graphic novel, by Cookie Kalkair and Ophélie Damblé, takes readers inside the urban gardening movement, from the Diggers of 17th century England to Ron Finley’s work in present-day Los Angeles. While there is some gardening advice in the book, it’s more of a manifesto, delving into the politics, benefits and safety issues that come into play when you’re growing food in the city.