THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2026! Robert Sienicki was at Thought Bubble last year with his solo title Under Pressure. This year he returns with his wife, Agata Wawryniuk, with the two newest issues of Freshly Grown Gardener. Wawryniuk writes and Sienicki draws this new series. Both are award-winning writers/artists on their own comics in their native Poland. So it’s a true pleasure to see this autobiographical series from them!
Freshly Grown Gardener #1 sets up Wawryniuk and Sienicki in the early days of the pandemic in Poland. Happening on a garden allotment up for sale, Wawryniuk gives us the historical perspective of garden allotments, the practical perspective of buying and owning one, and her own personal perspective of what it means to her to want to own an allotment. Freshly Grown Gardener #2 (or, #3 for that matter) can be read on its own. The story follows the screwball comedy of Wawryniuk and Sienicki trying to get the garden allotment to look like their perfect vision. Freshly Grown Gardener #3 continues the trials and tribulations of the first two issues, with Wawryniuk and Sienicki dealing with contractors during Covid. The humor in this issue springs from the male contractors constantly mansplaining everything to Wawryniuk and falling short of expectations.
Wawryniuk’s writing throughout all three issues of Freshly Grown Gardener brings out the humor in everyday situations. Sometimes to the extreme. The second issue features a brilliant sequence with an ordinary bush that is home to Wawryniuk’s beloved lizards. After clearing away the nuisance bush, they discover it hid a pile of manure that attracted the lizards as it composted! Hilarious, gross, and also touching as Wawryniuk has to part with one of her favorite parts of the garden. The third issue ramps up the humor with a painfully hilarious scene with Wawryniuk and the first contractor with the roofing supplier. The latter two talk as if Wawryniuk isn’t even there, although she constantly corrects the contractors’ bad math. Finally, after the contractor spouts off a long complicated set of instructions for forming a piece of sheet metal, Wawryniuk has had enough and loses it. The condescending attitude of the roofing supplier, after the outburst, puncuates the scene with just enough discomfiture to make it all too relatable to readers.
Complementing Wawryniuk’s writing is Sienicki’s delightful cartoony artwork. Never looking sharper than when accompanied by Wawryniuk’s gorgeous colors throughout the series. Sienicki’s knack for body language and facial expressions keeps up with Wawryniuk’s slowly building quiet chaos in each issue. His ability to imbue inanimate objects with so much personality also supports the writing, especially every time they show the junk laden interior of the allotment shed. Like the radiation suit, or random poisons, or the even more random stains on the wall. All the little details add humor to the sometimes frustrating situations.
Take two talented cartoonists, one shambles of a garden, and add one healthy dose of determination and a dollop of a love of the outdoors. That’s a recipe for a fun comic series that you’ll find in every issue of Freshly Grown Gardener.
Agata Wawryniuk (W/C), Robert Sienicki (A/L), Arek Wroblewski/Konrad Okonski (Proofreaders), Maciej Makos/Mikolaj Siemaszko (Fact-checkers) • Self-published
Review by Gary Usher
Agata Wawryniuk and Robert Sienicki are at table D2 in the Redshirt Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2026 runs from November 9th-15th with the convention weekend taking place on the 14th-15th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2026 coverage so far in one place here.
Poster art by Núria Tamarit
