Tom Gauld

@tomgauld.bsky.social

71785 Followers 118 Following

Cartoonist and Illustrator. My book of science cartoons, PHYSICS FOR CATS, is available now! www.tomgauld.com

A publisher's office. The editor explains "Your draft has all the elements of a masterpiece, they're just not in the right order" The writer looks at her draft on the table and asks "Elements?" The editor clarifies, sadly "Letters".
Title (in a star): "Offers at our Bookshop" Panel 1: Buy two, get one free A figure approaches the till with three books Panel 2: Buy four, get a free tote bag The cashier holds up a tote. Panel 3: Buy one, get talking to staff, leave with five Customer leaved happily, carrying a full tote and waving to tthe wo staff Panel 4: Buy none, get a guilty feeling Customer skulks out of the shop Panel 5: Buy three as gifts, get the urge to keep them Customer walking home already reading the books Panel 6. Get overexcited, buy twelve...Get home, get eye-roll from partner Customer arrives home reading a book and carrying two full totes.
Some hot book sketchbook doodles... A sketchbook page with cartoon books suffering in the heat: binding glue soft, sweaty hands, faded by the bright sun, spontaneous combustion, etc
Title (in a yellow star): "Offers at our Bookshop" Panel 1: Buy two, get one free A figure approaches the till with three books Panel 2: Buy four, get a free tote bag The cashier holds up a tote. Panel 3: Buy one, get talking to staff, leave with five Customer leaved happily, carrying a full tote and waving to tthe wo staff Panel 4: Buy none, get a guilty feeling Customer skulks out of the shop Panel 5: Buy three as gifts, get the urge to keep them Customer walking home already reading the books Panel 6. Get overexcited, buy twelve...Get home, get eye-roll from partner Customer arrives home reading a book and carrying two full totes.
Title: My confidence in my understanding of the scientific theory. A diagram where the confidence is marked in red on an otherwise white figure Panel 1 "Before I got a book about it." The figure is red up to about his stomach Panel 2 "While I was reading the book." The figure is reading a book. He is red up to his forehead. Panel 3 "When I had finished the book." The red level has dropped to around his mouth Panel 4 "One week later." Now it is at his chest. Panel 5 "When I try to explain it to somebody." The level is back at stomach level. Panel 6 "When they ask a follow-up question." The red is so low we can barely see it.
Title: At the book festival Image: A woman gives directions to a man outside a large tent: "No, this isn't the literary fiction tent, It's the self-help marquee. You need to go back to the cookbook pagoda, turn to face the popular science teepee and it'll be on your left, between the celebrity memoir gazebo and the military history wigwam."
1. Title: The North Wind and the Sun quarrelled as to who was the stronger. 2. The Sun says: "I propose a wager: See yonder traveller, let us see who can make him remove his cloak." 3. The northwind blows on the traveller, the sun says: "You blow yet he only wraps it tighter!" 4. The sun shines on the traveller, saying: Observe! . The traveller mutters "nice and warm" 5. The Sun says "See, my kindness brought results!" The traveller has removed hos cloak and begins to sweat. "Fair enough, you win." concedes the North Wind. 6. "Tremble before my gracious heat!" says the sun, smiling bradly. His heat has started a fire. the traveller flees. The North Wind says "I think that’s enough." 7. "Let the world burn with my cleansing benevolence!!" blazes the sun madly, now grown huge in the sky. The land is a burning fireball. "Now you’re scaring me!" says the North Wind anxiously.
We see a stick figure running through a ravaged desert pursued by a mechanical claw. The text begins "2050ad: Society has collapsed and the book festivals have gone rogue. Their terrifying motorized venues patrol the wastelands, hunting for audience members" We can now see that the claw is on the front of an enormous, mad-max-style battle-rig, adorned with spikes, skulls and armour. The text continues "Programmer-Warlords brutally preside over a relentless series of interviews, discussions and poetry readings.” In the trailer of the truck, a poetry reading is taking place, in a tower above it, the huge, muscular, horned programmer raises his fists and yells orders to his minions. The monstrous vehicle thunders on leaving one lone stick figure behind The text concludes "Occasionally, dazed survivors are found wandering with a signed hardback book in a cotton tote bag."
Panel 1 A cartoon book with a face, legs and arms shouts out "Beware! Heatwave reading dangers!" Panel 2 Caption "Binding glue softened by the sun" Image: The book stands helplessly as its glue drips and pages fall to the floor. Panel 3 Caption "Dropped while reading in a cooling bath" Image: The book splashes into the water Panel 4 Caption "Mislaid by a heat-addled reader" Image: The book gestures wildly as the reader stumbles away in a daze. Panel 5 Caption "Spontaneous combustion" Image: The book explodes in flame. Panel 6 "Sweaty hands!" screams the book as it runs away from a large pink hand, dripping with perspiration.
Title: Presenting My cover designs for a series of Highbrow Literary Novels Panel one. Designer shows a book cover to the publisher. It shows a woman and man looking at a burning house with an orange sky behind. The publisher says "Not classy enough!" Panel Two. Designer shows a book cover to the publisher. It is now the same image in back and white with a text box hiding the house. The publisher says "Better, but not right!" Panel Three. Designer shows a book cover to the publisher. It is now just white text on a plain navy blue background The publisher says "Yes! But take it further!" Panel Four. Designer shows a book cover to the publisher. The author name is now gone too, the title is tiny on plain green. The publisher says "So close!" Panel Five. Designer shows a book cover to the publisher. It is completely blank, white paper. The publisher says "Perfection!"
Title: "In shops now: Classic literature with added mathematics!" Image: Four book covers. The Prime Number of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark. Empire of the Sum, by JG Ballard. Wuthering Heights × lengths × widths, by Emily Bronte. The Remains Of the Data by Kazuo Ishiguro.
The New Yorker ‘food for thought’ cover by Tom Gauld Description 'City dwellers thinking and talking about their food cravings.'
The New Yorker ‘On the beach’ cover by Tom Gauld Description 'Panels of people arriving, sunbathing, swimming and finally leaving the beach'
The New Yorker ‘Fall Library’ cover by Tom Gauld Description 'A woman reclines in a room full of books'
A photograph of the ink on paper drawing for a New Yorker cover. The cover is almost completely filled with a large classic painting in a gold frame. It shows a landscape with hills, rocks and trees. A horse and rider stand on a rocky outcrop overlooking a plain that stretches out to the sea. In the bottom left corner of the cover, a smiling tourist takes a selfie with the painting behind him.
A small notebook with an imaginary landscape drawn in black ink.
The New Yorker dated 29 June 2026 titled ‘Landscape portrait’. The cover is almost completely filled with a large classic painting in a gold frame. It shows a landscape with hills, rocks and trees. A horse and rider stand on a rocky outcrop overlooking a plain that stretches out to the sea. In the bottom left corner of the cover, a smiling tourist takes a selfie with the painting behind him.
Title: The Cyclops discusses his part in Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' Panel 1. The cyclops wanders across his island, talking to the audience "Most directors these days just use computers, so I appreciate that chris sailed the entire crew to a mythical island to shoot my scenes on film." Panel 2. He continues as he climbs the hill. "I wasn't going to do it: The young people are all so down on cannibalism. But I called up Homer and he said "Are you an idiot?This is Hollywood money, not poetry royalties!" Panel 3. He sits on a rock and looks out to sea. "So I got to meet Matt Damon, which was cool."
Image: A scientist proudly shows an extremely complicated machine to a colleague "My experiment is generating infinite power!". A screen displays the infinity symbol "∞" and a label reading "watts" Caption: Simon assumed that Veronica was speechless with envy and awe, but she was actually wondering how to break it to him that the monitor was on its side.
The FIFA Prize for Literature Following the success of their Peace Prize, FIFA establishes a literary prize judged by the footballers at the world cup. (image of trophy) All does not go well... Players arrive at games exhausted by reading hundreds of novels and heatedly debating their merits long into the night. (image of tired players on pitch reading) The south American teams boycott the tournament when an official disparages Isabel Allende's use of magic realism. (Image of players angrily leaving) Seventeen plavers receive red cards after a discussion of radical honesty in the works of Karl Ove Knausgaard turns into a brawl. (Image of players fighting) However, all is forgiven as Joyce Carol Oates takes the thrilling final to extra time, before losing on penalties to Haruki Murukami. (image of Haruki holding the trophy aloft)
Title: “A pie chart of what the Mars Rover can see” Image: A pie chart. The lower half is orangy red. The upper half is divided into three, with a small browny red area and a small darker browny red area on each side with a larger cream section in the middle Key: Orangy red area: Surface of Mars Cream : Sky Browny red: Mountain Dark browny red: Another mountain
Panel 1 Caption: The town is famed for its year-round book festival, but for one weekend in summer, it closes. The literary people leave on a fleet of coaches and the tents are dismantled. Image: Workers take down a tent. A bus departs. Panel 2 Caption: The unbroken parade of bookshops on the high street move novels and tote bags to back rooms and fill their shelves with everyday items Image: A bookshop with shelves containing eggs, loo roll, a bucket, bleach, etc Panel 3 Caption: With no talks, signings, or workshops to attend, the townsfolk gather on the green, conversing uncertainly on non-literary topics. Image: people on the green with speech bubbles labelled "The weather", "Football", and "Proposed Ring-road" Panel 4 Caption: Everyone enjoys the novelty, but agrees that one weekend is enough. On Monday morning the festival resumes with a kev-note address from Robert Macfarlane. Image: A fascinated audience watches Robert talk, a projector shows a book with a bird on the cover.
A photograph of a library containing large and small prints of cartoons by Tom Gauld.
A man sits at a desk working on a laptop. He thinks: "Why do I always end up next to the volcanologists" at the next desk, two figures in protective silver heat suits take samples from a small volcano which spits outlava, flames, sparks and ash.
Tom Gauld auf Lesereise (D) Mi, 10.6. 19 Uhr Lesung und Gespräch mit Lisa Frühbeis Comic Bar Gasteig HP8 München
Tom Gauld Physik für die Katz Buchvorstellung und Gespräch Mit Jakob Hoffmann Dienstag, 9.6.2025, 20 Uhr Buchladen Land in Sicht, Eiserne Hand 3, Frankfurt - Eintritt frei - In Kooperation mit STORIES + STRIPS
A cartoon in which the speech bubbles are categorised by colour. Panel 1: A man cooks dinner for a woman who is looking at his bookshelves. He calls from the kitchen"I hope you're not judging me on my bookshelves?" (Blue) She replies "Haha, no!" (Orange) Panel 2: She takes a book off the shelf and asks "Have you read all of these?" (Blue) He replies "Of course!" (Orange) Panel 3: she leafs through the book and asks "Can I borrow this?' (Blue) He replies "Sure, I love lending my books!" (Orange) The key below explains that Blue represents a question and orange represents a lie.
Physik für die Katz Germany tour 6&7th June, erlangen various times, comics salon. 8th June, Berlin 6pm, modern graphics, kastanienallee. 9th June, Frankfurt 8pm, land in sicht buchladen. 10th June, Munich 7pm, comics bar.
Image: three figures look awkwardly at a fourth figure in a flying-car-type-vehicle that seems to have landed clumsily a few metres from them. Caption: As the gyro-saucer's systems failed, ending its maiden flight 249.99 miles early, Professor Baxter wished his parting words to colleagues had been something other than "So long, losers! See you at my Nobel Prize ceremony!
Panel 1 Caption: The town is famed for its year-round book festival, but for one weekend in summer, it closes. The literary people leave on a fleet of coaches and the tents are dismantled. Image: Workers take down a tent. A bus departs. Panel 2 Caption: The unbroken parade of bookshops on the high street move novels and tote bags to back rooms and fill their shelves with everyday items Image: A bookshop with shelves containing eggs, loo roll, a coffee pot, a bucket, bleach, a pineapple, etc Panel 3 Caption: With no talks, signings, or workshops to attend, the townsfolk gather on the green, conversing uncertainly on non-literary topics. Image: people on the green with speech bubbles labelled "The weather", "Football", and "Proposed Ring-road" Panel 4 Caption: Everyone enjoys the novelty, but agrees that one weekend is enough. On Monday morning the festival resumes with a kev-note address from Robert Macfarlane. Image: A fascinated audience watches Robert talk, a projector shows a book with a bird on the cover.
Scientist type: Modern professional scientist vs Enlightenment gentleman scientist Funding: research grants and private investment vs enormous inheritance Assistance: team of ambitious young scientists vs maid, nephew, gardener Method: cautious experimenting in a controlled environment vs test on self at home Safety: detailed risk assessments and standard operating procedures vs heavy tweeds Reporting: paper published in peer-review journal vs tell the chaps at the club
Panel 1 A small girl and boy are reading on the floor. A father appears at the door and says: "This is so nice to see! I heard that kids these days weren't reading." One of the children says "Ugh, reading? So lame!" Panel 2 She continues "It's called Booksmaxxing now, Dad!" He replies as he is leaving "'m just happy you're enjoying it." Panel 3 The boy says "Booksmaxxing?" The girl says "I like to mess with him."
1. Freed from their labours By bots and AI, The writers wander into the wilderness. 2. Living on grasses and dew, their bodies grow light as thistledown and they flutter on the breeze, murmuring poctic fragments to the flowers and hummingbirds. 3. An unexpected gust blows sally rooney Into the fiction-generation district Where a robot is Outputting content For the 'normal people' franchise. 4. Sally whispers something, but before the robot can open the triple-glazing, the plant's exhaust fumes have carried her off into the stars.
Panel 1 A figure addresses an audience from a lectern: "Welcome to the IWAS*! Today I'm Going to talk about ARPs* in our communications." Notes *1 Institute-Wide Abbreviation seminar *2 Abbreviation-Related Problems Panel 2 She continues "These fall into two categories:" gesturing to a screen wshich reads: 1. ROAs* 2.WUAs* Notes *3 Ridiculously Obscure Abbreviations *4 Wrongly-Used Abbreviations Panel 3 She says: "...In conclusion: Stick to WRAs* and use them correctly and sparingly." One of the audience thinks "WTF!" Notes *5 widely-recognised Abbreviations *6 Well, that's fascinating.
Panel 1 Caption: 2025, Middlemarch Is voted the best novel of all time and wins the right to represent earth at the IGCLC* finals. Image: The cover of George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' *Intergalactic literary Champions league Panel 2 Caption: 2028, A young Editor from Penguin Classics climbs Aboard Artemis VII for the thirty-year journey to host planet, Kepler-22b. She carries a first Edition of the book in a lead-lined briefcase. Image: Astronaut boarding enormous spaceship. Panel 3 Caption: 2089, She returns with news that earth placed a very respectable third, and that she bought rights to the two winning novels. Images: The capsule returns to earth and splashes down in the sea. The astronaut emerges and waves to the rescue helicopter. Panel 4 Caption: 2092, The alien books are translated and published to critical acclaim and modest sales. Image: Two books. 'Magnesium Sunset' by Zylob Pyrxx and 'Orbital Amnesia' by Unaha Closp More caption: Middlemarch is a runaway success in gas-form on Proxima Centauri b. Final image: An alien happily reading a small cloud.
Title: "The Haters" panel 1. Two round characters sit in a cinema. Yellow blob "I hate this!" Red Blob "Me too!" Panel 2. They have left the cinema Red blob "I hated every minute of that film! It was nothing like the book!" Panel 3. "Did you like the book?" asks Yellow. Red replies "I hated it!" then asks "You?" Panel 4. Yellow blob "I've not read it. I hated the film purely on its own merits." Panel 5. Red blob "I'll lend you my copy." Yello blob"That's very kind." Panel 6. Caption: "Later" Yellow, reading the book "I hate this!" Red (happily) "I knew you would!!"
Panel 1 Geoffrey Chaucer, in his traditional late middle ages clothes, addresses the audience on a video-sharing site called 'ThouTube' "Prithee draw near sires! I am Geoffrey Chaucer and thys is my first unboxyng vydeo!" Panel 2 He carries a locked chest to a table "A most hevy box! Lete us get it open and biholde the treasures withyn." Panel 3 He opens it "Huzzah! A doz’n comely copys of my new booke “the Canterbury Tales”! I am ful of pryde!" Panel 4 He looks into the camera again and holds up a copy of the book "Availabl now inne all goode bookshoppes. And nay forget ye to liketh and subscrybe for more content!"
Title: Bertrand Russell, 1933 Panel 1 Bertrand sits at his desk, puffing on his pipe. He says 'The problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people are so full of doubts.' Panel 2 He gets up and walks over to a mirror. Panel 3 Pondering his reflection, he muses 'But if I'm certain about this...' Panel 4 'Does that make ME a fool or fanatic?' Panel 5 He walks back to his desk. His reflection in the mirror says 'Talking to yourself in a mirror seems pretty doubtful to me.' 'Good point.' says Bertrand.
Puzzle time! Image: A stick figure stands before a complicated machine. Flames rise from part of it with containers labelled Lava, Water and Oil above. Tangled ropes lead from the containers to handles labelled A, B, and C. Caption: Professor Mulligan’s apparatus has caught fire! Should you pull rope A, B, C, or schedule a meeting with HR to discuss the professor’s increasingly deranged experiments?
Panel 1 A repulsive voice rises from a hole in the wilderness "Remember when books used to be fun? Before the box tickers and bean counters took over?" Panel 2 to 4 We follow the voice to an cave where an audience watches a fly/demon/monster at a lectern continue "Publishers used to take risks: Books opened portals to hell, drove readers insane, or just moaned in a horrible way! When did you last see a broadsheet review of a book by a mad monk, an evil skeleton or a hobgoblin? My new imprint will challenge the publishing industry's pro-human bias with a ceaseless stream of foul books by malevolent authors." Panel 5 The fly/demon/monster triumphantly finished "Also, we'll be doing it entirely with AI!" The ghouls of the audience shout "Boo!" "Shame!" "Disgraceful!"
Image: Night, three medieval men leave a building cluttered with eccentric glassware, contraptions, equipment, books etc, one says to the others "Maybe the real gold was the friendships we made along the way!" Caption: Palchemists Underneath is the following text: from 'Physics for Cats' by Tom Gauld - order it at www.tomgauld.com
Title: Artemis 2 Panel 1: Moon "Hi guys!" Artemis 2"Hello Moon!" Panel 2: Moon "You're not landing" Panel 3: Artemis 2 "Just orbiting this time." Moon "Oh." Panel 4: Artemis 2, leaving "But we'll be back soon." Panel 5: Moon thinking... Panel 6: Moon, sadly "That's what they said in 1972."
Title: Almost reading the greats Panel one: A figure in a bookshop holds a thick book. Caption: I select the first volume of a vast biography of an important american. I appreciate its scholarship and heft. I put it down and pick up something short and funny. Panel two: A figure in a bookshop holds a thick book. Caption: I shiver as the new translation of a russian masterpiece transports Me to the awesome silence of a wintry night on the steode with the exquisite picture on its cover. Panel Three: A figure in a bookshop holds a thick book. Caption: I am moved close to tears as I hold the complete works of a great poet and marvel at the beauty and truth that I would find if I ever got round to reading it.
Title: Specialist delivery services available from local bookshops A chart showing the services folowing this structure: G. Genre H. How To order M. Method of Delivery G. Romance H. A trusted servant dispatched with a secret letter M. A brooding Aristocrat on a Black horse G. Murder-mystery H. A telephone call from within a locked room M. A bookseller/ gentleman detective G. Science fiction H. A robot bearing a holographic Message M. Teleported from an orbital data platform G. Horror H. Screams. Awful, bloodcurdling screams. M. An evil thing. Horrible beyond Comprehension G; Fantasy H. Runes engraved on an enchanted Elven sword M. A postal goblin Riding on a talking raven
A panel from the cartoon quoted below
A tote bag with a cartoon by Tom Gauld on it. The text reads "SHOP INDIE. SHOP LOCAL.". The image shows a sweet little book-filled cottage on a tiny island. The only inhabitant has set off on a very short journey by rowboat to a neighbouring tiny island which has a jetty and a small bookstore. The bookseller stands in ther door drinking a coffee.
Three cool scientists introduce their work "Our new theory has been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, but we feel its depths and intricacies are best appreciated on the limited-edition vinyl release."
Lauréat La Physique pour les chats de Tom Gauld un livre de Tom Gauld (image of the book cover) Prix Gotlib 2026
Two hooded figures with lamps approach a moonlit, isolated cottage. A woman answers the door. We have come for the child, says the hooded figure So soon? she asks It is time, says the hooded figure. The woman is distraught. We should never have got him a library card! What is done cannot be undone, says the hooded figure We couldn’t see the harm! We just wanted him to enjoy reading! For most, it ends there, says the hooded figure, turning away and walking into the wilderness Oh lord, What have I done! says the woman, the child walks past her and out into the darkness with them. Do not cry mother. I am a writer now.
An image of a stick figure on the road to Paris carrying a huge uni-ball eye micro pen. He is followed by a black cat. This Saturday, 18th April 2-4pm I will be signing and doodling in my books at Librairie l'Atelier 2 bis rue du jourdain, Paris, 75020
Image: A small, angry boy stands in front of his parents. They are in modern clothes, but he is dressed as a regency gentleman with top hat, breeches, cane etc. He says "No title, no estates, and less than a thousand a year! How am I ever to find a wife!" Caption: Noah's parents realise that he has been drawn into the manorsphere.
Panel 1 A delivery bot on a suburban path says “You don’t always end up where you expect” Panel 2 “It’s silly but I saw myself beside an astronaut rolling across a strange new world” it says as it continues down the path. An alert reads “50m to destination” Panel 3 A had has opened the lid of the bot and taken out a paper bag. “I like to feel useful. Nobody likes a cold hamburger” Panel 4 It continues “So I give every mission my all” The alert says “mission complete” Panel 5 The sun is setting. The bot looks tired. The alert says it’s power is 3% Panel 6 Night. Stars twinkle. The bot is parked in a lot with three others, it has its eyes closed and says “in my dock I dream of space”
Title: Hunting for Easter eggs with Werner Herzog Panel one: Werner goes out looking for eggs saying “I despise this idiotic sanitized ritual, and yet I am unwilling to return home eggless” Panel two: Werner stands before an egg on the ground “The joy of discovery rings hollow against the monumental indifference of the universe” Panel three: Werner carries an egg “what, other than regret, can hatch from this empty chocolate vessel”
Title: Easter Egg Hunt techniques inspired by great detectives Panel 1: Sherlock Holmes. Deduce the exact location of every egg from seemingly unrelated details without leaving your room. Send your amazed sidekick to fetch them. Panel 2: Jack Reacher Hit the garden hard and fast. Take no prisoners Get back on the road. This approach results in a thrillingly intense hunt, but very few intact eggs. Panel 3: George Smiley Meticulously assess documents, people and motives. Then scrupulously collect the eggs and dejectedly wonder if any of it was worthwhile.
A couple reading in bed. She holds a thick novel he holds something much slimmer. Him "We must beware the tyranny of the long novel. Length is no barometer of literary merit." He continues"I have scoured the bookstore, looked past the fat spines and sought out perfection in the miniature!" He concludes "May not profundity dwell in the humble cottage As comfortably as in the sprawling castle?" Her, without looking up from her book, "100% agree. But you're aware that's a greetings card, right?"
A couple reading in bed. She holds a thick novel he holds something much slimmer. Him "We must beware the tyranny of the long novel. Length is no barometer of literary merit." He continues"I have scoured the bookstore, looked past the fat spines and sought out perfection in the miniature!" He concludes "May not profundity dwell in the humble cottage As comfortably as in the sprawling castle?" Her, without looking up from her book, "100% agree. But you're aware that's a greetings card, right?"