Tom Gauld
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tomgauld.bsky.social
Tom Gauld
@tomgauld.bsky.social
68K followers 95 following 950 posts
Cartoonist and Illustrator. My book of science cartoons, PHYSICS FOR CATS, is available now! www.tomgauld.com
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tomgauld.bsky.social
A back-to-work cartoon for @newscientist.com
Two scientist walk through a lab. One is saying: "I am a scientist, Martin. My observations must be meticulously documented, rigorously analysed and objectively verified. Haste is the enemy of wisdom!" The other asks: "But could you share a preliminary appraisal of your general thinking?" The first replies: "Well, if you insist on a crudely reductive answer, then, yes, I had a nice christmas."
January 5, 2026 at 11:32 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
A new year cartoon for @theguardian.com books
Title: The five stages of coming to terms with an over ambitious reading resolution. A couple sit up in bed reading. The woman speaks and her partner is silent. 1. Denial. "No, Finishing a book every 2.75 days is not absurd!" She scowls. 2. Anger. "Why are these books all so long!!!" She looks fuirious. 3. Bargaining. "If you read a book and tell me about it, that counts right?" She looks at her partner pleadingly. 4. Depression. "All joy has fled yet my failure persists!" She is sunk in the covers. 5. Acceptance "Being at one with the art is all that matters" she says as she reads. Then adds "And next year I'm going to be at one with so much more art!"
January 4, 2026 at 11:27 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
Happy New Year, everyone!

This is a @theguardian.com books cartoon from a few years ago.
Title: New year's resolution A man sits at a table with a coffee writing in a notebook: “This year i will devote myself completely to reading serious, improving literature, forsaking easy pleasures and tirelessly seeking out truth and profundity in the work of the greatest writers.” He looks at it Says: Hmm... then “Scratch Scratch Scratch scratch” scribbles out words until the text reads: “This year I will read for Fun”
January 1, 2026 at 10:53 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
My cartoon for the latest @newscientist.com
The neuroscience laboratory is closed for the holidays, but a staff member is on hand to answer the Consciousness Hotline. Scientist on the phone in an otherwise deserted office: "So, to summarise: No, I can't say with complete certainty that you exist. But yes, you probably ought to go back to work after the holidays anyway."
December 29, 2025 at 5:40 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books.
The 27th of December... “I think Dad got too many books for christmas this year.” Says a daughter. “Don't worry, he'll get through them.” Says the mother, looking up from her book. “But until then..?” Asks the daughter. “He'll be fine on turkey sandwiches until he's reduced the front piles” The father is completely surrounded by high teetering walls of stacked books. He is reading within and the daughter has thrown a sandwich in to him.
December 27, 2025 at 5:23 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
“The last-minute christmas rush at the bookshop.” - my latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books
Title: The last-minute christmas rush at the bookshop. Image: diagram of a small bookshop packed with coloured dots representing people. The various colours represent the following groups: Contentedly browsing customer, Frazzled staff member, Can't find the book they want, Can't remember what they came for, Complete decision paralysis, In the queue to pay, Thinks they're in the queue but aren't, Dozed off in a comfy chair, Waiting to pounce on the comfy chair, Crying child, Crying adult, Vortex of discombobulated shoppers.
December 21, 2025 at 4:02 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
'My year end reading statistics' (originally for @theguardian.com books).
p.s There's still time to pick up new book Physics for Cats at good bookshops and online www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2
Title: My year-end reading statistics. Five diagrams detailing the reading habits of a rather lazy reader.
December 18, 2025 at 11:50 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
Last few hours for these:
tomgauld.bsky.social Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 25d
This print sale at the Guardian ends tomorrow! (after that these three prints will be gone forever.)
guardianprintshop.com/pages/tom-ga...
December 17, 2025 at 4:26 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
A Christmas cartoon from my new book of science cartoons PHYSICS FOR CATS. In good bookshops and online now: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2
Caption: Every December, the team of marine biologists draw lots to decide who will take Mister Wiggles home with them for the holidays. Image: Five small figures take small pieces of paper from a hat. Behind them a colossal squid waits in an enormous tank set upon a gigantic trolley.
December 17, 2025 at 12:56 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
This print sale at the Guardian ends tomorrow! (after that these three prints will be gone forever.)
guardianprintshop.com/pages/tom-ga...
December 16, 2025 at 1:38 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
A Christmas cartoon from my new book of science cartoons PHYSICS FOR CATS. In good bookshops and online now: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2
Title: Wenceslas Variations 1. Good King Wenceslas: King bestows gifts on peasant. 2. Bad things Wenceslas: King steals gifts from peasant. 3. Indifferent King Wenceslas: No gifts 4. Two Kings Wenceslas: Kings exchange gifts. 5. No King Wenceslas: Gifts divided between peasants. 6. Philosopher King Wenceslas: King and Peasant discuss gift-giving. 7. Quantum King Wenceslas: Gifts given and simultaneously not given. 8. Apex Predator King Wenceslas: King devours gifts and peasant.
December 16, 2025 at 10:54 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
Generate a heartwarming advert for your bookshop:
Title: Heartwarming christmas television advert plot generator for bookshops. (choose one from each column to come up with a sentence) Choices in column 1: A lonely A grumpy A workaholic An elderly A poor Column 2: Book Shop Owner Learns The True Meaning Of Column 3: Literature Christmas Community Wealth Friendship Column 4: With help from a Column 5: Wise Celebrity Magical Kindly Clumsy Column 6: Child Mouse Parsnip Snowman Ghost Additional text below: Just add: twinkly music, wooly jumpers, computer-generated snow, poetry, bells.
December 15, 2025 at 2:29 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
My shop closes for the holidays tomorrow morning, so if you'd like one of these prints, or anything else, please order today: www.tomgauld.com/shop
Panel 1. image of a huge nuclear plant. “Reactor Overheating” 2. A worker in a hazmat suit works at a computer. The screen reads: “Press cancel to avoid critical overload” 3 - 9. The worker continues to type at the computer. The screen changes in each panel and reads: “Enter password to confirm” “Incorrect password” “Incorrect password” “Do you want to reset your password?” “Reset link has been sent to your email” “Please choose a new password” “New password can't be the same as old password” The colour gets hotter in each panel. Starting blue in 1 and ending in red in 9. Panel 10. Wide view. The entire earth is blown up. Panel One: A woman sits in a chair reading happily in a book-filled room. A voice offstage says "You can't survive on books alone" The woman replies "Maybe I can!" Panel Two: "How?" asks the voice "I don't know yet, but I'm sure the answer will be in one of my books." Says the woman Panel Three: Caption: However The book is filled with yet more books. A skull sits on the chair. It says "I regret nothing!" Title: How to focus on writing your book There follow eleven tiny images telling a story. The captions read: Turn your devices off (a writer with a phone and laptop. The screens are dark). Put them in a drawer. Lock the drawer. Throw away the key. Leave the house. Do not look back. Keep to backroads and hedgerows. Feel your old life slip away. (the writer has shed his clothes) Sleep by day. Forage in the evening. Write by the light of the moon When you have a passable first draft, commit a minor crime and use your phone call to contact your agent. (the naked writer is in a prison holding a phone while an unamused police officer looks on).
December 10, 2025 at 11:10 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
'The best conspiracy books of 2025' for @theguardian.com
The best conspiracy books of 2025 This is too big for the mainstream media, so a network of independent thinkers do their own research. They never meet and communicate only via chalk marks on lampposts. The Guardian’s conspiracy correspondent (who even the editor has never met) compiles the list with red string on the wall of a secure off-site facility. Such incendiarymaterial cannot be published openly, so it is encrypted, minituarised, and hidden by a tame printer inside one of the full stops in today's newspaper. If you are reading this, you have already been compromised: leave at once, take nothing and live under an assumed name until further notice.
December 8, 2025 at 12:43 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
Happy 76th Birthday, Tom Waits!
Title: The street tom waits grew up on. Image: a shabby, broken down old timey American street. Caption: Buildings (left to right): vern's all-nite pizza 'n' tattoo, accordion players' graveyard, abandoned clown-shoe factory, divorced salesmen's polka club, tomb of the unknown cabbie, bootleg ice-cream warehouse, saint frank's hobo orphanage, illegal umbrella incinerator.
December 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com
A small child approaches his scientist father who is working at a large, strange, contraption. His face pressed to a viewing tube. “Are you looking forward to Christmas, papa?” Asks the child. “Yes,” replies the scientist“ turning round, “that is exactly what I am doing” then he adds “Thank you for the socks.” We can now see that the viewing tube breaks the border of the comics panel, passes through complicated machinery and allows the scientist to see into the next comic panel: Caption: December 25th A Christmas scene. The child and father-scientist open presents before a Christmas tree. The father has just unwrapped some socks.
December 7, 2025 at 8:56 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
This cartoon and two others are available now as prints here: www.guardianprintshop.com/pages/tom-gaulds-best-cultural-cartoons-of-2025
Image: The library of an ancient castle. A full moon shines through a gothic window. A vampire creeps up behing a carpenter. Caption: "It had not been easy, but the Count was glad that he had resisted drinking the carpenter's blood until his beautiful new bookshelves were complete."
December 5, 2025 at 2:33 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
Three of my cartoons have been released as prints by @theguardian.com. They are an open edition in two sizes and are available for two weeks only. Get one here:
www.guardianprintshop.com/pages/tom-gaulds-best-cultural-cartoons-of-2025
Title: Choose your seat in the literary festival event tent. Image: lines of chairs set out in a tent, a stage at the front has two more chairs on it. The chairs are colour-coded and labelled 1. Awkwardly close 2. Too far away 3. Good view / can't hear 4. Good sound / can't see 5. In a cold draught 6. Behind a giant 7. Between a chatter and a shusher 8. Very creaky chair 9. Great seat / wrong event A single yellow chair is labelled: 10. Just right!
December 3, 2025 at 1:44 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
Science Cat is making a note to get an order in at www.tomgauld.com before it closes for the holidays next week.
December 1, 2025 at 5:11 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
My cartoon for this week’s New Scientist.
p.s. I have a new book of science cartoons: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2
Panel 1. A worm wriggles along watched by a human. It asks: "What are you doing?" Panels 2 to 5. Scientist "I'm studying you. I'm a biologist. Just carry on as if I'm not here." Worm "I feel self-conscious now... What was I doing when you got here?" Scientist "Just wriggling along" Worm "Shall I go back to doing that?" Scientist "I suppose so." Panel 6. The worm is wriggling again. Both the worm and scientist are thinking: "This feels weird now..."
November 30, 2025 at 11:40 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
My cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books.

Lots more here: www.theguardian.com/books/series/tom-gauld-s-cultural-cartoons
Panel 1. A character holding a mobile phone. Ping! An alert arrives: "Your order has been received!" (Image of happy-looking book) Panel 2. Ping! "Your item has been dispatched!" (Image of happy-looking van, driving along) Panel 3. Ping! "Your package has been delivered!" (Image of happy-looking box on doorstep) Panel 4. Ping! "Your book has been neglected: left on the shelf, unread and forgotten, gathering dust for several months." (Image of unhappy-looking book, dusty and covered with cobwebs, accompanied by a spider) Panel 5. The character looks sad and guilty about the unread book. Panel 6. Ping! "Your order has been received!" (Image of new, happy-looking book)
November 29, 2025 at 11:59 AM
tomgauld.bsky.social
#Rewilding One of the cartoons in my new book 'Physics for Cats'. Available now in good bookshops an online nowwww.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2
A deep dark forest. A scientist leads a guest through the trees, saying: "The rewilding project has exceeded all of our expectations! Keep your eyes open for the species that have come back: Red deer, wild boar, Pine marten. Or perhaps even our proudest return: The great old one Yog-drath'll, eternal unsleeping evil of the primordial forest." (all these creatures are hidden in the image)
November 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
My illustration agent, Heart, made a lovely book to celebrate their 30th birthday. I illustrated the year 2012 with a little comic about the Curiosity Rover. See more here: www.heartagency.com/news/what-happened-hearts-30th-anniversary
A double page spread of a landscape-format book. It contains a comic strip by Tom Gauld in which the view pans from the earth, across space, and on to Mars where The Curiosity Rover appears, small and alone, looking at a paper ticket which reads 'One Way'. A double page spread of a landscape-format book. It contains a comic strip by Tom Gauld in which the view pans from the earth, across space, and on to Mars where The Curiosity Rover appears, small and alone, looking at a paper ticket which reads 'One Way'. Title page for Tom Gauld's spread in the book 'What Happened' published by Heart Agency. A double page spread of a landscape-format book. It contains a comic strip by Tom Gauld in which the view pans from the earth, across space, and on to Mars where The Curiosity Rover appears, small and alone, looking at a paper ticket which reads 'One Way'.
November 27, 2025 at 1:24 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
My cartoon for this week's @newscientist.com
Panel 1. Scientist making a presentation to the board: "We have developed an exciting new technology that will allow the company to make a much better product at no extra cost!" Panel 2. Board member 1: "Could we use this tech to make our current product more cheaply?" Scientist: "In principle, yes.... And pass the savings on to consumers?" Board member 2: "Haha. No." Panel 3. Board member 2: "How about we make a worse product, with a higher profit margin and just use the tech to make it seem exciting and new?" Scientist: "Um..." Panel 4. Board members: "I'll take that as a yes!" "High five!!" Scientist: "Sob!"
November 26, 2025 at 1:01 PM
tomgauld.bsky.social
Get some Kupperman for Christmas!
mkupperman.bsky.social Michael Kupperman @mkupperman.bsky.social · Nov 25
A new shipment of the beautiful 8 x 10 prints I'm making now... just $20 each! Perfect for decoration, greeting cards, thrill your friends and neighbors, etc.
michaelkupperman.com/shop
November 25, 2025 at 8:08 PM