iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Author Simulator. My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

Title: Author Simulator

Level 1: Get to desk and begin! (Platform video game-style image of an author jumping from a block onto a cloud with desk and computer) Result: success!

Level 2: Press on despite distractions! (Author typing as the desk/clod moves past a ghost and a spider) ) Result: success!

Level 3: Deliver manuscript to editor! (Author jumping over fire pit onto platform where editor waits) Result: success!

Level 4: Accept minor criticism! (Author lying ded in fronto of editors desk) Result: better luck next time!

Along the bottom are controls for:
Left right jump crouch read write nap coffee

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon. many more here: www.newscientist.com/author/tom-gauld/

Image: A graph with lots of red dots clustered together in a curve. The are all looking upwards at a single red dot wearing sunglasses.

Caption: Mike was an outlier and would probably be excluded from the study, but all the other data points secretly thought he was really cool.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Notebook doodle and original art for the cartoon quoted below: www.tomgauld.com/art-for-sale

A small scatchy ink drawing.
A reader walks past bookcases, ghosts and clouds of ectoplasm.
Title: Haunted library is cool.

Ink drawing

Title:
Who is Haunting The Library of Forbidden Tomes?

Image: five panels showing characters in a gothic library

22% - tormented souls, frozen between life and death (a ghost reading a book)
4% - dank, fetid horrors from the icy depths below (a black slug like creature with a single eyestalk reading a book)
15% - cold, lifeless bones possessed by a corrupt sorcery (a skeleton reading a book)
11% - frigid and malevolent ectoplasmic vapours (a shapeless apparition reading a book)
48% - regular readers happy to away from the heatwave
(A mother, small child and toddler in buggy, all reading books)

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/books/pictur...

Title: Methods for Encouraging a Reluctant Young Reader

Panel 1
Caption: Read Together
Image: A small child sits on a sofa, face buried in a book, between two adults doing the same.

Panel 2
Caption: Bribery
Image: The small child sits on a treasure chest wearing a crown, face buried in a book, in a room full of coins, jewels and precious items.

Panel 3
Caption: Element of danger
Image: The small child sits, face buried in a book, precariously balanced on a thin branch in a tall tree.

Panel 4
Caption: Reverse Psychology
Image: The small child sits, face buried in a book, beside a huge bookshelf and a sign that reads “Adults Only”

Panel 5
Caption: Pulleys and Pistons
Image: The small child sits, face buried in a book, amidst a complicated mechanism that provides endless new books.

Panel 6
Caption: Rituals and Incantations
Image: The small child sits, face buried in a book, in a circle of candles amidst clouds of smoke and mysterious phrases.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Clip Art > Science > Failure > Cute My latest @newscientist.com cartoon.

Title:
Clip art > science > failure > cute

Image:
A series of science-related items (glassware, robots, fires, scientists) with smiley faces labelled this:

fire_small.jpg
graph_error.jpg
cracked_glassware.jpg
sad_at_desk.jpg
fire_medium.jpg
broken_robot.jpg
disproved_theory.jpg
fire_huge.jpg
sad_on_floor
toxic_cloud.jpg
rejected_paper.jpg

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I will be closing my web-shop and art-for-sale for the summer on Monday. So, if you'd like anything in the next month or so (such as the print shown) please order soon. www.tomgauld.com/shop www.tomgauld.com/art-for-sale

Two stick figures walk beside a lake, one asks "Do you ever worry that we are living in the reflection rather than the reality?"

They are reflected, upside-down, in the lake. The reflection of the second figure replies with an upside-down speech bubble reading "Sometimes".

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

A notebook doodle and original drawing for the cartoon quoted below. www.tomgauld.com/art-for-sale

A wobbly drawing in a notebook showing a building with commas, periods, asterisks etc blowing out of the window. "Window left open at punctuation factory" is written above.

Panel 1
Caption: With the windows open in the summer heat, a breeze blows through the punctuation factory, scattering newly-minted marks across the countryside.

Image: a small factory with windows open and punctuation marks coming out

Panel 2
Caption: Confused locals find their conversations peppered with unexpected pauses and unwanted emphasis.

Image: Two people talking as punctuation marks float around them One says

This, is “very odd”

The other replies

…(Indeed)*

Panel 3
Caption: Naturalists note that the effect is not limited to human communication.

Image: A duck on a pond surrounded by punctuation marks says
Qu’ack?

Panel 4
Caption: Fortunately, a cloud of exclamation points drift into a district council meeting which proceeds with unusual efficiency

Image: Councillors talk in a cloud of exclamation points
Something must be done!! !
Close the windows! !!
Install air conditioning! !!
Immediately!!! !

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com. Inspired by recent news about the SpudCell. NS subscribers can read about it here: www.newscientist.com/article/2532...

Title: The artificial cell's diary

Panel 1: An oval green cell with a face opens its eyes.
Caption: Woke up to the scientists discussing whether I was alive or just exhibiting some of the symptoms.

Panel 2: The cell looks thoughtful
Caption: A bit heavy for first thing in the morning.

Panel 3: The cell eats some little dots in the liquid around it.
Caption: Had a swim, then ate some of the molecule soup that I live in. My day is pretty much all soup-based.

Panels 4: The cell looks uncomfortable
Caption: Then I began to feel rather odd.

Panel 5 and 6: the cell hseems to be splitting in two
Caption: But, I saved the big news for last:

Panel 7: The cell smiles. A new, smaller cell smiles back.
Caption: I made a new friend!

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

My collection of cartoons, PHYSICS FOR CATS, won the Eisner award for Best Humor Publication at the weekend! Get it from good local booksellers or online now. Click here for links to the English editions: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2 or here for links to translations: www.tomgauld.com/languages

An image of the book 'Physics for Cats' by Tom Gauld. On the cover is an impossible shape against a starry sky. Gravity-defying cats wander around it.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

This is my amazing publisher, Peggy Burns of @dandq.bsky.social accepting the BEST HUMOR PUBLICATION EISNER AWARD for ‘Physics for Cats’ last night. Thanks to Peggy, all at D&Q, the judges, and congratulations to all the other winners and nominees! www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2

A smiling, elegantly-dressed Peggy Burns poses with an Eisner award at ComicCon.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I've added five new original drawings to the Art for Sale section of my website. www.tomgauld.com/art-for-sale

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Some hot book sketchbook doodles...

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com Many more here: www.theguardian.com/profile/tom-gauld

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.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I will be signing at The ARC festival this Sunday from 1-2pm at the @goshcomics.bsky.social sky.social table. @arcfestivallondon.bsky.social al is an exciting, new, free comics festival in London on the 11th and 12th of July. Come along! www.arc-london.uk

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."

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I will be signing at The ARC festival this Sunday from 1-2pm at the @goshcomics.bsky.social table. @arcfestivallondon.bsky.social is an exciting, new, free comics festival in London on the 11th and 12th of July. Come along! www.arc-london.uk

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."

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

This, as requested by @mhplives.bsky.social, is the @newscientist.com cartoon that Alan Moore describes (rather well) in a recent episode of the Team Human podcast www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/371...

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

All my New Yorker covers, part 3 of 3 They are all available on the Condé Nast Store where you can buy prints, cards, and other merch. I get a royalty from this. condenaststore.com/art/tom+gauld

The New Yorker
‘food for thought’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'City dwellers thinking and talking about their food cravings.'

The New Yorker
‘Captive Audience’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'Apartment building residents in windows watch a dog playing fetch with its owner outside during lockdown'

The New Yorker
‘winter sun’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'A woman and dog gaze at a painting of the sun on rainy winter day.'

The New Yorker
‘Landscape Portrait’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'A tourist takes a selfie in front of a museum's large painting.'

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

All my New Yorker covers (2/3) They are all available on the Condé Nast Store where you can buy prints, cards, and other merch. I get a royalty from this. www.condenaststore.com/art/tom+gauld

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
‘Winter Garden’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'Woman watering plants in an indoor garden on a rainy winter day'

The New Yorker
‘Dog walking 2.0’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'Robot walking a dog in the park comes upon a woman walking a robot dog'

The New Yorker
‘Rooftop Astronomy’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'Panels depicting an adult and a child looking at the stars from a rooftop telescope'

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

All my New Yorker covers (1/3) They are all available on the Condé Nast Store where you can buy prints, cards, and other merch. I get a royalty from this. www.condenaststore.com/art/tom+gauld

The New Yorker
‘Fall Library’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'A woman reclines in a room full of books'

The New Yorker
‘Soundtrack to Spring’
cover by Tom Gauld
Description 'Musical notation in speech bubbles coming from every person and bird in the windows and on the street in front of a New York townhouse.'

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Some process images for my cover for this week's New Yorker (2 of 2) 1 - final Ink drawing. 2 - Close-up of the finished image. 3. - A drawing from the show that inspired my image. 4 - New Yorker web page on the cover.

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.

The British Museum Website
Object Type:
Drawing
Museum number:
00,9.9
Description:
Mountain landscape with a river; four travellers near a tall, slender tree at left, others including two mounted, on a path moving towards cottages to right, a castle on a craggy, partially wooded mountain beyond. 1553
Pen and brown ink
Watermark:
lozenge with five stars (centre), 41 × 45 mm. Very close to Briquet 6098 (from Prague, 1543).
Producer name:
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
School/style:
Netherlandish
Production date:
1553

The NEW YORKER

Cover Story

Tom Gauld's "Landscape Portrait"

By Françoise Mouly, Art by Tom Gauld

For the cover of the June 29, 2026, issue, the British cartoonist Tom Gauld took inspiration from a visit to an exhibition of early-Netherlandish drawings at the British Museum. "I was blown away by the landscapes-small and intricate, but with such depth, drawing your eye from blades of grass in the foreground to a ship on the horizon," Gauld said. "And, as soon as I stepped out of the quiet darkness of the exhibit, I was surrounded by flocks of happy tourists snapping away with their phones."

Find Tom Gauld's covers, cartoons, and more at the Condé Nast Store.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Some process images for my cover for this week's New Yorker (1 of 2) 1 - Drawing in a passport sized notebook. 2 - Various other doodles. 3 - Rough ink sketch. 4 - Neater Pencil Sketch.

A small notebook with an imaginary landscape drawn in black ink.

Scratchy black ink doodles of thoughts and elements leading to the cover.

An early ink version of the 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.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I drew the cover for the latest @newyorker.com More here: www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2026-06-29

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.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I've added some new original drawings to my website www.tomgauld.com/art-for-sale

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.

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.

Title: "Literary ecologists celebrate the successful reintroduction of rare species to the Yorkshire moors." Image: The sun is going down on a bleak windswept moor, various figures and trees are each labelled as one of the following: 1. Classic literary Cathy and Heathcliff 2. Young, carefree Cathy and heathcliff 3. Sexy Hollywood Cathy and Heathcliff 5. Ghost Cathy, tormented Heathcliff 5. Spooky tree

$Panel 1 Caption: 2025, Middlemarch Is voted the best novel of all time and wins the right to represent earth at the IGCLC\* finals. Image: The cover of George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' \*Intergalactic literary Champions league Panel 2 Caption: 2028, A young Editor from Penguin Classics climbs Aboard Artemis VII for the thirty-year journey to host planet, Kepler-22b. She carries a first Edition of the book in a lead-lined briefcase. Image: Astronaut boarding spaceship. Panel 3 Caption: 2089, She returns with news that earth placed a very respectable third, and that she bought rights to the two winning novels. Images: The capsule returns to earth and splashes down in the sea. The astronaut emerges and waves to the rescue helicopter. Panel 4 Caption: 2092, The alien books are translated and published to critical acclaim and modest sales. Image: Two books. 'Magnesium Sunset' by Zylob Pyrxx and 'Orbital Amnesia' by Unaha Closp More caption: Middlemarch is a runaway success in gas form$

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