Tom Gauld's new books cartoon
- Cartoonist Tom Gauld published a new 'books' cartoon for The Guardian that resonated with readers. (x.com) - The April 19 post collected hundreds of likes and dozens of reposts among book‑lover communities. (x.com) - The cartoon’s viral pickup shows continued appetite for playful literary commentary on social platforms. (x.com)
Tom Gauld posted a new books cartoon on April 19, and it quickly spread through online reading circles. (x.com) Gauld is the Scottish cartoonist behind a long-running weekly slot in The Guardian’s Saturday Review section, where he has been drawing arts cartoons since 2005. He also publishes weekly cartoons for New Scientist. (drawnandquarterly.com) (newscientist.com) His own website says those Guardian cartoons continue to appear every Saturday in the paper’s books section. That regular placement has made his literary jokes a fixture for readers who follow publishing, criticism, and book culture. (tomgauld.com) Gauld has spent years turning that material into books. His collections include *You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack*, *Baking With Kafka*, and *Revenge of the Librarians*, all built around the same deadpan mix of books, authors, and industry satire. (drawnandquarterly.com) (tomgauld.com) That helps explain why a single new panel can travel so fast on social platforms. The cartoon lands with people who already know Gauld’s recurring subjects: novelists, critics, bookshops, librarians, and readers performing their identities through books. (drawnandquarterly.com) (tomgauld.com) His audience is not limited to newspaper readers. Gauld’s work also appears in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and his publisher Drawn & Quarterly lists both literary and science cartoon collections alongside graphic novels such as *Mooncop* and *Goliath*. (drawnandquarterly.com) The April 19 post did not need a major news event to circulate. It fit an older pattern in Gauld’s career: a small, precise joke about books finding a large audience because enough readers recognize themselves in it. (x.com) (drawnandquarterly.com)
