The Guardian, New Scientist and New Yorker cartoonist Tom Gauld‘s next collection of science cartoons will be Physics for Cats, out in the autumn. A paperback of his first collection of literary comics, You’re All Just Jealous of my Jetpack, will be out later this year, too.

Physics for Cats, arriving in bookshops on 7th October 2025 from US publisher Drawn & Quarterly, is his second collection of science-based cartoons for the New Scientist, so now’s your chance to find out why every scientist worth his sodium chloride has a Tom Gauld cartoon taped to his electron microscope. This new batch of hilarious gags will be as important to every self-respecting scientist as a lab coat and goggles and oversize rubber gloves.
Find out what the hadron’s news alert about CERN says! Everyone asks, “What is dark matter?” and “Where is dark matter?” but do they ever take the time to ask, “How is dark matter?” Based all on previous data, we can predict with a 99.99% certainty that you will either laugh, guffaw, chortle or snort (we don’t have a large enough sample set to be able to say which particular type of mirth you will experience).
Tom Gauld was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1976. As a child, his favourite things were drawing, lego, and playing soldiers. He studied illustration at Edinburgh College of Art. In 2001, he started small-press publishing venture Cabanon Press with Simone Lia while they were studying at the Royal College of Art. They published a number of books including First, Second, Three Very Small Comics, and Fluffy.
Today, he has weekly comic strips in The Guardian and New Scientist and his comics have been published in The New York Times, The Believer, and on the cover of The New Yorker. In addition to his graphic novels Baking with Kafka, Goliath, Mooncop, and You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, he has designed a number of book covers.
He also illustrated the children’s book The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and made a comic-strip cover for Penguin Books’ deluxe edition of The Three Musketeers, and has created a number of short comic books, including Guardians of the Kingdom, Hunter and Painter, and The Gigantic Robot. He lives in London, England, with his partner and two daughters.
• Physics for Cats by Tom Gauld is available to preorder from bookshops now | 160 pages | ISBN: 978-1770468054 | Order it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
• Tom Gauld is online at tomgauld.com
Some sample cartoons from Physic for Cats by Tom Gauld…
• You’re Just Jealous of my Jetpack by Tom Gauld – the paperback edition – is available to preorder from bookshops now | 160 pages | ISBN: 978-1770468061| Order it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
Drawn from Tom Gauld’s popular comics feature in The Guardian, You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack perfectly distills Gauld’s dark humor, impeccable timing, and distinctive style. Classic strips like “The Brontë Sisters: The Videogame” and “The Serious Rock Critic” (who’s written 32 books about Led Zeppelin) intermingle hilariously with piercing observations about politics and human behavior (see: “The Greedy Dog Stands on the Chair of Hope to Feast on the Sausage of Hubris”) and whimsical imaginings of the future (see: “The ‘Great Automaton Strike’ of 2029 Saw the Birth of the Robot Protest Song”).
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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