Comicon Advent Calendar Day 2: Having A Tom Gauld Christmas…

by Richard Bruton

Time to open another virtual comic & cartoon shaped window on Comicon’s Advent Calendar 2025 – with something seasonal from the great Tom Gauld…

Tom Gauld is a truly original cartoonist and illustrator whose work appears in The Guardian, The New Yorker and New Scientist.

If I were being a bit lazy, I’d say it was wonderfully quirky stuff. But it’s so much more than that. A deceptively simple style that masks the great skill behind it, packing a hell of a lot of ideas and always a funny, knowing gag into each strip he does.

His work for The Guardian is all about art and literature, with a recurring theme of books being the most wonderful things on Earth that we should all have more of – and he’s not wrong. Whilst his New Scientist strips go into the realms of weird science and then some, you know, like this…

Indeed, if you’re after a perfect gift this year (or any year, there’s possibly a Tom Gauld book that’s ideal for anyone who loves books, loves science, loves comics. His collections of strips include Physics for Cats and Department of Mind-Blowing Theories (science cartoons from New Scientist), Revenge of the Librarians, Baking with Kafka, and You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack (art and literature cartoons from The Guardian). He’s also an accomplished graphic novelist, with two books thus far – Mooncop, about a policeman on the moon, and Goliath, a retelling of David and Goliath from the giant’s point of view that’s powerful and moving in a quiet, simple manner, both published by Drawn and Quarterly. Finally, for the little ones, there’s The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess children’s book, published by Holiday Horse in the US and Templar Books in the UK.

So, how about a few more of those Christmas cartoons to put you in the festive mood…. first, his literature cartoons from The Guardian…