Tom Gauld
Tom Gauld (born 1976) is a Scottish cartoonist and illustrator. He has been awarded the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication three times, for his books Baking With Kafka (2018), Revenge of the Librarians (2023), and Physics for Cats (2026). His style reflects his self-professed fondness of "deadpan comedy, flat dialogue, things happening offstage and impressive characters".
Tom Gauld

Selbymay · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Tom Gauld
- Born
- 1976
- Birthplace
- Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom
- Field
- Illustration, cartoonist
- Training
- Edinburgh College of Art Royal College of Art
- Awards
- Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication (2018, 2023)
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Occupation
- cartoonist · illustrator · comics artist · picture book writer · comics writer
- Fields
- illustration · comic
- Education
- Edinburgh College of Art
- Honours
- Royal Designer for Industry
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Tom Gauld (born 1976) is a Scottish cartoonist and illustrator. He has been awarded the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication three times, for his books Baking With Kafka (2018), Revenge of the Librarians (2023), and Physics for Cats (2026). His style reflects his self-professed fondness of "deadpan comedy, flat dialogue, things happening offstage and impressive characters".
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Tom Gauld. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q7815910 · wikipedia · Tom Gauld
In this article
Biography
Biography
Others note that his work "combines pathos with the farcical" and exhibits "a casual reduction of visual keys into a more rudimentary drawing style".
Tom Gauld studied at Edinburgh College of Art. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is illustration and comic. Places of work recorded in the authority are Edinburgh and London. Distinctions recorded are Royal Designer for Industry.

Le caricaturiste écossais Tom Gauld au Salon international du livre de Québec 2015
Asclepias
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Tom Gauld • Born — 1976 • Birthplace — Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom • Field — Illustration, cartoonist • Training — Edinburgh College of Art Royal College of Art • Works — Goliath (2012) Mooncop (2016) Baking with Kafka (2017) • Awards — Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication (2018, 2023) • Website — http: www.tomgauld.com/
Career
Career
Gauld is best known for his comic books Goliath and Mooncop as well as his collections of one-page cartoons. He has also authored a number of smaller-scale books such as Guardians of the Kingdom, Robots, Monsters etc., Hunter and Painter and his cartoon Move to the City, which ran weekly in London's Time Out in 2001–2002. Gauld studied illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, where he first started to draw comics "seriously", and the Royal College of Art. At the Royal College of Art, he worked with friend Simone Lia. Together they self-published the comics First and Second under their Cabanon Press, which they started in 2001. (The two volumes were subsequently published together by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2003, as Both.) As part of commercial projects, Gauld has done some animation work; in an interview, he commented that "Comics are a lot of work but animation... was too much." His books are now published by Drawn & Quarterly and he regularly produces cartoons and illustrations for The New Yorker (including cover art), The New York Times, The Guardian and New Scientist.
Personal life
Personal life
Gauld grew up in the countryside in North East Scotland, and has said that he had always wanted to be involved with something creative related to drawing. He now lives in London with his wife, artist Jo Taylor, and his children. While his full-length book Goliath is based on the eponymous biblical figure, Gauld is not religious.
Identity
Identity
Tom Gauld is recorded as cartoonist, illustrator, comics artist, picture book writer and comics writer.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1976
Tom Gauld born at Aberdeenshire.
Influences
In a 2011 interview, Gauld listed his "Cartooning heroes": William Heath Robinson, Gary Larson, Roz Chast, Richard McGuire, Ben Katchor, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware and Jochen Gerner.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Lees, Gavin. Interview: Tom Gauld. Graphic Eye. 2011.
- 2.McMillan, Graeme. Eisner Awards: The Complete Winners List. The Hollywood Reporter. 2018-07-21.
- 3.Degg, D. D. 2023 Eisner Award Winners. The Daily Cartoonist. 2023-07-22.
- 4.Zalben, Alex. Eisner Awards 2026 Nominees: See The Full Nominations List For The Highest Honor In Comics. Comic Book Club. 2026-05-14.
- 5.Campbell, Hayley. Small Human Ordinariness: An Interview With Tom Gauld | The Comics Journal. 23 May 2012.
- 6.Q & A with Tom Gauld. Casualoptimist.com. 24 August 2011.
- 7.The Comics Reporter. Comicsreporter.com.
- 8.Cabanon Press. 18 September 2009.
- 9.About.
- 10.Mouly, Françoise. Cover Story: Tom Gauld's "Fall Library". Newyorker.com. 13 October 2014.
- 11.Cover Story: Tom Gauld's "Turkey Day" - the New Yorker. The New Yorker.
- 12.Tom Gauld. Comiccon.org. 3 December 2012.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 26
- First (with Simone Lia) (2001)
- Guardians of the Kingdom (2001)
- Second (with Simone Lia) (2002)
- Three Very Small Comics vol. 1 (2002)
- Both (with Simone Lia) (2003)
- Move to the City (French) (2004)
- Three Very Small Comics vol. 2 (2004)
- Robots, Monsters etc. (2006)
- Three Very Small Comics vol. 3 (2007)
- The Hairy Monster: a guide (2006)
- Hunter and Painter (2007)
- The Wise Robot Will Answer Your Question Now (2008)
- The Gigantic Robot (2009)
- 12 Postcards (2010)
- Goliath (2012)
- You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack (2013)
- Endless Journey: a myriorama (2015)
- Mooncop (2016)
- Goliath (2017)
- Baking With Kafka (2017)
- The Snooty Bookshop: Fifty Literary Postcards (2018)
- Twenty-Four Cartoons (2019)
- Department of Mind-Blowing Theories (2020)
- The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess (2021)
- Revenge of the Librarians (2022)
- Physics for Cats (2025)
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q7815910: Tom GauldWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Comics and comic art
9,920 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Tom CarringtonArtist
- Tom DeFalcoArtist
- Tom DurkinArtist
- Tom FrameArtist
- Tom GillArtist
- Tom GloverArtist
- Tom GrummettArtist
- Tom HartArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Tom Gauld?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.