Department of Mind-Blowing Theories

by Tom Gauld

Overview

A side-splitting skewering of the sober world of STEM

No one is safe when humorist and cartoonist Tom Gauld directs his hilarious gaze to your profession. Just as he did with writers, poets, and literary classics for the Guardian books page, Gauld now does with hapless scientists, nanobots, and puzzling theorems for his weekly New Scientist strip, the international magazine that covers all aspects of science and technology.

Gauld's Department of Mind-Blowing Theories presents one hundred and fifty comic strips topical and funny enough to engage any layperson with a rudimentary recall of their old science classes as well as those who consider themselves boffins of the contemporary physical and natural world. A dog philosopher questions what it means to be a ‘good boy’ while playing fetch! A virtual assistant and a robot-cleaner elope! The undiscovered species and the theoretical particle face existential despair! Facebook commenters debunk Darwin’s posting of On the Origin of Species! Why are there poodles pouring out of this wormhole?!

One could hypothesize how Gauld is able to command such quick-witted knowledge of the scientific world however, as these strips prove, Gauld would retaliate with the sharpest of punchlines to that hastily cobbled postulate. Gauld won an Eisner for Best Humor for Baking With Kafka and Department of Mind-Blowing Theories is sure to cement his reputation as the foremost authority on joke generating technology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770463752
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	406,122
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tom Gauld is a cartoonist and illustrator. 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. Gauld lives and works in London.

Editorial Reviews

01/20/2020

Gauld (Baking with Kafka) turns out this fizzy collection of one-panel cartoons, originally drawn for New Scientist magazine, showcasing his charmingly simplified art and brainy, gently off-kilter comic sensibility. In Gauld’s landscape, the Department of Experimental Geography is at the top of an M.C. Escher staircase; a space probe scheduled to be shut down goes through the five stages of grief; and the Quantum Cartoon is “simultaneously funny and unfunny.” A reference to Professor Larson nods to the influence of the Far Side, but Gauld’s sense of funny is its own blend: half the erudition of New Yorker cartoons (where he is also a contributor), half the scrappy out-and-proud nerdiness of Internet memes. (One character interrupts an insufficiently sophisticated gag by crying, “Sir, this is an erudite science cartoon!”) His slight, dot-eyed characters, frequently drawn in silhouette for maximum anonymity, are barely more than stick figures, but they inhabit detailed backgrounds carefully filled with elaborate machinery and fanciful patterns. Cartoons that assume an equal understanding of nanobots and the Arts and Crafts Movement are, by design, not for everyone. But fans of smart science-boosting comics like the web-based xkcd—and actual scientists, of course—will grin. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Gauld is my favorite hyper-minimalist brainiac cartoonist, and Department Of Mind-Blowing Theories is my favorite of his collections so far."—William Gibson

"Tom Gauld is always funny, but he’s funny in a way that makes you feel smarter. Which is especially useful when he’s being funny about science."—Neil Gaiman

"Over the past few years, Gauld’s style has become instantly recognizable. His figures… stand in for a kind of Everyman or woman, up against institutions and social mores that Gauld is intent on presenting as silly."
—The New York Times

"Literary pun purveyor Tom Gauld turns his pen to the foibles of science (and science fiction)." —NPR

"These comics about science will give you a much-needed laugh." —BuzzFeed

"In Department of Mind-Blowing Theories, the acclaimed cartoonist and illustrator trains his trademark wit on the wonderful world of science." —The Paris Review


"Can science be funny? Looking at the pages of Eisner Award-winning humorist and cartoonist Tom Gauld's Department of Mind-Blowing Theories, the answer is a resounding yes." —Shelf Awareness


"Gauld’s comics frequently riff on literary history, to hilarious effect. With his latest book... Gauld has applied that same ethos to the world of science. It’s one that frequently leads to surreal juxtapositions, ironic reversals, and characters dealing with bizarre dilemmas. It’s also very, very funny." —Vol 1. Brooklyn

From the Publisher

04/01/2020

British cartoonist Gauld (Baking with Kafka) celebrates and lampoons the agony and ecstasy that accompany a life devoted to scientific research in this collection of 150 strips, which originally ran as a weekly feature in New Scientist. In "Suggested Methods of Presenting Findings," he pitches far-out approaches such as "a Broadway musical" and "an internet meme involving cats." Another strip depicts two researchers at the bottom of a deep pit deciding not to dig any further, unaware that a vast trove of ancient artifacts lay mere inches below their feet. When he's not speaking directly to scientists, Gauld presents absurd situations with a bone-dry delivery reminiscent of The Far Side. Standouts in this vein include a strip featuring two insects trapped in blobs of amber catching each other up on how they've been keeping themselves busy for the last 48 million years, and a look at the inner monolog of a dog philosopher considering what it really means to be "a good boy." VERDICT Gauld's intelligence and wit permeate every page of this clever volume.

Library Journal