You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack

by Tom Gauld

“Precise and wryly hilarious...Gauld's both a literature nerd and a science-fiction nerd whose deadpan mashups belong on the same shelf as R. Sikoryak, Michael Kupperman, and Kate Beaton.”—NPR, Best Books of 2013

A new collection from the Guardian and New York Times Magazine cartoonist

The New York Times Magazine cartoonist Tom Gauld follows up his widely praised graphic novel Goliath with You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, a collection of cartoons made for The Guardian. Over the past eight years, Gauld has produced a weekly cartoon for the Saturday Review section of Britain’s best-regarded newspaper. Only a handful of comics from this huge and hilarious body of work have ever been printed in North America—and these have been available exclusively within the pages of the prestigious Believer magazine.
     You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack distills perfectly Gauld’s dark humor, impeccable timing, and distinctive style. Arrests by the fiction police and imaginary towns designed by Tom Waits intermingle hilariously with piercing observations about human behavior and whimsical imaginings of the future. Again and again, Gauld reaffirms his position as a first-rank cartoonist, creating work infused with a deep understanding of both literary and cartoon history.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Bande Dessinée, Comedy

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 22, 2013

About the author

Tom Gauld is a cartoonist and illustrator. He draws weekly cartoons for the Guardian newspaper and New Scientist magazine. He has created eight covers for the New Yorker and a number of comic books. He lives and works in London.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i freaking love tom gauld. this is a collection of illustrations he did which ran in the guardian, and they make me want to move to england just to read the newspaper. but i will probably just wait for his next collection to come out.

obviously the ones i like best are the ones which focus on littry matters, a few of which i will share here.

from the cute:





to the wry:





to the sad-but-true:







to the "when can we have this?"







(i would totally read reviews of my dreams, however scathing).

to the "i know, right??"



to the "why can't life be as cool as books?" or that's how i interpret it, at least:



to some gigglesnark about cover design:





to one for greg:



to miscellaneous booknerd humor





to one that has nothing to do with literature, but is funny because it reminds me of me. and i am funny.



these are just teasers, though - if you don't throw money at tom gauld and get this book, you will miss out on a lot of superfun illustrations.

and that is no way to live...

come to my blog!

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5* of five

Tom Gauld, he of The Guardian's pages, brought out this collection in 2012. He is a Serious Intellectual with an Impish Streak, as his 2015 photo attests:



Easy on the eyes, funny to the bone, smart and wry and a lot of fun and game-changingly talented:







Before Gauld, very little humor and even less comic ink was spilled in such a way about books as cultural objects and not items of celebrity or nonce-memes. If these images did not make you laugh out loud in real time, you should not bother with this book.

Also? Might be a good idea to unfriend me. Tom Gauld makes me guffaw so hard my abdomen cramps.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

The brilliantly titled “You’re All Just Jealous of my Jetpack” is a collection of Tom Gauld’s strips for The Guardian newspaper most of which are humourous takes on literary topics. The title itself is an observation that literary books tend to look down upon genre novels, especially sci-fi, even though they can be as important, and more often than not more imaginative, than general fiction.

The book has a strip per page and the excellent strips far outweigh the lesser ones. “Mister Victorian Novel” was hilarious as was “Errors in Dan Brown’s new novel”, and “5 errors in the Martin Amis cartoon”. Gauld mixes clever commentary on art and literature with wit and a great sense of humour to create excellent comics. I could go on with the best comics I liked in this book - the Fiction Police, Book Cover Design is Easy, Inspector God Omniscient Detective - but I’ll just say, if you enjoy comics that are funny and tend to focus on literature, you’ll get a lot out of this book.

Tom Gauld’s an excellent cartoonist, check out his great book-length comic “Goliath” from last year, if you enjoyed this.

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of one panel funnies collected together. Some of them are very humorous and some miss. He makes some great writing jokes in here. It’s easy and fast to read and you certainly wont read it for the art.

I was amused. I had to get this ILL.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gauld does strips for The Guardian, and this book is a collection of that stuff. Great title. Lots of fun, clever stuff. The title comes from one great one about how traditional lit might be jealous of sci fi. . . :) Gauld also did the amazing graphic novel Goliath. His style is sharp and simple and distinctively clever.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

28 May, 2013

Combines the sensibilities of Edward Gorey and Kate Beaton, so you can well imagine how much I enjoyed this. Lots of Shakespeare jokes. Also the use of "wibbly wobbly" although without "timey whimey".

Library copy.

***

29 July 2023

Same. The Spouse enjoyed the Tom Waits one. And I appreciate the custom endpapers, of course, because I am book geekier than Gauld. He makes better book jokes, though.

Library copy

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of Tom Gauld’s comic strips for The Guardian, which are humourous takes on literary and/or science fiction topics mostly. I think this is the first time many have been published in the U.S. Some are quite funny, and I am sure some were over my head. I especially liked the one about the psychiatrist's chair and lounge having a late night discussion, and the horror story punchline about British food. 3.75 stars.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an altogether adorable collection of comics from The Guardian. I think that Karen's review sums up the book far better than any review I write could. I mean, it has pictures.

I picked this book up at The Book Thing thinking it looked charming and entertaining, and was pleasantly surprised by how poignant some of the comics were. Most were literary, some were an entertaining commentary on how sci-fi is viewed in most critic circles, some were just downright fun.

All I truly know if that I want to be able to rush to the rescue at some point yelling "Make way! I'm a Keats' scholar!"

[Readersaurus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I am jealous of your jetpack! And of your wit, and your talent, and your intelligence! These are cartoons that originally appeared in the Guardian and they had me snorting and laughing. I wouldn't put the book down. I made everyone around me sit and listen to my favorite ones. If you are a reader or a librarian, you will feel that Gauld has created these just for you. Bliss. One to purchase for the home collection and return to again and again.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this for my dad's birthday (21st of Feb) but I read it before he had a chance (I'm an awful person) and I laughed the whole time. It combines a sort of surreal, absurd, random and dumb sense of humour with the most literate, smart and obscure references. What is not to love?

[Artemy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful collection of one page comic strips by the brilliant Tom Gauld. Mostly literary-themed, with some geeky jokes and existential humor thrown in for good measure. Great read!

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many great thoughts on life, literature, science, time travel, robots, and penguins. His ideas jumpstart your own. For example, he didn't exactly say it, but why not a robot penguin? And his speculation about the value of adding a pirate character really would improve a lot of novels. (Looking at you, Dan Brown and Nicholas Sparks.) I wanted him to expand his vision of action therapy. Psychiatry is way too static. Maybe the therapist and the patient can go hiking or something. I mean, not if the patient has a compulsion to throw people off cliffs. Maybe my own ideas need work.

The point is, that these cartoons are gold.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly amusing, erudite, very literary. I must admit a lot of the cartoons went over my head. I think I am moderately well read, but not an ivory-tower-die-hard-literature-fanatic. I think to fully appreciate this book, one should be 1. British, 2. an English literature professor and/or fanatic, 3. a fiction writer.

[Jamil · Rating 3 out of 5]

for a taste, visit: http://myjetpack.tumblr.com/

[(╯`▭´）╯︵ ǝɔnɒꓷ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Can't say that I am, book. Can't say that I am.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly charming, often erudite, occasionally obscure. Also cartoons.

[Mikko Saari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Gauldin strippejä on julkaistu The Guardian -lehdessä ja nyt niitä saa myös siistissä paketissa kirjamuodossa. You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack on nauruhermoja kutkuttava paketti vähäeleistä ja älykästä kirjallista huumoria.

Ei tarvitse olla suurikaan kirjallisuudenharrastaja ymmärtääkseen Gauldin huumoria, mutta sivistys auttaa – ja googlailu. Muuten olisi jäänyt epäselväksi, miksi Eric Gillin tavallisesta päivästä kertovassa stripissä joka toinen ruutu on sensuroitu. Wikipedia-artikkelin lukemisen jälkeen en ihmettele enää. Kaikkea sitä sarjakuvista oppii.

Keskimääräinen strippi on hyvä, varsinaisia huteja on vähän ja joukossa on aivan erinomaisia neronleimauksia. Tom Gauld on tekijä, jonka nimi pitää pistää mieleen vastaisen varalle. (24.5.2013)

[Sarinys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le vignette e le strip di Tom Gauld cortocircuitano idee sulla letteratura, spicciole filosofie esistenziali, arte, in una sinfonia di contemporaneità/modernità/classicità/futuribilità che sintetizza bene l'odierna cultura occidentale. Molto divertente in virtù di una comicità surreale e di una stilizzazione efficace (per quanto qualche pagina sia più da risata a denti stretti). In pratica uno strano ibrido tra Edward Gorey e Gary Larson, ma ossessionato dal romanzo vittoriano e dalla fantascienza retrò, insieme. Sublime.

[Francesca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library, and I only got half through it. I couldn't go on. It's not particularly funny, the only thing I really liked was the font/handwriting of the author. That's it, and I guess it was not enough for me.

[Tyler Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant collection of literature/writing-inspired comics. Authors, English majors, writers, and readers will get a kick out of these!

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Gauldin kokoelma Guardian-lehdestä tuttuja juttuja, joista monet käsittelevät tavalla tai toisella kirjallisuutta. Martin Amis ei sitten ole pingviini!

[l · Rating 3 out of 5]

He's not Kate Beaton, but who is?

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guardian comic strips, many referencing literature and culture. Extremely referential, so I'm sure most English majors and anglophiles will enjoy this. I found it mildly amusing, but never laughed out loud.

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious comics and with an unusual narrative style. Reminds me a bit of Edward Gorey, but still original in its own right.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious collections of cartoons sending up literature, history, and more; I thought the whole thing was great, but I will love Gauld forever for his Thoreau cartoon alone:

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Gauld makes pleasant, simple cartoons, and I'm realizing how much art style affects my enjoyment of these types of books. His spare lines and elegant color structure (along with the frequent use of puzzles) make his books enjoyable for me. And all the literary references, too.

[Y Catlow · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Some strips are quite witty & funny (maybe not hilarious) and make you want to read further. But for one witty story, there are three quite unimaginative ones that make you wonder whether they really needed to be selected and published.

[Sean Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius.

[Jasmiina F · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as amazing as I thought this would be, but pretty good and funny. I didn't get all the jokes but that's probably just my fault. Maybe I wished something more.

[Eugenia Andino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy divertido.