Tommy Siegel is a cartoonist for The New Yorker and a touring musician. As a cartoonist, his challenge to draw five hundred consecutive days of comics led to a viral fan base of hundreds of thousands worldwide and eventually spawned his popular Candy Hearts and Extremely Accurate Birds series, among others. As a musician, he has played over 1,000 shows around the world as the singer/guitarist in Jukebox the Ghost, a long-running piano-pop band with a cult fan base whose tour history includes festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza as well as late-night TV shows including Letterman and Conan. He juggles both pastimes with copious amounts of coffee. On social media, you can follow along with his various pursuits under the handle @tommysiegel.

 

Extremely Accurate Birds (Running Press, April, 2026)

Have you ever taken a really good look at the bottom half of a bird? At long last, this birding guide from esteemed birder and New Yorker cartoonist Tommy Siegel, author of Candy Hearts, reveals the truth about the powerful legs and shapely rear ends that power our feathered friends to the skies!

There’s a reason brilliant naturalists from Audubon to Sibley have relied on illustration to bring birds to life on the page: Birds move remarkably fast and are often obscured by foliage; it would be nearly impossible to photograph them. But birding enthusiast and comic artist Tommy Siegel noticed a theme in these artists’ guides: Their renderings focus too heavily on birds’ wings and plumage while reducing their lower limbs to simple sticks. Could birds really achieve such varied feats of athleticism and migratory endurance if they had such rudimentary legs?

Now, Tommy is poised to revolutionize the field of ornithology with his interpretation of how birds’ beautiful legs and posteriors must truly appear (based on educated scientific guesses gleaned from observing their behavior in the field). The result is Extremely Accurate Birds, perhaps the most anatomically precise collection of bird illustrations ever assembled. Pairing his trailblazing bird drawings with (actually accurate, for real) birding tips on more than eighty common species found across North America, Tommy has created an essential addition to any birder’s shelf.

With these hilarious (and some might say anatomically precise!) magnets, you can make visitors to your refrigerator or filing cabinet do a double take at ten distinct works of bird art.

• Deluxe wooden magnets: This set includes 10 full-color, illustrated wooden magnets, each featuring a unique bird species with cartoonist Tommy Siegel’s signature attention to detail highlighting their unique butts and legs.
• From New Yorker cartoonist Tommy Siegel: These are the first-ever magnets to feature Tommy Siegel’s viral bird drawings.
• Mini book included: Learn the ins and outs of the 10 featured bird species, with actually accurate birding tips, in the enclosed 32-page, fully-illustrated paperback book.
• A unique gift for bird lovers: Bird lovers of all ages and abilities will love this utterly unique gift set.

With these hilarious (and some might say anatomically precise!) postcards, you can color in 50 distinctly cheeky works of bird art to send to friends or display in your space.

• 50 deluxe coloring postcards: This set includes 50 different designs on thick, colorable postcards (3-3/4″ x 5-1/2″), each featuring a unique bird species with cartoonist Tommy Siegel’s signature attention to detail highlighting their unique butts and legs.
• Keepsake box: The cards come housed in a sturdy flip-top box for safekeeping (4″ x 5.7″).
• From New Yorker cartoonist Tommy Siegel: This will be the first-ever coloring product to feature Tommy Siegel’s viral bird drawings.
• A unique gift for bird lovers: Bird lovers of all ages will love this utterly unique gift set.

The Secret Lives of Candy Hearts (Andrews McMeel, January, 2025)

Tommy Siegel’s Candy Hearts comics reveal the most awkward and amusing truths about relationships, and since their viral debut in 2020, the inner world of Candy Hearts has only gotten stranger. This new collection of Candy Hearts comics explores topics like commitment, cohabitation, family dynamics, pets, dating apps, and wedding planning. With dozens of comics never before seen in print or online, The Secret Lives of Candy Hearts hits everything from disaster to happily-ever-after, with hilarious results.

CANDY HEARTS (Andrew McMeels, February 2, 2021)

A devastatingly funny view of how romantic couples are not on the same page

Tommy Siegel’s single-panel “candy hearts” cartoons are sharp-edged yet lighthearted observations of human romantic relationships. Each one brilliantly depicts the many ways in which lovers deceive each other and hide their true feelings from the world. In Tommy Siegel’s capable hands, this simple premise is incredibly relatable and very, very funny.

I Hope This Helps (Andrews McMeel Publishing, October 6, 2020)

The debut comics collection from one of the sharpest new voices in American humor

I Hope This Helps is an incisive and hilarious send-up of millennial culture, everyday anxieties, and our social media-driven reality. After years of doodling in the back of a van as a touring rock musician, Tommy Siegel began his comics career in earnest with a personal challenge to draw a comic every day for 500 days. His comics soon earned a global fanbase and shout-outs from cultural heavyweights like Ringo Starr, Dan Aykroyd, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This debut collection includes over 200 pages of comics, essays, and doodles, with topics ranging from smartphone addiction and the Covid-19 crisis to hard-hitting issues such as “What Your Coffee Preparation Says About You” and “Noses: A Comprehensive Guide.” Both absurdist and profound, I Hope This Helps takes no prisoners while also managing to bring its targets in on the joke.