Book publisher Canongate has won "a fierce auction" for the world rights to two illustrated books by Simon's Cat animator Simon Tofield.

Tofield's creations have reached a wide audience over the last few months, drawing more than 20m hits on YouTube and winning a number of awards, including Best Comedy at the British Animation Awards and YouTube's Blockbuster Award. The animations – simple line drawings in black and white - depict the ever-hungry Simon's Cat in various attempts to get his owner to feed him.

Canongate editorial director Nick Davies said: "The humour is refreshingly innocent which gives the characters the broadest possible appeal. I think we have a major new comic creation here—something to rival The Bunny Suicides, Purple Ronnie, and maybe even one day, Wallace and Gromit."

The as-yet-untitled first book will be published as a gift format in hardback at the end of this year. The second book will be published for Christmas 2010.

The Bookseller reports that agents have already started talking to a number of film, television and merchandising companies about the Simon's Cat brand.

Click here to watch Simon's Cat.