WEBCOMIC: xkcd

---

xkcd Webcomic URL: http://xkcd.com/ Webcomic RSS feed: http://xkcd.com/rss.xml Artist/Author: Randall Munroe Updates: Monday, Wednesday, & Friday Description: "xkcd is a webcomic created by Randall Munroe... It calls itself 'a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.' There is no particular meaning to the name, which is simply a 'treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings.' The subjects of the comics themselves vary. Some are statements on life and love, and some are mathematical or scientific in-jokes. Some strips feature simple humor or pop-culture references. Although known for its crudely drawn cast of oddball stick figures, the comic occasionally features landscapes, intricate mathematical patterns such as fractals, or imitations of the style of other cartoonists... Occasionally, realism is featured. The comic began in September 2005 when Munroe decided to scan doodles from his school notebooks and put them on his webpage. Eventually the comic was changed into a standalone website, where Munroe started selling t-shirts based on the comic... xkcd is not an acronym, and Munroe attaches no meaning to the name, except in a joking manner within the comic. He claims that the name was originally a screen name, which he selected as a combination of letters that would be meaningless, as well as phonetically unpronounceable. While there is no specific storyline to the comic, there are some recurring themes. A large number of the strips are mathematics or computer science jokes. These jokes often feature university-level subjects, although many are written in such a way that a clear understanding of the subject is not usually required to get the punchline. Romance is another subject often visited in the comic, with many strips not intended to be humorous..." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xkcd

---