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| xkcd | |
|---|---|
 Panel from "Philosophy"[‡ 1] | |
| Author(s) | Randall Munroe |
| Website | xkcd |
| Current status/schedule | Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays |
| Launch date | September 2005[1] |
| Genre(s) | Comedy, geek humor |
xkcd, sometimes styled XKCD,[‡ 2] is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe.[1] The comic's tagline describes it as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language".[‡ 3][2] Munroe states on the comic's website that the name of the comic is not an initialism but "just a word with no phonetic pronunciation".
The subject matter of the comic varies from statements on life and love to mathematical, programming, and scientific in-jokes. Some strips feature simple humor or pop-culture references. It has a cast of stick figures,[3][4] and the comic occasionally features landscapes, graphs, charts, and intricate mathematical patterns such as fractals.[5] New cartoons are added three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.[‡ 2][6]
Munroe has released five spinoff books from the comic. The first book, published in 2010 and entitled xkcd: volume 0, was a series of select comics from his website. His 2014 book What If? is based on his blog of the same name that answers unusual science questions from readers in a light-hearted way that is scientifically grounded.[‡ 4][‡ 5][7] The What If column on the site is updated with new articles from time to time. His 2015 book Thing Explainer explains scientific concepts using only the one thousand most commonly used words in English.[‡ 6][8] A fourth book, How To, which is described as "a profoundly unhelpful self-help book", was released on September 3, 2019.[‡ 7] A fifth book, What If? 2, was released on September 13, 2022.[9]
On August 31, 2023, a spinoff YouTube channel named xkcd's What If? was created, dedicated to adapting the "What If?" books into video format, produced by Neptune Studios LLC.[10] It started posting videos on November 29, 2023.
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- ^ a b Chivers, Tom (November 6, 2009). "The 10 best webcomics, from Achewood to XKCD". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
- ^ Arthur, Charles; Schofield, Jack; Keegan, Victor; et al. (December 17, 2008). "100 top sites for the year ahead". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 22, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
- ^ Guzmán, Mónica (May 11, 2007). "What's Online". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. p. D7. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2008.
- ^ "Ad Lib, Section: Ticket". Kalamazoo Gazette. Booth Newspapers. August 17, 2006.
- ^ "xkcd.com search: "parody week"". Ohnorobot. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
- ^ Fernandez, Rebecca (November 25, 2006). "xkcd: A comic strip for the computer geek". Red Hat Magazine. Archived from the original on March 6, 2007. Retrieved March 6, 2007.
- ^ Holly, Russell (March 12, 2014). "XKCD 'What if?' book announced by Randall Munroe". geek.com. Archived from the original on October 11, 2014. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
- ^ Shankland, Stephen (May 13, 2015). "XKCD cartoonist's new book: 'Thing Explainer'". CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on October 1, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
- ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (January 31, 2022). "XKCD's Randall Munroe announces What If? 2, with more scientific answers to life's most absurd hypothetical questions". The Verge.
- ^ "xkcd's What If?". YouTube. Retrieved December 6, 2023.