Xkcd: A Very Cool Webcomic!
Along with all the other forms of media available on the Internet, comics have made quite an impact for those who enjoy finding humor online. Webcomics have become a very popular Internet phenomenon and they vary in content and style as much as any other form of entertainment does. There are a few very popular webcomics online, one of the most popular of which is xkcd.
According to the website’s tagline, xkcd is “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” The comic is among many online that have no consistent storyline, but in which several characters recur. The artistic style of xkcd is actually stick figures, but the content of the comics tends to make up for this apparent lack of sophistication.
Frequently featuring technical jargon, mathematics equations, and scientific puns, xkcd can sometime be difficult to understand for the non-technically inclined. One website, explainxkcd.com, attempts to explain some of the more difficult comics so that anyone can understand what the comic’s creator, Randall Munroe, means. This site does not explain every comic. Fortunately, an outside site is not necessary to comprehending all of the comics; some are perfectly clear for any audience.
Some of the most popular xkcd comics have popped up in surprising places, even offline. The first comic that helped make xkcd popular was Online Communities, in which Munroe mapped out popular Internet sites as if they were continents, based on active users and areas of content. That comic vaulted xkcd into public awareness and allowed artist Randall Munroe to work on the comic fulltime while selling xkcd merchandise for income.
Another popular xkcd comic is “Circuit Diagram.” The circuit diagram lampoons both engineering iconography and presents a view of computers that many novices in the tech sector will be able to relate to. Because most users do not understand exactly how microprocessors work, the inclusion of an electric eel and “magic smoke” in the circuit diagram reflects well how many users feel about the mysterious inner workings of their computer. The comic is clever enough for experts in the tech sector to appreciate as well. The symbol for a resistor in electrical engineering diagrams is a sharp series of lines, much like “WW.” In the xkcd “Circuit Diagram” comic, there is a collection of such symbols with the notation “Not a resistor; wire just does this!”
Like many other Internet phenomenon, xkcd has an unknown lifespan. Given that xkcd remains a smart and funny webcomic that points out society’s missteps and pop culture problems, it is hard to imagine Munroe will need to look for other work for the foreseeable future.
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Filed under: david milman, Internet, news, performance, rescuecom