The forums weren’t really a great place to post news, so davean helped me set up a blag here. I’ve got a bunch of news/info on a bunch of topics, and will answer questions in the comments, so here we go:
Job:
My about page mentions that I work for NASA — I’m technically a contractor working repeated contracts for them. However, they recently ran out of money to rehire me for another contract, so I’m done there for now. This isn’t really bad, because it came right as the t-shirt orders were becoming so strong that I really needed the time off to handle them. Combine that with answering the huge amount of email I get through the site, drawing the actual comics, and assorted other things, and I really don’t have the time to work a full-time job at the same time that I do this comic/store. So, for the moment I’m now a full-time webcomic artist/t-shirt designer. I don’t know how to thank you enough for all the support.
Shirts:
I shipped out the domestic preorders last week, and the international orders were held up by the post office and didn’t get through until this week. This was a bit later than I planned, and I’m sorry. For the week of the main shipping I was literally working every waking hour, 16 hours a day, on getting the t-shirts out, along with a lot of help from friends. For those who ordered shirts, if there was any kind of a mistake in your order, let me know and I’ll send you the right shirt(s) immediately.
T-shirts have been taking over the apartment, and the supplier is still working very hard to try to meet the demand. As mentioned on the t-shirt page, a few orders might be delayed right now as I try to catch up and keep stocked, and I appreciate your patience. Sizes marked with “backorder” will be shipping probably around the 20th.
The Date Project:
A lot of you have been asking what happened with the project I did a while ago to come up with a neat date. I know I have been quiet about that, but it’s mainly because the girl in the project had been relatively out-of-touch, and I couldn’t easily talk about what was up since I hadn’t talked to her and wanted to give her some privacy. She basically started to feel uncertain about the whole thing, and I didn’t want to push her, so I called it off. The winning suggestions are here, and I will be hanging on to the full list for a while and maybe doing something interesting with it.
Press:
xkcd comics have been featured in a lot of neat places, and I will try to mention them here as that continues. The one I have in front of me is the Toike Oike, the University of Toronto’s long-running high-quality humor newspaper.
Nobel Prize:
Two of the guys who did the COBE experiment — the one shown on the back of my t-shirt — won the Nobel Prize for their work. I’ve sent them both free t-shirts. Maybe they’ll wear them to the prize ceremony.
I love the idea of them receiving the shirts. Was there a covering note?
I run adblock and I figured i’d whitelist your site out of the courtesey since I enjoy the comics so much when I realised that you infact have no ads on the site! I can’t say whether I think this is good or bad – I’d have no problem looking at ads for such great content but I guess you make alot of money from the shirts. Which I will incidentally be buying once I have enough cash.
May I suggest an alternative, ad-laden version of the site that people can visit if they wish to support you in a way
Favourite XKCD: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/mispronouncing.png
2nd Favourite: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/search_history.png
Thanks for all the laughs, and I hope it continues for a very long time
You are amazing, thanks for what you do!
I love sharing your work with people who have never seen it before, and I sometimes understand your math strips but I can’t say that happens every time.. Oh well, love ‘em anyway!
Your webcomic is my official favourite. I like it even more than Qwantz. Nothing but boot kissing in this comment, sorry.
Nice blag.
I enjoy your wobsite.
Yey! First comment! EVER!!
Unless they just haven’t been approved yet!
I LOVE the comics. Found your site not long ago, and it’s honestly amazing. Even if I don’t get some of the math jokes, I still get why they’re funny, and that means you’re doing an amazing job. Not that we didn’t know that.
As for working (or not) with NASA, I’m jealous. Unfortunately, I don’t study sciences, so that’s out.
Finally, I linked this site to a few math teachers I know, and they love it!!
Thanks so much for making me laugh 3 times a week, in an intellectual fashion!
Well, I think the blag is certainly a great thing to have on your wobsite. And yes, I have grown a bit weary of the forums…The amount of posts in one topic can be quite intimidating.
Great news on the shirts! I might as well go buy some now. I’ve always wanted a shirt with comic 138 on it
Since it is ‘blag’ and ‘wobsite’ (loved it!) shouldn’t it be ‘wobcomic’? Or ‘webcimoc’?
You looked like you needed a comment for your blag.
here you go.
“Yay news!”
Sounds like you are having some interesting times. In that I-Ching danger-opportunity way. Good luck.
“skule.ca” — attention Canada: that’s not how you spell “school”
Congrats! Let us know if there’s any way we (your fan base) can help, other than to pimp your comic at every single chance we get.
good luck with the new job!
and sorry about the date project falling apart. i’d go on a date with ya but i dun’t think that’d work out too well
the ideas are still fun though!
If they’re going to wear the t-shirts to the award you need to draw them a special version of the t-shirt, we’re they’re wearing the same t-shirt on the t-shirt, and so on to infinite.
Rock on dude! Congratz! I love the comic (Just started reading it after I found it linked from Questionable Content)
atungshin Shii: anjinears obveiously kan’t speel. hence ‘skule’
thank you and good day.
I am another fan. Thanks for the blag. Thanks for the squirrels.
I didn’t get a chance to swing by the forums, but I’ll mention here that I got my shirt in a timely manner and I love it. Every co-worker of mine that understands it is conspiring against me, to boot. Thanks!
Dont you mean “the blag of the wobcomic”?
@Shil
Skule is the group of Engineers at UofT, they’re wacky.
I’m going to shortly be ordering some T-Shirts, they’re seriosuly fun for the whole family.
I actually wrote the comics people at my newspaper about getting webcomics syndicated (I cited Dinosaur Comics because of their predicatable format, though I mentioned xkcd), Though I haven’t got a response back :S
(Oh, and the header says that this is a ‘blog’, I suggest you correct it at once)
way cool indeed.
thanks for the laughs
I love that you sent Smoot and Whatshisface tshirts. I’ll have to try and wear mine the day of the ceremony.
I honestly don’t enjoy any other comics more than xkcd. Thanks for giving me intellectual laughs (and also really sweet and romantic ways to look at science/math). There’s not enough intelligent content on the intarwub today, but you’re adding to it one brilliant comic at a time (and they give me well-needed breaks from MATLAB xD!)
Thanks again.
I go to U of T for Engineering, and I think it’s super awesome that you’re in the Toike!!
The comic is spoctacular, and among my favourite things in the world ever.
I wish you every success in its continuation.
ps. more shirts!
Love your comic. xkcd and Dinosaur Comics are the only two webcomics worth reading nowadays IMO.
I just wish you made your shirts up to 4, 5, and 6XLs for all the obese nerds who enjoy your comics.
Did you know your new name in my phone is “Fancy Munroe”? It’s true.
I originally came across your website from a link from Jeff Jacques’ ‘Questionable Content’ strip (go ahead, pretend you don’t know about his comic-y goodness (only if you want to get your throat punched (should I have used brackets or something instead? (Maybe some of those curly things) ) ) ). I gotta say, this strip is honestly one of the funniest and most sincere comics I’ve ever read. The pieces of traditional art that dot the humorous landscape of comics you’ve done are amazing, as well.
I shared the link to your site with a few of my friends, and they have begun to become inside jokes. I make references to your comics near-daily, and I enthusiastically hope you keep making them. The only other comic that has done this is White Ninja. You and the folks are white ninja run fantastic wobsites.
Also, I think you should add some content-specific ads to the site. I would click them.
I would say I love the reflection of your mind on this wobsite. You make me laugh a lot and also make me remember mathematical stuff I once knew. But I was not sure to say this… and keep feeding your ego with my kind words. So in this way I’m killing two birds with one stone. I’m expressing well-deserved flatteries and at the same time taking them away with my observation expressed as an indecision.
One option is that you think my self-observation is stupid, so all that magic of “oh I’m so great” that should feed your ego will diminish to the point where you won’t even sense it. another option could be that it will make you have the ‘I-know-I’m-not-a-self.worshipping-person’ reaction so you will simmer down.
But the best thing of all is that—
my cat is licking my face. I guess she want me to stop messing around.
PS: I would say you’re awesome, but—-
You could do another internet voting contest for who gets to go on which date with you, making use of the algorithm and all the ideas. Readers can write in candidates for dates and other readers vote on who you should go with. Like Love Connection.
Toike: long running, yes. High quality, far from it. But xkcd can only improve the situation.
Found your website a few days ago and have been pouring through it since. Can’t remember how I got onto it . . . sorry, overproductive mucous cells at work befuddling head (sniff, coff, eeyew).
Anyway, your strips rate right up there with Calvin and Hobbes and higher praise than that, I cannot give.
Thanks for making me think.
Oh! And to the blokes involved in the marble puzzle forum – there is a whole world out there full of pretty girls, green grass, sunshine and ice-cream. Go. Discover. Enjoy.
Okay, okay, okay. So some things are not what they seem. I have my reasons.
Even if the date was a no-go, I liked the list. Gives me ideas. Plus I think the whole algorithm behind it is AWESOME.
Could you put the image title text outside of the image somewhere? The browsers I use only take the first several characters and cut off the rest of the sentence. Why not just put that text under the image as a caption or something?
I really enjoy your comic and have been telling everyone about it!
I’d lose the default Kubrick theme on your blag.
whoa, I found out about a physics prof (Dr. Smoot) here on berkeley campus getting the nobel prize a few days ago and I also just found (and became a cheering fan of) your webcomic yesterday. Now i just learned that he has a free t-shirt from you. If i ever see him wear it while carrying the nobel prize, that shirt may just somehow mysteriously end up in my backpack as I flee the scene…
Great job with the webcomic.. I actually found it through fark.com (someone posted it somewhere), and was like, hey the toike should publish it, so I emailed the editor.. and here we are..
Many commendations on your spectaculastic wobcomac. I love all the quirky references and off-beat humour, and am absolutely ecstastic to be able to read your comics from time to time each week and proudly call myself a geek after laughing out loud at a public internet service.
Thank you so much for making this site and sharing it with the world.
Hmm!
I just spent the last X hours reading your website instead of doing anything else… I read every comic… from end .. to start.
I want to marry you now, either that or randomly turn things upside down in your apartment, is that so wrong?
I love the “Science: It Works, Bitches” shirt, and I think I’m going to have to order one since I have a graduate class with one of the other most important people involved in the COBE mission, Ned Wright:
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/intro.html
They’re all brilliant astronomers, and I’m sure he’ll get a chuckle out of seeing that on the back of my shirt in class. Keep up the nerdy/dorky/fun!
I love xkcd!
Could you publish a longer list of the date ideas though, or just keep it up as a site like Funniest/Cutest/etc? All the ideas are great, I want more =)
good luck.
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The link to the awesome date suggestions isn’t working! I am distraught! I was goign to try them all! Plz to fix it so I don’t have to just go to the movies
I have the same request as Shopgirl! I’ve had the list in my favorites for a while, but now that I need it it isn’t working.
You call yourself nerds??
The contents of the broken link can be found elsewhere:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070629215309/http://xkcd.com/date/top.html
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