Randall Munroe

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Randall Munroe

Randall Munroe
Born Randall Patrick Munroe
Easton, Pennsylvania
Nationality American
Area(s) Pen and pencil
Webcomics
Notable works xkcd
Official website

Randall Patrick Munroe is a programmer best known for creating the webcomic xkcd. He and the webcomic have developed a cult following, and he is one of a small but growing group of webcomic artists who are self-sufficient.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Munroe was a fan of the funny pages from an early age,[1] starting off with Calvin and Hobbes.[2] After graduating from the Chesterfield County Mathematics and Science High School at Clover Hill: A Renaissance Program, he graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2006 with a degree in Physics.[3][4] Munroe worked as an independent contractor for NASA at the Langley Research Center[5] before and after his graduation. In January 2006 his NASA contract lapsed and he began to write xkcd full-time. He now supports himself by the sale of xkcd related merchandise.[1][6] The webcomic quickly became very popular, garnering up to 70 million hits a month by October 2007.[7]

He has also toured the lecture circuit, giving speeches at such places as Google's Googleplex in Mountain View, California.[8]

He is also known for a check he wrote to Verizon which used an advanced math expression to specify its amount.[9] The check was written as a protest against problems a fellow customer experienced with Verizon's billing department.[10]

Munroe lives in Somerville, Massachusetts[1] and has two brothers: Doug[11] and Ricky.[12]

[edit] Webcomic

Main article: xkcd
Munroe's cartoons often use internet culture to comment on larger social issues

xkcd is a stick figure comic with themes in computer programming, mathematics, science, language, and romance.

He had originally used xkcd as an instant messaging screenname because he wanted a name without a meaning so he wouldn't eventually grow tired of it. He registered the domain name, but left it idle until he started posting his drawings[6] in September 2005.[13] The comic has a very loyal fanbase. Munroe said, "I think the comic that's gotten me the most feedback is actually the one about the stoplights".[7]

Munroe licenses his creations under the Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial 2.5 license, stating that it isn't just about the free culture movement, but that it also makes good business sense.[6] His income derives from the sale of merchandise to his fans, sales consisting of thousands of t-shirts a month.[1]

[edit] Other projects

Munroe is the creator of the websites "BestThing"[14], "The Funniest"[15], and "The Fairest"[16], which each present users with two options and ask them to choose one over the other.

The "WetRiffs" website was started as a joke, one month after drawing the "Rule 34" comic, "lamenting the lack of guitar-in-the-shower pictures on the internet."[17]

LimerickDB encourages the creation of new and the collection of old limericks.[18]

Most recently he started a Geohashing wiki based on one of his comics which contains an algorithm that generates pseudo-random coordinates around the world every day.[19]

Aside from maintaining his websites, Munroe also engages in kite photography, in which cameras are attached to kites and pictures are then taken of the ground or buildings.[20]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Cohen, Noam (2008-05-26). "This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/media/26link.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. Retrieved 2008-09-25. 
  2. ^ @Google Talks (venue). (2007-12-11) (Adobe Flash). Authors@Google: Randall Munroe. [Digital video]. Mountain View, California: Google. Event occurs at 24:13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24. Retrieved 2008-09-25. "...Calvin and Hobbes was the first comic that I discovered." 
  3. ^ Munroe, Randall. "About". xkcd. http://xkcd.com/about/. Retrieved 2008-09-26. 
  4. ^ "582 students receive diplomas from Christopher Newport University". Christopher Newport University. 2006-05-17. http://universityrelations.cnu.edu/news/2006/05_17_06grads.html. Retrieved 2008-05-30. 
  5. ^ "Authors@Google: Randall Munroe". @Google Talks. Mountain View, California: Google. 2007-12-11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24. Retrieved 2008-09-25. 
  6. ^ a b c Fernandez, Rebecca (2006-10-12). "xkcd: A comic strip for the computer geek". Red Hat Magazine (Raleigh, North Carolina: Red Hat). http://www.redhat.com/magazine/025nov06/features/xkcd/. Retrieved 2008-09-25. 
  7. ^ a b So, Adrienne (2007-11-13). "Real Geek Heart Beats in Xkcd's Stick Figures". Wired (San Francisco: Condé Nast Publications). ISSN 1059-1028. http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/11/xkcd. Retrieved 2008-09-25. 
  8. ^ Spertus, Ellen (2007-12-21). "Randall Munroe's visit to Google (xkcd)". Beyond Satire. http://www.beyondsatire.us/?q=node/272. Retrieved 2008-09-25. 
  9. ^ "The check". http://xkcd.com/verizon/. 
  10. ^ http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/
  11. ^ http://xkcd.com/32/
  12. ^ http://xkcd.com/510/ See mouseover text
  13. ^ @Google Talks (venue). (2007-12-11) (Adobe Flash). Authors@Google: Randall Munroe. [Digital video]. Mountain View, California: Google. Event occurs at 48:05. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24. Retrieved 2008-09-25. "I'm pretty sure I started in September 2005." 
  14. ^ http://bestthing.info
  15. ^ http://thefunniest.info
  16. ^ http://thefairest.info
  17. ^ Munroe, Randall (2008-03-18). "Home". wetriffs.com. http://wetriffs.com/. Retrieved 2008-09-26. 
  18. ^ Munroe, Randall (2008-02-04). "LimerickDB.com". Blag. xkcd. http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/02/04/limerickdbcom. Retrieved 2008-09-26. 
  19. ^ xkcd's geohashing wiki
  20. ^ Ben Kuchera, The joys of kite photography, Ars Technica, 2007-07-02

[edit] External links

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