[Archive 2008-03-04] Randall Munroe, writer of xkcd, talks about the comic, politics and the internet

Historical archive — originally published 2008-03-04. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Randall Munroe is the writer of the popular webcomic xkcd. The comic is known for its geeky humor and minimalist drawing style that generally uses stick figures. Munroe worked as a contractor for NASA before writing xkcd full time in 2006.

Wikinews reporter Joshua Zelinsky interviewed Munroe at Vericon, Harvard's annual science fiction convention.

RM: xkcd is a webcomic that I started while I was in the middle of more productive things, school and work, that sort of by accident turned into a big thing and eventually became what I did professionally. I quit my job and got out of school and started drawing pictures on the internet. A lot of math and computer people like it, science people. It's sort of nerdy in general.

((WN)) So, you have a somewhat non-standard style rule for typing out "xkcd" which I know has caused great consternation on Wikipedia and elsewhere.

((WN)) I should actually apologize slightly if there’s much overlap between these questions and questions you got during the panel.

R. When I’ve done this so much I have no memory of past questions. You can ask me the same thing three or four times.

((WN)) Maybe I should and then go back to the same question later and see. So if you had to give advice to someone starting a webcomic what would you say?

R. Don’t look at xkcd and think that it means that you don’t have to take care with what you do. There are a lot of comics that have the same general idea, good writers, but they don’t realize that presentation is important. Just because a comic is successful with stick figures doesn’t mean you can make it hard to read; that you should scan it sloppily. It's important to think about it from the readers looking at it, and see from their point of view, like are they going to get it. Another big tumbling block is do not comment on your jokes after you make them, do not write “this is how I feel about this comic” because then they won't form their own opinions and they won’t believe the ones they’ve formed. Pay a lot of attention to the experience of someone reading it, and keep that in mind.

((WN)) I know just from reading the forums on xkcd that some people have been critical as it’s become more of a standardized joke-a-day webcomic instead of a personalized more or less scans of your old pages and artwork. How would you respond to that?

RM. I guess only about 2% of the population is going to like the strip in the first place so I always expected that there are a lot of people who don’t like the strip and aren’t going to read it. Frequently people started reading for the more artistic stuff and then now want more of that. I don’t really know what to say to that other than that what I’m doing is what I feel like I have to contribute more of. I feel like there are a lot of people who are good at the kind of art they are doing and you know, have better messages there. Whereas when I’m telling a joke and I get it just right that’s what I’m doing well. I’m just just doing whatever I think I can do well and will be proud of and so if that wanders from one thing to another over time, that’s not something I can control.

Source and licence

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