xkcd: volume 0 [Paperback]

Randall Munroe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2010 | Series: Xkcd

Randall Munroe describes xkcd as a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. While it's practically required reading in the geek community, xkcd fans are as varied as the comic's subject matter. This book creates laughs from science jokes on one page to relationship humor on another.

xkcd: volume 0 is the first book from the immensely popular webcomic with a passionate readership (just Google "xkcd meetup").

The artist selected personal and fan favorites from his first 600 comics. It was lovingly assembled from high-resolution original scans of the comics (the mouseover text is discreetly included), and features a lot of doodles, notes, and puzzles in the margins.

The book is published by Breadpig, which donates all of the publisher profits from this book to Room to Read for promoting literacy in the developing world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Breadpig (August 24, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615314465
• ISBN-13: 978-0615314464
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 0.4 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

154 of 161 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than a Print Version of the Free Comic August 18, 2010

By KAZ Vorpal, aka Michael Karl

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The author admonishes you, in his foreword, that you must have some kind of poor economic judgement, to be buying this book when the comic is free online.

But that does more to illustrate the kind of wit he has, than represent the truth, because the book is NOT a print-out of the pics you can get online, but is apparently based on the original, pen/pencil drawings (at least in part), giving you a (faint) insight into the process of their creation, plus giving a feeling of something authentic, like buying a cell from some favorite animation.

If you have NOT read the comic online, the domain name is XKCD (as you can infer from the name), go read it. If you'd have liked the book anyway, you'll be back to buy it out of sheer joy for the sarcky satire you've experienced.

Who will like XKCD?

* Anyone who likes Big Bang Theory. This is the one source of "nerd/geek" humor superior to that one.
* All Wikipedians, except the anal-retentive ones who didn't even want us to redirect the word malamanteau to the XKCD article.
* Those who are disgusted with "SyFy" for being ashamed of science fiction. (google "syfy, we disown you")
* The kind of people who hear about MIT pranks and think "I could have done better".
* Problem-solvers who, upon realizing that the a-hole ops of #Linux answer every question with "RTFM", spoof another IP while running a hacked ID validator and give wrong answers to their own questions, baiting the experts into jumping in with corrections. And then go help run #linpeople to answer the questions right.
* People who, having studied linguistics, math/physics, logic, engineering, or some other intellectual discipline, determine that the greatest benefit is all the extra puns it allows them to notice.
* Sarcastic romantics
* Pseudointellectuals...OK, they won't, but they'll feel obligated to pretend.
* I will. Did. Do. And that's what counts.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for fans August 26, 2010

By A. Morgan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This doesn't give you any new comics, but it does have a lulzy introduction that makes fun of you (the reader) for buying a printed version of a free webcomic. Still, if you're a fan of the series it's a must have just for the showcasing reasons alone. Also, whenever I want to introduce somebody to the GLORY that is XKCD, I can now say "here, browse through this!" instead of giving them a web address they'll likely never go to. Also, if you've never bought anything from the XKCD store but have been reading the comic for years (like me), this is your chance to give Randall some money finally!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great webcomic, decent collection May 2, 2011

By Rev. Pee Kitty

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

XKCD is one of the funniest webcomics on the net, period . . . at least, if you're a geek who's into math, physics, and computer science. And this is a nice collection of some of XKCD's earliest strips. It's not a PERFECT collection -- I questioned a few of the choices made when deciding which comics to include -- but most of the funniest early strips are in here. And it's great to have a version of XKCD that you can read on the toilet. :)