What is XKCD?

Xkcd is a webcomic created by Randall Munroe, a former contractor for NASA. He describes it as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." Munroe states there is no particular meaning to the name and it is simply a "treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings."

The subjects of the comics themselves vary. Some are statements on life and love (some love strips are simply art with poetry), and some are mathematical or scientific in-jokes. Some strips feature simple humor or pop-culture references. Although known for its crudely drawn cast of stick figures, the comic occasionally features landscapes, intricate mathematical patterns such as fractals (for example, strip #17 "What If" shows an Apollonian gasket), or imitations of the style of other cartoonists (as during "parody week"). Occasionally, realism is featured.

The comic is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. New comics are added three times a week, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,at midnight EST although on three occasions so far they have been updated every weekday: parody week, the five-part 'Choices' series and the 1337 series.