The Tell-Tale Beat
by Jeff
Image text: You fancy me mad. Could a madman have outsmarted the greatest electronica/techno artists of our era? Next to fall will be Roderick Usher's house/trance band.
This is a reference to the Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe in which the character in the short story kills and buries a body underneath the floorboards in his house. He is haunted by the sound of a beating heart from under the floorboards until he admits his guilt.
"You fancy me mad" in the image text is a direct reference to Poe's story in which he says "If you still think me mad..."
Daft Punk is as it says in the image text is an "electronica/techno"artist. When the character in the comic buries Daft Punk under his floorboards, all he hears is the typical "Unn-Tss" sound that makes the back-beat for most techno and electronica songs.
In the image text, Roderick Usher is a reference to "The Fall of the House of Usher", another short story by Edgar Allen Poe. And the pun is on the word "fall" where it is used to mean die but is also a reference to the title of the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher".
Flatland
by Jeff
Image text: Also, I apologize for the time I climbed down into your world and everyone freaked out about the lesbian orgy overseen by a priest.
Flatland is a short story by Edwin Abbott Abbott. Yes, that is really his name. In Flatland, women are represented by lines, and the more important a man is, the more sides he has. The least important male would be a triangle and the priest, in Flatland, has so many sides, he looks like a circle. So, the image text is a reference to how an xkcd stick figure would look to the members of Flatland. The text for Flatland is on Wikisource here, if you feel like browsing on your Wednesday morning.
Miegakure is an actual game in development that will allow the player to move in 4 dimensions. The website is here, with a screen shot that looks eerily similar to panel 2.
And if you didn't realize, Spongebob is a reference to Spongebob Squarepants, the Nickelodeon cartoon about a sponge named Spongebob. Spongebob is a square (as his name implies) - so that is why the character in the comic is able to draw arms and legs on the square to make him look like Spongebob Squarepants.
Prudence
by Jeff
Image text: Moments later, the White Witch rolls up and, confused, tries to tempt the probe with a firmware upgrade.
This comic is a reference to the book The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis and later made into a movie. The children in the book are playing "hide and seek" in an unfamiliar house when one child hides in a wardrobe. They then find a entire world known as Narnia behind (or inside) the wardrobe.
The comic is making a play on the Narnia tale, by instead of the child exploring the new world herself, she sends a probe. This is similar and possibly a reference to the probes that NASA deploys to gather information about new worlds. It also may be a reference to Stargate, in which the Stargate Command sends a probe to new worlds to gather information about the world.
EDITED TO ADD: The title appears to be a reference to the fact that the child in the comic does not run blindly into the new world, like in the book, but instead she deploys the probe to gather information first, which would be seen as "prudent".
Collections
by Jeff
Image meta text: You know what really helps an existential crisis? Wondering how much shelf space to leave for a Terry Pratchett collection.
Existentialism is a philosophy revolving around the individual and trying to understand and derive meaning through society and the world at large is an impossible task. The Existential girl in this comic in speaking about the struggles of the individual and the other character is talking about his Kindle.
Kindle is a eBook reader sold by Amazon.com.
Discworld is a fantasy series by Terry Pratchett, there are 36 novels in total. Because there are so many books in the ever-expanding universe created by Terry Pratchett, the image text mentions that one can never have enough space on the shelf because there will always be more novels written.
DRM is short for Digital Rights Management, which is a way for content providers to protect their content. The use of DRM is widely criticized by consumers.
What do you think? Am I right about Existentialism? Do you hate DRM or love Terry Pratchett?
Asteriod
by Jeff
Image meta text: My Deep Impact/Little Prince crossover fanfic has been poorly received by the community.
Deep Impact is a motion picture from 1998 in which the protagonists have to blow up a asteroid that is headed to Earth. The Little Prince is a book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in which the Little Prince's home was on an asteroid.
In the comic, The Little Prince's asteriod home is headed towards Earth and the Deep Impact part of the fanfic lands the nuclear robot on The Little Prince's home.
Sheeple
by Jeff
Image meta text: Hey, what are the odds -- five Ayn Rand fans on the same train! Must be going to a convention.
Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American novelist and activist whose most famous books include, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem and The Fountainhead. She was philosophical pro-individual and anti-collectivism.
The word "sheeple" is to refer to people who blindly follow direction without thinking for themselves. It is mainly used in the phrase "Wake up Sheeple!", in reference to people who are accepting the party line.
Sheeple coordinates with Ayn Rand's novel, Anthem, set in the distant future in which the word "I" has been abolished and the "evils" of the communal values have created a new dark age.