Difference between revisions of "Comic series"
(initiating the cleanup, by transcluding category pages instead of having to update 2 pages every time.) |
(We might as well make it pretty now. More transclusions) |
||
| Line 11: | Line 11: | ||
This is a chronological list of all the series created by Randall. A series first becomes a series when it is clear that it will be a series, i.e. usually when the second comic in the series is released. It is thus not the first comic that determines the date for a series, but the second. This list is sorted after that date, when the second comic where released. | This is a chronological list of all the series created by Randall. A series first becomes a series when it is clear that it will be a series, i.e. usually when the second comic in the series is released. It is thus not the first comic that determines the date for a series, but the second. This list is sorted after that date, when the second comic where released. | ||
| − | ; 1 [[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel]] | + | ; 1 — [[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel]] |
: {{:Category:The Boy and his Barrel}} | : {{:Category:The Boy and his Barrel}} | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A four (or five to seven) comic series released over more than half a year from September 2005 to June 2006. The first comic was [[8: Red spiders]], released on the first day (as with Barrel above), but it first became a series when [[43: Red Spiders 2]] was released two month later with the same title and a number. A month later [[47: Counter-Red Spiders]] came out. The last true comic in the series was [[126: Red Spiders Cometh]] released half a year later. Only those four uses "Red Spiders" in the title. But later Red Spiders where depicted again (as in [[427: Bad Timing]]), but those were call backs to the original series rather than as a true part of the series. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Opening dialogue by Scott|Opening dialogue by Scott]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A three comic series released consecutive over the last part of a week. They were released the first week after xkcd comics where no longer released on LiveJournal but only released on xkcd. The first was released on January 31st 2006. The first comic released that week and only on xkcd was not part of this series. So when [[Randall]] wished to have all these three with the same title text (''Opening dialogue by Scott'') in the same week, the first [[57: Wait For Me]] was released already on the Tuesday after the Monday release. This was the first time a series had been released consecutively in a week. But the three comics where not directly related. | |
| − | + | ||
| + | ; [[:Category:Parody Week|Parody Week]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | : {{:Category:Parody Week}} | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Choices|Choices]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday in May 2007. It was the second series released like this, but it was the first time of four that the five comics of such a series were directly connected in a continuation story line. | ||
;[[:Category:1337|1337]] | ;[[:Category:1337|1337]] | ||
| Line 32: | Line 39: | ||
: {{:Category:Journal|Journal}} | : {{:Category:Journal|Journal}} | ||
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Secretary|Secretary]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the end of October 2008. It was the third series released like this where the five comics were directly connected in a continuation story line. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:The Race|The Race]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the beginning of May 2009. It was the fourth and last series released like this (as of 2025) where the five comics were directly connected in a continuation story line. But one more series were released like this the year after, but those comics stories where not related. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Online Communities|Online Communities]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A two comic series released with more than three years between the first [[256: Online Communities]] in May 2007, and the second [[802: Online Communities 2]] from October 2010. It was first the latter that with the same title and a number 2 made it into a series. This is the reason it is first listed chronologically here. It was not a series in 2007. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the second time that happened. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Five-Minute Comics|Five-Minute Comics]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A three comic series released consecutively over a week using the normal release schedule in the middle of November 2010. This is the second time a series has been released with three in one week, following the Opening dialogue by Scott in 2006 (but that time there were four comics in the week, one not belonging to the series). It is thus the only time that a week with three comics only where all released as a series. It was the first of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Guest Week|Guest Week]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the end of November 2010. It is so far (as of 2016) the last time of six that this occurred. The theme was the same, with five web comic artist making guest appearances on xkcd, so there were no connections between the comics themselves. It is the second time this happened, the first time was the first five day series in August 2006. It was the second of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer. Since this comic there has never been released more than three comics in a week. Also until October 2016 with the ''Time traveling Sphere'' there were never two comics directly related which were released as two consecutive comic in the same week (see below). But the next series Etymology-Man from 2012 also had two comics released in the same week, but they where not released consecutively and also there where no continued story from the first to the second. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phones]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A nine comic series (as of 2025) released over more than nine years between the first [[1363: xkcd Phone]] in May 2014 and the latest [[2831: xkcd Phone Flip]], from September 2023. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :It was first with the release of the second [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]] in December 2014 with the same title and a number 2 that it became a series. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the third time that happened and, but it is the first of this kind of series to progress beyond 2, so far all the way to 6. Only in Journal (that went to 5) did the numbering without including "part" progress beyond 2, and that was a true series where the story was connected. This is also what makes this a special type of series in xkcd not seen before, as it is clear that these are a series, but they are not connected as a story. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :Since then a few other comics have used the same system and reached at least 3, also where the comics are not part of a directly continued story. These are the Substitution series, where there as here are no relation except concept, Stargazing, where there is a bit more connection but no continuation and Code Quality, that reached three and then continued with different titles in the same series, thus reminding about the phone series. There where also other comics that progressed to getting a 2 after the name of the first. But that has already been seen before. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :After number six the number did not just go one up (2-6 for the second to sixth), but used 2000 to coincide with it being comic 2000 on xkcd. But then the next, number eight, used the number 12 as it was released near the release of {{w|iPhone 12}}. Finally the ninth was called xkcd Phone Flip, not even using a number to make fun of phones where the screen can be folded. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :This is by now the longest series with most comics connected to it (9 vs 8 in the Bad Map Projection series) and also the longest time span, with more than 9 years vs. close to eight years for the map series. However, the Stargazing series also had a new comic in 2025 that took that series to over 9 years with the fourth installment. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Exoplanet Names|Exoplanet Names]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A two comic series released with almost a year between the first [[1253: Exoplanet Names]] in August 2013, and the second [[1555: Exoplanet Names 2]] from July 2014. It was first the latter that with the same title and a number 2 made it into a series. This is the reason it is first listed chronologically here. It was not a series in 2013. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the fourth time that happened and so far. These two comics are not connected as a story, rather the second is an update to the list made in the first, even including most of the first list. this made this into a special type of series, in someway related to the xkcd phone series above. The first of these two comics came out before the first phone comic, but the second phone comic came before the second of these, thus explaining the chronology. And as opposed to the phone series this has not continued beyond 2. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Substitution series|Substitution series]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A three comic series (as of 2016) released over almost three years between the first [[1288: Substitutions]] in November 2013 to the third [[1679: Substitutions 3]] from May 2016, It first became a series with the second comic [[1625: Substitutions 2]] released in January 2016, explaining why it is placed after the two above. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the sixth time that happened. It is not a continuing series, but rather the same concept used again, more related to the xkcd Phone or Exoplanet names above, than to a comic series like Well. It was for long the only series, with numbers added, released like this over long time, that was at only three releases. But in February 2020 the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series also got a third installment. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A five comic series (so far as of April 2019) released with exactly four years years between the first and so far last in the series. When the first comic [[1513: Code Quality]] was released on the 17th of April 2015 it was not a series. That was first obvious when [[1695: Code Quality 2]] was released in June 2016. This series reminds of Well and Android, but with much longer time between the two releases. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the seventh time that happened. And then it continued with [[1833: Code Quality 3]] in May 2017 still adding to the number. It then changed the naming in [[1926: Bad Code]], which clearly belonged to the other three. This was released in December 2017. And has so far the series ended with yet another comic that changed the name again, this time to [[2138: Wanna See the Code?]] released on the 17th of April 2019, on the four year anniversary of the first in the series. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Time traveling Sphere|Time traveling Sphere]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A two comic series released over two consecutive but normal release day in the same week (a Monday and a Wednesday) in the middle of October 2016. This was a very strange release in many ways, and that has been described in great detail in the series category. Since then the same happened with Alien Visitors but on the last two days of the week not the first two. It was first clear that this was a series with the Wednesday release [[1748: Future Archaeology]] but not from the title which has very little direct relation to the first title [[1747: Spider Paleontology]], but the plot was clearly a continuation of the first comic. The series could in principle continue later, but it did not fill out the entire week, and stopped at those two. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :So far four comics have been released over more than four years, but given the Map projections have numbers between 45 and 358 there could be many more to come. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :The first was released on January 11th 2017, it was <nowiki> | |
| − | + | ; 107</nowiki>: [[1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize]]. And it became a series with the second comic released just a little more than a month later on February 15th with <nowiki> | |
| − | + | ; 79</nowiki>: [[1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones]]. The third, came almost three years later, and had <nowiki> | |
| − | + | ; 358</nowiki>: [[2256: Bad Map Projection: South America]]. It was released in January 2020. And one and a half year later the fourth <nowiki> | |
| + | ; 299</nowiki> [[2489: Bad Map Projection: The Greenland Special]] came out in July 2021. This was followed by <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 248</nowiki>: [[2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator|Madagascator]] in April 2022, then <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 152</nowiki>: [[2807: Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)|ABS(Longitude)]] in Jyly 2023, <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 45</nowiki>: [[2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas|2951: Exterior Kansas]] in June 2024 and finally so far with the 8th <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 102</nowiki>: [[2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia|The United Stralia]] in October 2024. The series seems to be something Randall will return to infrequently, having released comics in the series over a period of almost 8 years. At the moment it is only the xkcd phone series that has more entries with nine comics. also the only series to run over a longer time-span, with more than nine years between first and last release. It is similar to the later comic series Cursed Connectors. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:ISS Solar Transit|ISS Solar Transit]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :Two comics was released Monday and Friday in the same week. So in the same week as with the ''Time Traveling Sphere'' mentioned above. But having two comics in a series released in the same week with an unrelated comic in between was similar to Etymology-Man from 2012. So this was the second time this release schedule was used. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :The first comic, [[1828: ISS Solar Transit]], was released on Monday April 24, 2017 and the second, [[1830: ISS Solar Transit 2]], four days later on Friday April 28, 2017. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the eight time that happened. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:X Years|X Years]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :A three comic series (as of 2020) released over eight years between the first [[1141: Two Years]] from November 2012 to the third [[2386: Ten Years]] from November 2020. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :It first became a series with the second comic [[1928: Seven Years]] released in December 2017, five years later, duh! This is the date that is used to arrange it in this list. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :The series is about how many years it has been since Randall's wife's cancer diagnosis. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :A four comic series released over just a bit more than 9 years between the first [[1644: Stargazing]] in February 2016 to the fourth [[3072: Stargazing 4]] in April 2025. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :It first became a series with the second comic [[2017: Stargazing 2]] released in July 2018, one and a half year after the first, explaining why it is placed after the three above. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the ninth time that happened. Only a few comics have reached 3 like this, and very few reaches 4. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :There was a gap of more than five years between the third and the fourth, which was even longer than between the first and the third release as, [[2274: Stargazing 3]] came out in February 2020, almost exactly four years after the first. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :Once again a series where the follow up comics just adds a number to the title. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Old Days|Old Days]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :A two comic series released with almost 3.5 years between the. When the first comic [[1755: Old Days]] was released in November 2016 it was not a series. That was first obvious when [[2324: Old Days 2]] was released in June 2020. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the twelfth time that happened. The second comic continues the discussion of programming in the old days - directly from the first comic in spite of more than 3 years between them. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :Once again a series where the second comic just adds a "2" to the title. And once again one with long time between the first and the second comic, that made it a series. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Scale World|Scale World]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :A three comic series released during January 2021. The first [[2411: 1/10,000th Scale World]] from Wednesday January 13th 2021, was followed by [[2412: 1/100,000th Scale World]] in the next release on Friday January 15th 2021, thus making it into a series. And then the third [[2417: 1/1,000th Scale World]] came 14 days after the first on Wednesday January 27th 2021. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :The series depicts people walking on such scaled world, and what problems that could give, to them or the world. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :It was the first time that the two last comics of a week was connected into a series like this. And the second time that two connected comics where released consecutively in the same week. The first time this happened was with Time traveling Sphere, where the two comics where the first two of the week. But this series then had a third installment later, making it a one of kind release type for a series. The next series Alien Visitors used the same release of the two last comics of a week. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Alien Visitors|Alien Visitors]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :A two comic series released over two consecutive but normal release day Wednesday and Friday. The first comic [[2477: Alien Visitors]] was released 2021-06-16. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :It was first clear that this was going to be a series with the Friday release [[2478: Alien Visitors 2]] on 2021-06-18. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the 13th time that happened. It was the second time that the two last comics of a week was connected into a series like this, see above under Scale World for the first. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :So far seven comics have been released over two and half year, but given the connectors have numbers from 46 to 280 there could be many more to come. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :The first was released on July 23rd 2021, it was <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 187</nowiki>: [[2493: Dual USB-C]]. And it became a series with the second comic released just two comics later the next week on July 28th with <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 65</nowiki>: [[2495: Universal Seat Belt]]. | ||
| + | :Since then there have been <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 102</nowiki>: [[2503: Memo Spike Connector|Memo Spike Connector]] and <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 280</nowiki>: [[2507: USV-C|USV-C]] both in August 2021, <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 78</nowiki>: [[2589: Outlet Denier|Outlet Denier]] in March 2022, <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 120</nowiki>: [[2642: Meta-Alternating Current|Meta-Alternating Current]] i July 2022 and finally <nowiki> | ||
| + | ; 46</nowiki>: [[2880: Sheet Bend|Sheet Bend]] in January 2024. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :It is thus similar to the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series. And is now just one short of the number of bad maps on a much shorter time span. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Home Inspections|Home Inspections]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | :A two comic series (so far) released with a bit less than two months between the first two. The first comic [[3037: Radon]] was released 2025-01-13. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :It was first clear that this was going to be a series with the release of [[3059: Water Damage]] on 2025-03-05. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :The names where not related but Ponytail inspects Cueball's house with the same device and finds something lacking, which has to do with the planet the house was build on (Earth) rather than with the building it self. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :This was the first new series since July 2021, a span of more than 3,5 years with out a new series. But older series has been continuing during that time span though. | ||
==Other series== | ==Other series== | ||
{{incomplete|Need to add more explanations for series.}} | {{incomplete|Need to add more explanations for series.}} | ||
Here is a list of the (13 as of 2025) other types of series that has been used for explaining certain aspects of xkcd without being a series in any clear way on xkcd: | Here is a list of the (13 as of 2025) other types of series that has been used for explaining certain aspects of xkcd without being a series in any clear way on xkcd: | ||
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:A Smarter Planet|A Smarter Planet]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :A two comic series from the summer of 2009 made specially for IBM's blog A Smarter Planet, and thus not part of the regular xkcd comics. Although the obviously have been made as a set, their stories are not related in any way, and their titles [[Conservation]] and [[Prescriptions]] are also not related. So they would only make a series because they were made for the same specific reason. 2 unreleased comics included: [[ibm hc 2]] and [[ibm hc 3]]. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[April Fools' Day comics]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :These comics were put up on [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day]] (or shortly after) as an April Fools' Day joke. There has been an annual celebration of April Fools' Day every year since 2007, with a comic celebrating it released every year since 2011, except for 2017, where there was no celebration of any kind. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:Comics sharing name|Comics sharing name]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :This category lists comics that share name with another comic, or almost shares name. So many series would be here. But there are also some series like comics that are not directly related in a series, like the new years comics released under the title of the new year. (2012, 2014 and 2016 so far). Many of the comics that share name or almost share name is not in any way part of the same series. The category is mainly used for explaining comics with similar name. | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ; [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19]] | |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | :These comics are inspired by the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}. | |
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Facts|Facts]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Fun fact|Fun fact]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:How to annoy|How to annoy]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Pet Peeves|Pet Peeves]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Protip|Protip]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Science tip|Science tip]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; [[:Category:Tips|Tips]] | ||
[[Category:Comics|Series]] | [[Category:Comics|Series]] | ||
Revision as of 18:01, 10 May 2025
- For a list of the comic series, see Category:Comic series.
Some of the strips in xkcd are directly related to each other, rather than simply sharing a recurring topic.
Several of these series have been released in a series of five consecutively released comics using all five regular days in a week (like for instance with Secretary). This occurred several times between 2006 and 2010. But since then no series were released like this, although some series were released but with long separation between releases. That was until October 2016, when the "strange" series Time traveling Sphere were released. In the explanation for that series the strangeness of its release is discussed, relating back to how other series mentioned here have been released.
{{incomplete|This page has many issues:
We shouldn't use a numbered list, but rather
True series
This is a chronological list of all the series created by Randall. A series first becomes a series when it is clear that it will be a series, i.e. usually when the second comic in the series is released. It is thus not the first comic that determines the date for a series, but the second. This list is sorted after that date, when the second comic where released.
- "The Boy and his Barrel" is an early series of six comics, whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features Barrel Boy, a character that is different from what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. After Randall released the full The Boy and his Barrel story on the site, it became clear that the original comic 20: Ferret was also part of the series. The last image on the what if? article Niagara Straw features Beret Guy flying inside a barrel, which may be a reference to this series. The series is probably inspired by the novella The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Randall is known to be a fan of this book.
- A four (or five to seven) comic series released over more than half a year from September 2005 to June 2006. The first comic was 8: Red spiders, released on the first day (as with Barrel above), but it first became a series when 43: Red Spiders 2 was released two month later with the same title and a number. A month later 47: Counter-Red Spiders came out. The last true comic in the series was 126: Red Spiders Cometh released half a year later. Only those four uses "Red Spiders" in the title. But later Red Spiders where depicted again (as in 427: Bad Timing), but those were call backs to the original series rather than as a true part of the series.
- A three comic series released consecutive over the last part of a week. They were released the first week after xkcd comics where no longer released on LiveJournal but only released on xkcd. The first was released on January 31st 2006. The first comic released that week and only on xkcd was not part of this series. So when Randall wished to have all these three with the same title text (Opening dialogue by Scott) in the same week, the first 57: Wait For Me was released already on the Tuesday after the Monday release. This was the first time a series had been released consecutively in a week. But the three comics where not directly related.
- This series was released on five consecutive days from Monday-Friday in August 2006, instead of the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule. It was the first time of six that this occurred. The theme was parodying other web comics, but there was no connection between the comics themselves.
- A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday in May 2007. It was the second series released like this, but it was the first time of four that the five comics of such a series were directly connected in a continuation story line.
- The "1337" series tells the story of the family of the best hackers in the word. The title comes from "L-eet", or "elite", using the Leet alphabet, a coding system used primarily on the Internet (and on early text messaging system), meant to provide a bit of obfuscation to plain text, both to make it harder to read and to show off in a creative way using in-group jargon. The comic 327: Exploits of a Mom was a prequel for the series where the entire family is shown for the first time. This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week.
- The "Journal" series of comics chronicles the beginning of the relationship between Black Hat and Danish. It includes five comics released over about five months. The first one was released in January 2008, the second one a week later at the end of January, the third in April, and the fourth and fifth in June. Each of the first four comics was released in different weeks, but the last comic was released immediately after 432: Journal 4.
- A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the end of October 2008. It was the third series released like this where the five comics were directly connected in a continuation story line.
- A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the beginning of May 2009. It was the fourth and last series released like this (as of 2025) where the five comics were directly connected in a continuation story line. But one more series were released like this the year after, but those comics stories where not related.
- A two comic series released with more than three years between the first 256: Online Communities in May 2007, and the second 802: Online Communities 2 from October 2010. It was first the latter that with the same title and a number 2 made it into a series. This is the reason it is first listed chronologically here. It was not a series in 2007.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the second time that happened.
- A three comic series released consecutively over a week using the normal release schedule in the middle of November 2010. This is the second time a series has been released with three in one week, following the Opening dialogue by Scott in 2006 (but that time there were four comics in the week, one not belonging to the series). It is thus the only time that a week with three comics only where all released as a series. It was the first of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer.
- A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the end of November 2010. It is so far (as of 2016) the last time of six that this occurred. The theme was the same, with five web comic artist making guest appearances on xkcd, so there were no connections between the comics themselves. It is the second time this happened, the first time was the first five day series in August 2006. It was the second of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer. Since this comic there has never been released more than three comics in a week. Also until October 2016 with the Time traveling Sphere there were never two comics directly related which were released as two consecutive comic in the same week (see below). But the next series Etymology-Man from 2012 also had two comics released in the same week, but they where not released consecutively and also there where no continued story from the first to the second.
- A nine comic series (as of 2025) released over more than nine years between the first 1363: xkcd Phone in May 2014 and the latest 2831: xkcd Phone Flip, from September 2023.
- It was first with the release of the second 1465: xkcd Phone 2 in December 2014 with the same title and a number 2 that it became a series.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the third time that happened and, but it is the first of this kind of series to progress beyond 2, so far all the way to 6. Only in Journal (that went to 5) did the numbering without including "part" progress beyond 2, and that was a true series where the story was connected. This is also what makes this a special type of series in xkcd not seen before, as it is clear that these are a series, but they are not connected as a story.
- Since then a few other comics have used the same system and reached at least 3, also where the comics are not part of a directly continued story. These are the Substitution series, where there as here are no relation except concept, Stargazing, where there is a bit more connection but no continuation and Code Quality, that reached three and then continued with different titles in the same series, thus reminding about the phone series. There where also other comics that progressed to getting a 2 after the name of the first. But that has already been seen before.
- After number six the number did not just go one up (2-6 for the second to sixth), but used 2000 to coincide with it being comic 2000 on xkcd. But then the next, number eight, used the number 12 as it was released near the release of iPhone 12. Finally the ninth was called xkcd Phone Flip, not even using a number to make fun of phones where the screen can be folded.
- This is by now the longest series with most comics connected to it (9 vs 8 in the Bad Map Projection series) and also the longest time span, with more than 9 years vs. close to eight years for the map series. However, the Stargazing series also had a new comic in 2025 that took that series to over 9 years with the fourth installment.
- A two comic series released with almost a year between the first 1253: Exoplanet Names in August 2013, and the second 1555: Exoplanet Names 2 from July 2014. It was first the latter that with the same title and a number 2 made it into a series. This is the reason it is first listed chronologically here. It was not a series in 2013.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the fourth time that happened and so far. These two comics are not connected as a story, rather the second is an update to the list made in the first, even including most of the first list. this made this into a special type of series, in someway related to the xkcd phone series above. The first of these two comics came out before the first phone comic, but the second phone comic came before the second of these, thus explaining the chronology. And as opposed to the phone series this has not continued beyond 2.
- A three comic series (as of 2016) released over almost three years between the first 1288: Substitutions in November 2013 to the third 1679: Substitutions 3 from May 2016, It first became a series with the second comic 1625: Substitutions 2 released in January 2016, explaining why it is placed after the two above.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the sixth time that happened. It is not a continuing series, but rather the same concept used again, more related to the xkcd Phone or Exoplanet names above, than to a comic series like Well. It was for long the only series, with numbers added, released like this over long time, that was at only three releases. But in February 2020 the Stargazing series also got a third installment.
- A five comic series (so far as of April 2019) released with exactly four years years between the first and so far last in the series. When the first comic 1513: Code Quality was released on the 17th of April 2015 it was not a series. That was first obvious when 1695: Code Quality 2 was released in June 2016. This series reminds of Well and Android, but with much longer time between the two releases.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the seventh time that happened. And then it continued with 1833: Code Quality 3 in May 2017 still adding to the number. It then changed the naming in 1926: Bad Code, which clearly belonged to the other three. This was released in December 2017. And has so far the series ended with yet another comic that changed the name again, this time to 2138: Wanna See the Code? released on the 17th of April 2019, on the four year anniversary of the first in the series.
- A two comic series released over two consecutive but normal release day in the same week (a Monday and a Wednesday) in the middle of October 2016. This was a very strange release in many ways, and that has been described in great detail in the series category. Since then the same happened with Alien Visitors but on the last two days of the week not the first two. It was first clear that this was a series with the Wednesday release 1748: Future Archaeology but not from the title which has very little direct relation to the first title 1747: Spider Paleontology, but the plot was clearly a continuation of the first comic. The series could in principle continue later, but it did not fill out the entire week, and stopped at those two.
- So far four comics have been released over more than four years, but given the Map projections have numbers between 45 and 358 there could be many more to come.
- The first was released on January 11th 2017, it was ; 107: 1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize. And it became a series with the second comic released just a little more than a month later on February 15th with ; 79: 1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones. The third, came almost three years later, and had ; 358: 2256: Bad Map Projection: South America. It was released in January 2020. And one and a half year later the fourth ; 299 2489: Bad Map Projection: The Greenland Special came out in July 2021. This was followed by ; 248: Madagascator in April 2022, then ; 152: ABS(Longitude) in Jyly 2023, ; 45: 2951: Exterior Kansas in June 2024 and finally so far with the 8th ; 102: The United Stralia in October 2024. The series seems to be something Randall will return to infrequently, having released comics in the series over a period of almost 8 years. At the moment it is only the xkcd phone series that has more entries with nine comics. also the only series to run over a longer time-span, with more than nine years between first and last release. It is similar to the later comic series Cursed Connectors.
- Two comics was released Monday and Friday in the same week. So in the same week as with the Time Traveling Sphere mentioned above. But having two comics in a series released in the same week with an unrelated comic in between was similar to Etymology-Man from 2012. So this was the second time this release schedule was used.
- The first comic, 1828: ISS Solar Transit, was released on Monday April 24, 2017 and the second, 1830: ISS Solar Transit 2, four days later on Friday April 28, 2017.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the eight time that happened.
- A three comic series (as of 2020) released over eight years between the first 1141: Two Years from November 2012 to the third 2386: Ten Years from November 2020.
- It first became a series with the second comic 1928: Seven Years released in December 2017, five years later, duh! This is the date that is used to arrange it in this list.
- The series is about how many years it has been since Randall's wife's cancer diagnosis.
- A four comic series released over just a bit more than 9 years between the first 1644: Stargazing in February 2016 to the fourth 3072: Stargazing 4 in April 2025.
- It first became a series with the second comic 2017: Stargazing 2 released in July 2018, one and a half year after the first, explaining why it is placed after the three above.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the ninth time that happened. Only a few comics have reached 3 like this, and very few reaches 4.
- There was a gap of more than five years between the third and the fourth, which was even longer than between the first and the third release as, 2274: Stargazing 3 came out in February 2020, almost exactly four years after the first.
- Once again a series where the follow up comics just adds a number to the title.
- A two comic series released with almost 3.5 years between the. When the first comic 1755: Old Days was released in November 2016 it was not a series. That was first obvious when 2324: Old Days 2 was released in June 2020.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the twelfth time that happened. The second comic continues the discussion of programming in the old days - directly from the first comic in spite of more than 3 years between them.
- Once again a series where the second comic just adds a "2" to the title. And once again one with long time between the first and the second comic, that made it a series.
- A three comic series released during January 2021. The first 2411: 1/10,000th Scale World from Wednesday January 13th 2021, was followed by 2412: 1/100,000th Scale World in the next release on Friday January 15th 2021, thus making it into a series. And then the third 2417: 1/1,000th Scale World came 14 days after the first on Wednesday January 27th 2021.
- The series depicts people walking on such scaled world, and what problems that could give, to them or the world.
- It was the first time that the two last comics of a week was connected into a series like this. And the second time that two connected comics where released consecutively in the same week. The first time this happened was with Time traveling Sphere, where the two comics where the first two of the week. But this series then had a third installment later, making it a one of kind release type for a series. The next series Alien Visitors used the same release of the two last comics of a week.
- A two comic series released over two consecutive but normal release day Wednesday and Friday. The first comic 2477: Alien Visitors was released 2021-06-16.
- It was first clear that this was going to be a series with the Friday release 2478: Alien Visitors 2 on 2021-06-18.
- Adding the number “2” to make it into a series is like the Well series, and this was the 13th time that happened. It was the second time that the two last comics of a week was connected into a series like this, see above under Scale World for the first.
- So far seven comics have been released over two and half year, but given the connectors have numbers from 46 to 280 there could be many more to come.
- The first was released on July 23rd 2021, it was ; 187: 2493: Dual USB-C. And it became a series with the second comic released just two comics later the next week on July 28th with ; 65: 2495: Universal Seat Belt.
- Since then there have been ; 102: Memo Spike Connector and ; 280: USV-C both in August 2021, ; 78: Outlet Denier in March 2022, ; 120: Meta-Alternating Current i July 2022 and finally ; 46: Sheet Bend in January 2024.
- It is thus similar to the Bad Map Projections series. And is now just one short of the number of bad maps on a much shorter time span.
- A two comic series (so far) released with a bit less than two months between the first two. The first comic 3037: Radon was released 2025-01-13.
- It was first clear that this was going to be a series with the release of 3059: Water Damage on 2025-03-05.
- The names where not related but Ponytail inspects Cueball's house with the same device and finds something lacking, which has to do with the planet the house was build on (Earth) rather than with the building it self.
- This was the first new series since July 2021, a span of more than 3,5 years with out a new series. But older series has been continuing during that time span though.
Other series
|
This is one of 60 incomplete explanations: Need to add more explanations for series. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
Here is a list of the (13 as of 2025) other types of series that has been used for explaining certain aspects of xkcd without being a series in any clear way on xkcd:
- A two comic series from the summer of 2009 made specially for IBM's blog A Smarter Planet, and thus not part of the regular xkcd comics. Although the obviously have been made as a set, their stories are not related in any way, and their titles Conservation and Prescriptions are also not related. So they would only make a series because they were made for the same specific reason. 2 unreleased comics included: ibm hc 2 and ibm hc 3.
- These comics were put up on April Fools' Day (or shortly after) as an April Fools' Day joke. There has been an annual celebration of April Fools' Day every year since 2007, with a comic celebrating it released every year since 2011, except for 2017, where there was no celebration of any kind.
- This category lists comics that share name with another comic, or almost shares name. So many series would be here. But there are also some series like comics that are not directly related in a series, like the new years comics released under the title of the new year. (2012, 2014 and 2016 so far). Many of the comics that share name or almost share name is not in any way part of the same series. The category is mainly used for explaining comics with similar name.
- These comics are inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.
