LiveJournal
Before Randall started using the xkcd.com website, he posted his comics on LiveJournal using the "xkcd_drawings" account. The images on the page are now broken, but there are archived versions with most of images:
The first xkcd comic was 7: Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class), released on September 30, 2005, and the fiftly-second and last comic released on LiveJournal was 55: Useless, posted on January 27, 2006. The last post on the LiveJournal account was posted on April 23, 2006. It warned that the old account has been closed and recommended friending the new account, called "xkcd_rss". Despite saying the account would be "deleted soon", the account still exists.
Comics posted on LiveJournal before xkcd.com
First day on LiveJournal
The first thirteen comics were posted on LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account. The first comic posted on that day was 7: Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class) and the last one was 11: Barrel - Part 2. Starting from the next post, he began following the normal Monday, Wednesday, Friday release date routine, although he often posted the comic a little before midnight or even forgetting to post the comic in time, making them come out a day earlier.
Winter break
The last comic to be released before xkcd.com was in use was 39: Bowl. It came out as the 41st on LiveJournal on December 5, 2005, but the following day Randall made a LiveJournal post Announcement:What with winter break starting and the like, I'll probably be going off my regular update schedule. I'll try to post something here and there, and might end up doing more drawings than I expect, but won't stick to the MWF schedule.
Thanks for the support! This has been and will continue to be a lot of fun.
This may be due to his exams coming up, or the preparation for the release of xkcd.com the following year. The next LiveJournal comic, 45: Schrodinger, was released almost a month later, on January 4, 2006.
Comics posted both on LiveJournal and on xkcd.com
Most of the next eleven comics posted on LiveJournal, from 45: Schrodinger to 55: Useless, were posted on the same days on both sites. For unknown reasons, on January 18, 2006, 54: Science was posted on LiveJournal on the same day that 51: Malaria was released on xkcd.com. Three days later, on January 21, 2006, 51: Malaria was posted on LiveJournal, thus forcing the next two comics (52: Secret Worlds and 53: Hobby) to be released on xkcd.com two days before LiveJournal. Four days later, on January 25, 2006, 54: Science was finally posted on xkcd.com, which fixed the date discrepancies and allowed the next comic, 55: Useless, to be published on the same day across both sites.
When the next comic, 56: The Cure, came out only on xkcd on January 30th, 2006, the following message was posted at the same day on LiveJournal:
- I'm closing down this journal. Friend the new feed.
First day on xkcd.com
The xkcd website opened up on January 1, 2006 where comics with numbers from 1-44 was released. All 41 comics posted before that on LiveJournal was added to xkcd on this day, but in a different order. There were for instance five older comics posted after the previous 39: Bowl, before the next 45: Schrodinger. These now have the numbers between those two comics. It is the comics from 40: Light to 44: Love.
Comics posted on xkcd.com
Only 11 of the original LiveJournal titles was reused when posted on xkcd. Even among the last 11 comics posted on both sites only six used the same title. Several of the comics did not even get a title, but only the date as in Fridays comic.
Most of the comics posted on LiveJournal had an original Randall caption beneath the picture, and many had comments by LiveJournal users. Randall did not use a title text before the xkcd site. All the comics reposted from LiveJournal to xkcd had a title text, but this almost never the same as the note beneath the picture from LiveJournal, although the gist of it was often along the same lines.
In the trivia section for all the comics posted on LiveJournal, the original title and note if any will be listed, as well as the original LiveJournal release number, and the previous and the next comic released there. It thus possible to go through them in the original release order through the trivia section. Also, in the Category:Posted on LiveJournal the comics are also sorted in this correct LiveJournal release order.
Comics posted only on xkcd.com
There were also two new comics released on the first day of xkcd.com and one added a few months later that have never been posted on LiveJournal.
12: Poisson and 5: Blown apart were exclusively published on the first day of xkcd.com and were never shared on LiveJournal. 36: Scientists was instead initially published as a duplicate of comic 10: Pi Equals. Over three months after the original posting, Randall noticed the error and corrected it sometime between April 23, 2006 and July 5, 2006, when the updated version appeared in the Web Archive. He likely found an old drawing that was never meant for publication and used it instead, so it wouldn't appear out of place among the other comics from that period. This is why 36: Scientists doesn't have a date like most others.
