# Randall Munroe
**Randall Munroe** is an American cartoonist, author, and former NASA roboticist best known as the creator of the webcomic xkcd, a stick-figure strip of romance, sarcasm, math, and language that updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday[1](https://xkcd.com/about/) • [2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2174177/randall-munroe/). He is also the author of *What If?*, *[Thing Explainer](https://www.edgepedia.org/thing-explainer)*, *How To*, and *What If? 2*, and of the science question-and-answer blog What If?[2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2174177/randall-munroe/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Education | Degree in physics from Christopher Newport University, with a math and computer science minor[1](https://xkcd.com/about/) • [3](https://spectrum.ieee.org/drawing-humor-from-stems-absurdist-extremes) |
| NASA work | Independent contract roboticist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia; developed 3D visualizations and robot navigation for a prototype Mars airplane[1](https://xkcd.com/about/) • [4](https://time.com/6215376/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-questions/) |
| xkcd | Launched 2005 from scanned notebook doodles; updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; licensed under Creative Commons[1](https://xkcd.com/about/) • [5](https://www.wired.com/2013/04/xkcd/) |
| Full-time cartoonist | Left NASA in 2006; a year later the site drew nearly 70 million hits a month[2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2174177/randall-munroe/) • [6](https://time.com/3204271/xkcd-when-physics-is-funny/) |
| Books | *What If?* (2014), *Thing Explainer* (2015), *How To* (2019), *What If? 2* (September 13, 2022)[4](https://time.com/6215376/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-questions/) • [7](https://blog.xkcd.com/2022/01/31/what-if-2/) |
| What If? | [Science](https://www.edgepedia.org/science-journal) Q&A blog started July 10, 2012, answering absurd hypotheticals with simulations, declassified research memos, and expert consultation[8](https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/) • [9](https://xkcd.com/what-if/) |
| Residence | Massachusetts (as of June 2007 by his own account; still listed there by his publisher)[1](https://xkcd.com/about/) • [2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2174177/randall-munroe/) |
## Education and NASA
Munroe studied physics, math, and computer engineering at [Christopher Newport University](https://www.edgepedia.org/christopher-newport-university) in [Newport News, Virginia](https://www.edgepedia.org/newport-news-virginia), and in his junior and senior years held an internship at NASA's Langley Research Center in [Hampton, Virginia](https://www.edgepedia.org/hampton-virginia)[4](https://time.com/6215376/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-questions/). His work involved developing 3D visualizations and robot navigation systems for a prototype Mars airplane; as he described it, his job was to make the robot drive around the lab, dodging chairs rather than Martian rocks[4](https://time.com/6215376/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-questions/). In a 2007 Physics World interview he said his final-year thesis on robotics at Langley developed into a full-time contract position during his last semester[10](https://physicsworld.com/a/once-a-physicist-randall-munroe/).
He credits his physics training as a bag of tools for looking at situations, which he uses to find funny material, and notes a practical effect: scientists e-mail him when he leaves a minus sign out of an equation, so he has to be sure of what he is saying[10](https://physicsworld.com/a/once-a-physicist-randall-munroe/).
## xkcd
xkcd began in 2005 when Munroe, then a physics student, started scanning the doodles he had scribbled in lecture notebooks so the work would not be lost, drawing square boxes around them and uploading them to a website to share with friends[1](https://xkcd.com/about/) • [11](https://www.wired.com/story/xkcd-randall-munroe-interview-how-to/). Traffic grew through word of mouth, email forwards, and bulletin-board posts, boosted early by a link from BoingBoing; within months the site was big enough that he could make xkcd his full-time job[1](https://xkcd.com/about/) • [11](https://www.wired.com/story/xkcd-randall-munroe-interview-how-to/). When one of his NASA contracts expired just as comic-based T-shirt sales took off, he decided not to seek another contract[10](https://physicsworld.com/a/once-a-physicist-randall-munroe/). A year after going full time in 2006, the site was drawing nearly 70 million hits a month[6](https://time.com/3204271/xkcd-when-physics-is-funny/).
The strip's visual language is deliberately minimal: stick figures, wide white space, no panel borders, and captions in a loose monospaced lettering[12](https://designbycurio.com/learn/xkcd-stick-figure-comic-2005). Munroe says he uses stick figures because he is "not very good at drawing," though the non-figure elements of his comics, from spaceships to machines, are rendered with care[13](https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/). Each strip carries hover text, an extra punchline or commentary shown when the reader mouses over the image[14](https://pure.hva.nl/ws/files/4784016/Digital_Comics_Harder_Better_Faster_Stronger_.pdf).
The comic's name is not an acronym; Munroe describes it as "just a word with no phonetic pronunciation," chosen partly because he wanted a domain with no O (mistakable for zero) and no L (mistakable for a one)[1](https://xkcd.com/about/) • [4](https://time.com/6215376/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-questions/).
**Licensing and remixing.** xkcd is covered by a [Creative Commons license](https://www.edgepedia.org/creative-commons-license) that encourages redistribution and remixing, and Munroe's site states that occasional reprints with attribution are welcome for non-merchandising uses[5](https://www.wired.com/2013/04/xkcd/) • [1](https://xkcd.com/about/). Readers have turned strips into a playable video game based on the 2010 comic "Hell," zoomable and keyboard-navigable versions of "Click and Drag," and an extensive fan wiki devoted to explaining the jokes[5](https://www.wired.com/2013/04/xkcd/).
**Experiments with the web format.** Several strips use the medium itself. "Click and Drag" (2011) opens onto an explorable image 46 feet wide at 300 dpi; a 2013 comic slowly turned into a 3,099-frame animation over several months; and the 2012 "Click and Drag"-era classic #1110 belongs to a set of episodes, including "Time," that experiment with digital affordances[5](https://www.wired.com/2013/04/xkcd/) • [6](https://time.com/3204271/xkcd-when-physics-is-funny/) • [15](https://backoffice.biblio.ugent.be/download/01JCDJHTBMW2XQMA012B13KPRT/01JCDJYEH5XJAJQ8P3CBFM86HA). In 2008 Munroe invented geohashing, a game in which participants travel to randomly generated GPS locations, which still generates fan meetups[5](https://www.wired.com/2013/04/xkcd/) • [11](https://www.wired.com/story/xkcd-randall-munroe-interview-how-to/).
## What If? and the books
Munroe started the What If? blog on July 10, 2012, with entries including "Relativistic Baseball" and "SAT Guessing"[8](https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/). He has said the project grew out of readers writing in with questions such as whether Superman could dodge a bullet without creating a shock wave, and from an experience teaching high schoolers, whose enthusiasm spiked once physics tools were applied to colorful questions like the energy expended in movie scenes[4](https://time.com/6215376/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-questions/) • [6](https://time.com/3204271/xkcd-when-physics-is-funny/). To answer, he runs computer simulations, reads declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults specialists such as nuclear reactor operators[9](https://xkcd.com/what-if/).
The first book, *What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions*, went on sale September 2, 2014, reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and was translated into 35 languages[4](https://time.com/6215376/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-questions/). *Thing Explainer* (2015) explains complicated things using only the thousand most common words in English[16](https://time.com/4116921/randall-munroe-draws-his-own-conclusions/). *How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems* (2019) proposes absurd but well-sourced solutions to everyday tasks, including a chapter in which [Serena Williams](https://www.edgepedia.org/serena-williams) tested whether tennis serves could bring down a drone, which took three tries[3](https://spectrum.ieee.org/drawing-humor-from-stems-absurdist-extremes). *What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions* was announced in January 2022 and published on September 13, 2022, answering new reader questions about riding helicopter blades, building a billion-story building, and making a lava lamp out of lava[7](https://blog.xkcd.com/2022/01/31/what-if-2/). A revised 10th anniversary edition of *What If?*, with new two-color annotations and illustrations, went on sale November 26, 2024 in the United States[9](https://xkcd.com/what-if/).
## Method and reception
Munroe describes his motivation as wanting the answers himself: "Once a question gets into my head, it will keep bugging me until I figure out the answer, whether I'm writing an article about it or not"[13](https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/). He notes that people often assume he is an expert in everything he jokes about, which he says is far from the case; he finds it easier to make jokes about a subject when first encountering it, before its oddities stop seeming odd[11](https://www.wired.com/story/xkcd-randall-munroe-interview-how-to/).
His work has reached beyond the web. WIRED described xkcd as the most popular comic on the web, with traffic in the territory of major media sites[5](https://www.wired.com/2013/04/xkcd/), and TED calls him one of a small group of professional web cartoonists whose comic draws millions of monthly page views[17](https://www.ted.com/speakers/randall_munroe). The TED Interview has described xkcd as [Hugo Award](https://www.edgepedia.org/hugo-award)-winning[18](https://www.ted.com/podcasts/ted-interview/randall-munroe-answers-your-wildest-questions-transcript), and in 2016 his comics were licensed for use in high school science textbooks[19](https://www.edweek.org/leadership/xkcd-author-randall-munroe-brings-comics-to-high-school-science-textbooks/2016/03). Since 2024, an official video adaptation of What If?, narrated by Munroe and produced with MinutePhysics creator Henry Reich's Neptune Studios, has run on YouTube[20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs28lEq9smw).
## References
1. [xkcd: About (Randall Munroe self-description and site policies)](https://xkcd.com/about/)
2. [Randall Munroe, Penguin Random House author page](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2174177/randall-munroe/)
3. [Q&A: XKCD Comic Strip Creator Randall Munroe, IEEE Spectrum (2019)](https://spectrum.ieee.org/drawing-humor-from-stems-absurdist-extremes)
4. [Could You Eat a Cloud? How Randall Munroe Became the Guru of Absurd Science Questions, TIME (2022)](https://time.com/6215376/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-questions/)
5. [xkcd: Embodying Nerd Culture to Rule the Web Comics Universe, WIRED (2013)](https://www.wired.com/2013/04/xkcd/)
6. [XKCD: When Physics Is Funny, TIME (2014)](https://time.com/3204271/xkcd-when-physics-is-funny/)
7. [What If 2, xkcd blog (January 31, 2022)](https://blog.xkcd.com/2022/01/31/what-if-2/)
8. [what if? and how to: archive, what-if.xkcd.com](https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/)
9. [What If?: the book(s), xkcd.com](https://xkcd.com/what-if/)
10. [Once a physicist: Randall Munroe, Physics World (2007)](https://physicsworld.com/a/once-a-physicist-randall-munroe/)
11. [xkcd's Randall Munroe on how to tackle our information hellscape, WIRED (2019)](https://www.wired.com/story/xkcd-randall-munroe-interview-how-to/)
12. [What is xkcd Stick Figure Comic (2005)?, Curio](https://designbycurio.com/learn/xkcd-stick-figure-comic-2005)
13. [See an Exclusive 'Self-Portrait' From the Creator of XKCD, TIME (2014)](https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/)
14. [Digital comics: harder, better, faster, stronger? (Josip Batinic, 2016)](https://pure.hva.nl/ws/files/4784016/Digital_Comics_Harder_Better_Faster_Stronger_.pdf)
15. [Hoverboard chapter in a study of digital comics, Ghent University repository](https://backoffice.biblio.ugent.be/download/01JCDJHTBMW2XQMA012B13KPRT/01JCDJYEH5XJAJQ8P3CBFM86HA)
16. [Randall Munroe Draws His Own Conclusions, TIME (2015)](https://time.com/4116921/randall-munroe-draws-his-own-conclusions/)
17. [Randall Munroe, TED Speaker profile](https://www.ted.com/speakers/randall_munroe)
18. [Randall Munroe answers your wildest questions, TED Interview transcript](https://www.ted.com/podcasts/ted-interview/randall-munroe-answers-your-wildest-questions-transcript)
19. [xkcd Author Randall Munroe Brings Comics to High School Science Textbooks, Education Week (2016)](https://www.edweek.org/leadership/xkcd-author-randall-munroe-brings-comics-to-high-school-science-textbooks/2016/03)
20. [What If? The Video Series, YouTube (xkcd's What If? channel)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs28lEq9smw)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Visual arts and design › Illustration and illustrators › Comic books and characters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license