Randall Munroe

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Randall Patrick Munroe (* 17th October 1984 in Easton , Pennsylvania ) is an American comic book writer and former roboticists of NASA . He is best known as the operator of the xkcd website .

Randall Munroe re: publica 2016

Life

Munroe was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, but grew up in the suburbs of Richmond , Virginia and was interested in comics such as Calvin and Hobbes from an early age . After graduating from Mathematics and Science High School at Clover Hill in Chesterfield County , Virginia, he worked on robots at Christopher Newport University in Newport News at the Langley Research Center for NASA . After graduating as a physicist , he continued the work. Since NASA did not renew his contract in October 2006, he has been working full-time on his webcomic xkcd, which he started in 2005.

Randall Munroe with rubber ducks in 2008

He has lived in Massachusetts since June 2007 ; first in Somerville , later in Cambridge . In September 2011 Munroe married his girlfriend, who had developed breast cancer the year before.

Munroe finances himself by selling xkcd merchandise such as clothing, posters and stickers through his website, where he already sold several thousand T-shirts per month in 2008. He is a huge fan of Kite Aerial Photography .

In 2013 the asteroid (4942) Munroe was named after him at the suggestion of many fans.

Webcomic

xkcd is a stick figure comic focusing on computer science , technology , math , science , philosophy , language , pop culture, and love . The name xkcd has no meaning, according to Munroe it should only be a sequence of letters that cannot be pronounced in a word.

Munroe started the first publications in September 2005, albeit irregularly at the time. Since January 2006 Munroe has been posting a new comic every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The webcomic series quickly became popular and by October 2007 had up to 70 million views per month. Since July 2012 "what if?" an offshoot of the comic series, which is also operated by Munroe. Here he answers hypothetical and mostly absurd questions in a humorous and scientifically precise manner. Each answer also includes several comics. In 2014, Randall Munroe published a compilation of new and already answered questions and answers in paperback under the title what if? Serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions. (German: what if? What if? Really scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions. ) As of January 15, 2017, Munroe had 1,785 comics and 152 what if? s published online.

On November 24, 2015 Munroe Book Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words (German: things Definer - Thing Explainer: Complicated things in simple terms ) published, in which he in 50 drawings explains "complicated" different things, which he, however, only uses the 1000 most common words in English usage. The idea comes from xkcd comic number 1133, Up Goer Five , in which he applies the same principle to the Saturn V rocket .

Among other things, the popularity of xkcd among science fiction fans ensured that Munroe was nominated for the Hugo Award as Best Fan Artist in 2011 and 2012 and in 2014 won the award in the Best Graphic Story category for his 1190th Comic Time .

Book publications

In 2009 a book with comics from Munroe's webcomic series xkcd was published .

Munroe's comics are published in 11 languages ​​(as of February 2016).

Web links

Commons : Randall Munroe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/11/xkcd
  2. ↑ The Thing Explainer on Amazon (English)
  3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24
  4. ↑ http://www.iop.org/careers/workinglife/profiles/page_37750.html
  5. ↑ http://xkcd.com/about/
  6. ^ Noam Cohen: This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix In: New York Times . May 26, 2008, accessed October 1, 2013.
  7. ↑ The Thing Explainer on Amazon (German)
  8. ↑ http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/09/12/672/
  9. ↑ http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/
  10. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/media/26link.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
  11. ↑ http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2007/07/the-joys-of-kite-photography/
  12. ↑ JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 4942 Munroe (1987 DU6) , accessed September 30, 2013.
  13. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24
  14. ↑ Adrienne So: Real Geek Heart Beats in Xkcd's Stick Figures . In: Wired , Condé Nast Publications , November 13, 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2008. 
  15. ↑ http://xkcd.com
  16. ↑ http://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/
  17. ↑ https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/
  18. ↑ Hugo Awards 2014
personal data
SURNAME Munroe, Randall
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Munroe, Randall Patrick (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American comic book writer and former NASA robotics scientist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th October 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Easton , Pennsylvania