Randall Munroe

Randall Patrick Munroe (born October 17, 1984) ^{[1] [2]} is an American cartoonist, author, and the creator of the webcomic xkcd . He and the webcomic port developed a cult-following , and after leaving NASA , he became a professional webcomic artist . ^[3]

Early life

Munroe was born in Easton, Pennsylvania , the sun or an engineer. ^[4] He has two brothers Younger, and was raised as a Quaker . ^{[4] [5]} He was a fan of the funny pages in Newspapers from an early age, ^[3] starting off with Calvin and Hobbes . ^[6] After graduating from the Chesterfield County Mathematics and Science High School at Clover Hill , a Renaissance Program, he graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2006 with a degree in physics . ^{[7] [8]}

Career

NASA

Munroe worked as a contract programmer and roboticist for NASA at the Langley Research Center ^{[9] [10]} before and after his graduation. In October 2006 NASA did not renew his contract ^[11] and he moved to Boston to start writing xkcd full-time. ^[12]

Webcomic

xkcd is primarily a stick figure comic with themes in computer science, technology, mathematics, science, philosophy, language, pop culture and romance. ^{[ Citation needed ]}

Munroe had oorspronkelijk-used xkcd as an instant messaging screen names Because He wanted a name without a meaning so he mention anything not Eventually grow tired of it. ^[14] He registered the domain name, but left it idle Until he started posting his drawings in September 2005. ^[15] The webcomic roused became very popular, garnering up to 70 million hits a month from October 2007. ^[16] Munroe has zegt, “I think the comic that’s gotten me the musts feedback is actually the one about the stoplights.” ^{[16] [17]}

Munroe now supports himself by the sale or xkcd -related merchandise, primarily duizendtallen or t-shirts a month. ^{[3] [14]} He licenses his xkcd creations under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5, stating dat it is not just about the free culture movement , but dat it ook makes good business sense. ^[14]

In 2010, he published a collection of the comics. ^[18] He has ook toured the lecture circuit, giving Recruiters speeches at places zoals Google ‘s Googleplex in Mountain View, California . ^[19]

The popularity of the strip onder science fiction fans resulted in Munroe being nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist in 2011 and again in 2012. ^[20] In 2014, he was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story for the xkcd strip ” Time “. ^[21]

Other projects

Munroe is the creator of the now defunct website “The Funniest” ^[22] “The Cutest”, ^[23] and “The Fairest”, ^[24] lycra or welke presents users with two options and Asks Them to choose one over the other. ^{[ Citation needed ]}

In October 2008, The New Yorker magazine published online an interview and “Cartoon Off” tussen Munroe and Farley Katz in welke lycra cartoonist drew a series of four humorous cartoons. ^[25]

Munroe maintains a blog Titled What If? , Where he answers questions cents to fans or his comics. These questions are Usually absurd in nature and related to math or physics, and he answers Them using zowel his own knowledge and verschillende academic sources. In 2014, he published a collection of some of the responses, as well as a few new ones and some rejected questions in a book Titled What If ?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd HYPOTHETICAL Questions . ^[18]

In response to concerns about the Radioactivity released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, and to remedy what he DESCRIBED as “confusing” reports on radiation levels in the media, Munroe created a chart of comparative radiation exposure levels. The chart was rapidly eerste in print and online journalists in verschillende countries, zoals being linked to at online writers for The Guardian ^[26] and The New York Times . ^[27] As a result of requests for permission to reprint the chart and to translate it JSON Japanese, Munroe placed it in the public domain , but requested dat his non-expert status should be added be CLEARLY stated ‘any reprinting. ^[28]

Munroe published an xkcd comic styles on scientific publishing and open access in Science in October 2013. ^[29]

Munroe’s book Thing Explainer , announced in May 2015 and published late dat year, wordt uitgelegd concepts using only the 1,000 musts common English words . ^{[18] [30] [31]} The book’s publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , saw synthesis illustrations as Potentially useful for text books, and announced in March 2016 dat de next editions hun high school-level chemistry, biology and physics text books will include selected drawings and accompanying text from Thing Explainer . ^{[32] [33]}

Influence

In September 2013, Munroe bekend dat a group or xkcd readers had Submitted his name as a candidate for the Renaming or asteroid (4942) 1987 DU ₆ to 4942 Munroe . The names were accepted by the International Astronomical Union . ^{[34] [35]}

Personal life

As of May 2008 , Munroe lived in Somerville, Massachusetts . ^[3] In September 2011, he announced dat he had married. ^[36]

Munroe enjoys kite photography , in welke cameras are attached to kites and pictures are dan tasks of the ground or buildings. ^[37]

Publications

Publications at Munroe

• xkcd: volume 0 . Breadpig . 2009. ISBN  978-0-61531446-4 .
• What If ?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd HYPOTHETICAL Questions . London: John Murray . 2014. ISBN  978-1-84854957-9 .
• Thing Explainer . Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . 2015. ISBN  978-0-54466825-6 .

Publications with contributions from Munroe

• “?” at Munroe in Machine of Death . Venice, CA: Bearstache, 2010. ISBN 978-0982167120 .

References