xkcd: Time

by Randall Munroe

"Time" is the 1,190th strip of Randall Munroe's webcomic xkcd. Beginning with a single frame published at midnight on March 25, 2013, the image was updated periodically (once per hour with a few exceptions) for 123 days, ending on July 26 with a total of 3,099 unique images. Each image represented a single frame in a larger story, essentially making the comic a video with an extremely low frame rate.

-Taken from Wikipedia

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Science Fiction, Humor, Webcomic, Hugo Awards

3101 pages, Unknown Binding

First published July 26, 2013

About the author

Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist, is the creator of the webcomic xkcd and the author of xkcd: volume 0. The International Astronomical Union recently named an asteroid after him; asteroid 4942 Munroe is big enough to cause a mass extinction if it ever hits a planet like Earth. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Udai · Rating 4 out of 5]

"-Where do you think we are?
-I don't know. But I bet we can figure it out!"
Plain simple and beautiful. Curiosity might have killed the cat but it gave humans the power of knowledge.

[R]

A story about curiosity and the adventure to satiate that curiosity.

I binge read but I can imagine the curiosity people might be feeling when they got one pane every day. Only the curiosity could've driven them to come back for more.

Thus the curiosity of the characters and the curiosity of the reader become one to become an experience.

As a story, it's nothing great but I guess that was the point, wasn't it?

[Amy (Other Amy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The sea can't just make more of itself forever."
"It can do whatever it wants. It's the sea."
"There must be a reason. There's a reason for everything."
"Yeah. But it's not always a good reason."

This is a wonderful little story and beautifully drawn, and it touches on so many of my little interests so well. (It reminded me powerfully of the game Journey in places, and that's a very good thing.) Unfortunately, it literally just stops mid story and pretends it's over. Still, not a bad use of an hour at all. I just wish there had been more of it.

[Callum G · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work is in a strange format that borders between graphic novel and animation. It's very unique method of storytelling and I imagine it would have been quite exciting following the project as it was released frame by frame. However, reading/watching all of Time in one sitting amplifies a rather weak plot and stretches that fought to keep my interest. I wouldn't say this work is bad, however if I was to sum it up in one word it would be 'neat'; sort of cool but you're not missing out on a lot if you don't read/watch it.

[Melanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun!

I remember seeing the few frames of this on the XKCD website but not enough had been published by that point for me to get too involved in the story.

But now that it's complete, it's a great story!

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A TED de Scott McCloud, "The Visual Magic of Comics", já tem 11 anos, contudo nunca é tarde para inovar no sentido daquilo que McCloud tentou apontar como potencial de inovação da banda desenhada online. Por outro lado, não deixa de ser estimulante, ainda que meramente coincidente, que a bd XKCD tenha sido iniciada também nesse mesmo ano, 2005. Mas se venho aqui hoje falar de XKCD, não é por nenhuma das datas acima, mas é antes porque estava a analisar a listagem de vencedores do Hugo Award para Best Graphic Story dos últimos anos quando me deparei com o facto, que desconhecia, de que o XKCD tinha ganho o prémio em 2014, num concurso que entravam alguns pesos pesados da indústria, “Saga, Volume 2” e “The Meathouse Man” de George Martin.

[Sugiro a leitura no blog, para acompanhar com imagens e links: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...]

Para quem anda pela web há alguns anos, e gosta de banda desenhada, duvido que nunca se tenha cruzado com o XKCD. Por uma razão ou outra, as suas tiras vão surgindo citadas, referenciadas, linkadas, discutidas. Se o desenho é básico, o seu autor tem um lastro capaz de lhe conferir temas de relevo, já que Randall Munroe (1984), antes de ser cartoonista, era físico investigador da NASA, onde trabalhava no design de robótica. Deste modo, o XKCD, não pela sua ilustração, embora a simplicidade seja relevante, mas pela formação, humor e persistência do seu criador, tornou-se em pouco tempo um dos maiores expoentes do género bd online, ou webcomic.

[imagem]
Interface de leitura, com o Play no topo, e a menção "at you own pace"; ao lado os botões de pausa e avanço; e ainda a indicação de que basta rolar o rato para avançar.

[imagem]
Interface que dá conta das votações nos quadros relevantes, que permitem controlar o framerate do play do webcomic.

No caso concreto de “Time”, é particularmente relevante o modo como abre novas fronteiras no campo da banda desenhada, graças ao suporte do digital, nomeadamente em direção à animação, criando mesmo uma espécie de novo medium, que não é bd bem é animação. Ou seja, em “Time” seguimos duas personagens ao longo de uma aventura futurista, e se por vezes parece ser uma simples animação, logo de seguida essa se converte em banda desenhada, com balões de fala, diálogos, que estatizam o movimento. Daí que a forma de experienciar o webcomic, possa acontecer em modos diversos, desde o avanço pelos simples rolar do rato, ou botões de teclado, ou ainda o apertar de um play que nos leva pela história fora, fazendo variar o framerate em função dos questionamentos do painel ou dos diálogos.

“with "Time," I thought about how there was the in-between space between animation, where you get many frames per second, and a daily comic, where you're getting updates every day. I couldn't think of anything that had been done in the in-between space” Randall Munroe in RollingStone, 2014

Estamos perante um verdadeiro misto de animação e BD, em que o motor assenta na variação do framerate do trabalho. A publicação foi feita, inicialmente espaçada de 30 em 30 minutos, e depois de hora a hora, publicando-se os 3101 quadros ao longo de 4 meses. Se este método de publicação é inovador, e provocador do meio, tudo se torna ainda mais interessante quando Munroe, resolve abrir o modo de acesso animado, à participação dos leitores, para que estes contribuam no definir do framerate. Ou seja, as pessoas que leem a BD, podem ir votando nos quadros que consideram importantes, que devem ser pausados, ou a velocidade de play reduzida, durante o visionamento. Esta informação coligida dos leitores, é depois apresentada por meio de feedback, um glow border, à medida que vamos passando pelos quadros específicos, e usada pelo player para fazer as pausas, e assim variar entre animação e sequencialidade gráfica.

Publicado no VI: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was...different. Not bad, just different.

2015 Book Bingo: Hugo award winner

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

how funny that this is here and review-able. It's awesome though

[Ravindra Pai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome night transition.

[Littlebookterror · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fascinating.

No compelling art style, interesting layout, beautiful colour palette or whatever else I usually exect from any comic. But compelling nonetheless.

The minuscule changes in the frames, the slow progression, the view words exchanged between our two protagonists - enchanting almost in a way.

[Nowhere Else · Rating 5 out of 5]

sort of avant-garde but still a cohesive story. The format is very interesting- cross between animation and comic strip. Left a feeling of being slightly unfinished, though I don't know why, and has an almost nostalgic feel. Definitely want to (read?) (look at it?) again, but it's somewhat lengthy so I don't know when I'll get around to it.
Link to the whole thing (at your own pace) : http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/

[Marylou (As the Page Turns) · Rating 4 out of 5]

That is so cool!

[Kačaba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je to neuvěřitelně krásný příběh v animaci.
Zaslouží si pozornost.

[Keith Moser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember originally seeing this on xkcd when it first started to be released in 2013—a new frame updating every 30 (and later 60) minutes. I remember visiting the site several times those first few days, seeing the community gather the frames on other sites to allow people to catch up with what they missed.

I didn't stick with the comic while it slowly revealed itself over the next few months, but when I saw xkcd: Time listed under Randall Munroe's books while reviewing his How To, I decided to find a way to finish reading it.

Thing is—I must have eventually heard the strip was over and watched it that summer because, as I watched it today, I realized I knew everything that happened.

It's a cute story that starts with a man & woman building sandcastles on the beach and ends with a race against time. The journey is filled with beautiful (yet simple) sketches and apparently an entire language invented for the strip (that 7 years later is still left untranslated!). The night scene (with Milky Way) was amazing.

[Adam Juhasz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A light-hearted caricature, hand picked from the frequently updated, web comic series. With the cleverly hinted annotations, great for giggles.

Randall Munroe seems to be a somewhat shy, yet still refreshengly honest and funny guy, with his unique perspective on oh so many subjects (check out the presentation he did for Google on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0...).

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Time many times (ha), and every time I'm more impressed. Unique format (somewhere between graphic novel and animation), art that's beautiful in its simplicity, fascinating story, thoughtful lines about curiosity and learning. Highly recommended, and the whole thing can be found online for free!

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so this isn't exactly a book, but it's one of the coolest things I've seen. It's basically 3102 xkcd frames that make a sort of graphic novel or animation. It's beautifully made, in the classic xkcd style, of course, and it's also a good story! Randall Munroe is awesome.

[Ngan Jjang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is so cool!!!!!!!!!!! in a very profound way I must say.

[Steven Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

cross between animation and comic

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

i want to cry. that was beautiful.

read it here: http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's sweet and a bit off the rails, like most XKCD comics

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a graphic story of over 3000 pages/panels, you'd expect the ending to be less rushed. I really enjoyed the very slow and reflective nature of this story until the very end, which was far too abrupt to be impactful as it could have been. Were the exact same ending stretched out to reflect the uncertainty and slow progress of building a new life in unknown territory, I think I would have appreciated it much more.

Aside from this, my biggest complaint is that there was a lot I didn't know until I read up on it. For example, there's no way I would have known about the missing star in the night sky, or what it signified. But perhaps that's the nature of a web-based comic since I do believe the creator elaborated on it at some point.

I really appreciate that this is available as a free ebook, and I'm glad the Popsugar challenge introduced me to it.

*2024 Popsugar Reading Challenge*
Advanced Prompt #5: A book that starts with the letter “X”

[Darth JarJar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a comic. Not a graphic novel, but a stick figure webcomic with 2 main characters. But Randall Munroe somehow is able to create a hard sci-fi story which is simple to understand, but super impactful. It also ends up being super uplifting at the end. I want to go to Chateau D'If.

[Ivka_s_knihou · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so cool.