¡°What If? is one of my Internet must-reads, and I look forward to each new installment, and always read it with delight.¡± -Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
¡°Randall Munroe is a national treasure.¡± -Phil Plait
¡°For scientists, the price of progress is specialization. When the goal of any researcher is to lay claim to a tiny niche in a crowded discipline, it¡¯s hard for laypeople to find answers to the really important interdisciplinary questions. Questions like, 'Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?' Fortunately, such people can turn to Randall Munroe, the author of the XKCD comic strip loved by fans of internet culture. . . . For Munroe, who writes with a clarity and wit honed over eight years of writing captions for his webcomic, the fact that a question might be impossible to solve is no deterrent to pursuing it.¡± -Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog
"By speaking the language of geeks. . . while dealing with relationships and the meaning of a computer-centric life, xkcd has become required reading for techies across the world¡¦.The Internet has also created a bond between Mr. Munroe and his readers that is exceptional. They reenact in real life the odd ideas he puts forward in his strip." -The New York Times
"With his steady regimen of math jokes, physics jokes, and antisocial optimism, xkcd creator Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist, scores traffic numbers in NBC.com or Oprah.com territory. One key to the strip¡¯s success may be that it doesn¡¯t just comment on nerd culture, it embodies nerd culture." -Wired, in an issue featuring "the people who have shaped the planet¡¯s past 20 years"
"Sometimes the beloved geek-chic webcomic xkcd is funny in a broadly accessible way. Sometimes it¡¯s achingly poignant, sometimes it¡¯s socially intelligent, and sometimes it¡¯s esoteric humor that programmers or scientists have to explain to the rest of us. But at its most ambitious, it either packs massive amounts of interesting information into a small space, or engages in breathtaking experiments with the medium¡¦.[A]t its best [xkcd] isn¡¯t a strip comic so much as an idea factory and a shared experience." -Onion AV Club