xkcd (a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language) is getting the book treatment. Randall Munroe, the series creator, is stepping into the dead-tree world, but not without bringing some of the online strip's ethos with him.
The idea behind the book is to create an artifact, rather than to monetize what is already available on the web for free. xkcd is to be published by breadpig, founded Alexis Ohanian, one of the Reddit co-founders.
The book will also be released with the blessing of the author for readers to freely distribute it, which is unheard of with traditional publication.
I'm interested to see how this works, since the publishing industry has had little true head-to-head competition from self-publishers, and e-readers are still relatively scarce enough for books to keep the portable-reading crown.
Not a book for Kindle, I should add. A print book — you know, dead trees, ink, no text search, nonadjustable font size.
It's been clear from pretty much the beginning that Munroe understands that getting more widely known is a lot more important than worrying about "piracy," and it's great to see him take that attitude even further.
Oh, and if you're wondering how Munroe will handle that tooltip text that pops up when you hover over one of his cartoons, he's already thought of that.
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