[Rudism]

The thing I'm most confused about is I thought xkcd was one guy named Randall's webcomic, but this post makes it sound like there are several people involved in creating the comics. Is that the case? Does Randall still draw them or is it like a company with a whole creative team now?

[aiiane]

Most comics are just Randall, but there are a handful of people who contribute to the occasional more unique / interactive comics, such as the April Fools ones.

[aidenn0]

I believe his April 1st "comics" have always been coded by someone else; there's been development notes by the developer(s) like this posted after each one.

[saganus]

I am actually a little relieved because everytime one of these interactive XKCD comic is published I wonder how does Randall find enough time to work on them, plus What If, etx.

Of course there are some people that simpliy are hyper productive, but the level of detail and complexity of these comics always made me feel a bit "inadequate" :)

[nolongerthere]

tbf, I don't think he has another job, so if he's only creating 3 comics a week and writing his books, there is def enough time as a side project to put out a fun annual comic that requires a bit of work, obviously it would need to be planned well in advance, which it appears this was not.

[Osmium]

> “only creating 3 comics a week”

As if this is not an absolutely breathtaking creative accomplishment, especially so consistently and after so many years!

I agree with another commenter that it probably does get easier with experience, but nevertheless impressive.

[phire]

I've always assumed he has a large backlog of comics, and a script that pushes them out on schedule.

He can always push new comics into the queue based on current events or fresh ideas, but at other times he can probably go for weeks without needing to draw new comics.

[9dev]

Well, do that for a while, and the queue will empty rapidly :)

[saganus]

Right. Maybe the workload is manageable, especially for someone with the amount of experience he has, nevertheless the breadth of the stuff he does is what amazes me the most.

Just programming one of those interactive comics must be quite a challenge, to then add the story, the wittiness, depth, etc is what blows me away.

[riffraff]

There's a YouTube channel too now, for xkcd"s "what if"