--- title: Exclusive XKCD Comic: Randall Munroe Draws a Self-Portrait description: The webcomic's science series, What If?, is now a book canonical: https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-29T14:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:55:21.323Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: XKCD Creator Draws a Self-Portrait og:description: Randall Munroe's new book arrives Sept. 2 og:url: https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64776f1860c11473/6986a15c169ab0bb2d27aeef/xkcd-randll-munroe.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: XKCD Creator Randall Munroe og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: XKCD Creator Draws a Self-Portrait twitter:description: Randall Munroe's new book arrives Sept. 2 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64776f1860c11473/6986a15c169ab0bb2d27aeef/xkcd-randll-munroe.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See an Exclusive 'Self-Portrait' From the Creator of XKCD  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Aug 29, 2014 2:00 PM CUT  Munroe has fun with the formulas for angular momentum of a spinning object (top) and centripetal force (bottom). Munroe has fun with the formulas for angular momentum of a spinning object (top) and centripetal force (bottom).Randall Munroe for TIME  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Aug 29, 2014 2:00 PM CUT For the past two years, _xkcd_ creator Randall Munroe has been answering fantastical science questions for his popular webcomic’s sister site, [_What If?_](http://what-if.xkcd.com/ "undefined"). In the [new issue of TIME](http://time.com/3204295/i-the-second-age-of-reason/ "undefined"), Munroe talks about [turning the project into a book](http://time.com/3204271/xkcd-when-physics-is-funny/ "undefined") (_What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions,_ hitting shelves Sept. 2) and how he conducts his investigations into topics like jetpacks and dinosaur nutrition. “I try to be entertaining in the way I share them, but my real motivation with each question is that _I_ want to know the answer,” Munroe says. “Once a question gets into my head, it will keep bugging me until I figure out the answer, whether I’m writing an article about it or not.” Though Munroe says he uses stick-figures for _xkcd_ and _What If?_ because he’s “not very good at drawing,” we asked him to draw a self-portrait anyway — at least, as much of a self-portrait as you can get using only stick-figures. In the exclusive illustration above, also on newsstands now, Munroe has fun with the formulas for angular momentum of a spinning object (top) and centripetal force (bottom). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/"},"headline":"See an Exclusive 'Self-Portrait' From the Creator of XKCD","datePublished":"2014-08-29T14:00:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:55:21.323Z","description":"The webcomic's science series, What If?, is now a book","url":"https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/","keywords":["Books","Science topic","Physics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64776f1860c11473/6986a15c169ab0bb2d27aeef/xkcd-randll-munroe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64776f1860c11473/6986a15c169ab0bb2d27aeef/xkcd-randll-munroe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"XKCD Creator Randall Munroe","caption":"XKCD Creator Randall Munroe","creditText":"Randall Munroe for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3211142/xkcd-randall-munroe-what-if-book/","name":"See an Exclusive 'Self-Portrait' From the Creator of XKCD"}}]}] ```