xkcd: the book!

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that online comic xckd is going to have a book out in March!

One of my favorite editions of xkcd, Grownups.

The article first asks if this book, a print book of a comic that is exclusively online, is a victory for the world of print because people don’t want to read things online. However, it soon concludes exactly the opposite:

In fact, the xkcd story previews the much more likely future of books in which they are prized as artifacts, not as mechanisms for delivering written material to readers. This is print book as vinyl record — admired for its look and feel, its cover art, and relative permanence — but not so much for convenience.

I’d have to agree here. xkcd is successful online, and with a print run of only 10,000 the book is probably only going to appeal to people who are fans already.  But that’s ok, because I think that’s all the author is trying to do anyway, and it still shows that people have some sort of nostalgia for holding on to things that are important to them.

The other cool thing about the book is that creator Randall Munroe will be licensing the book under the same Creative Commons license he uses for the comic online:

Does that mean that the book won’t carry a traditional copyright and instead take its lead from the online comic strip itself, which Mr. Munroe licenses under Creative Commons, allowing noncommercial re-use as long as credit is given?

“To anyone who wants to photocopy, bind, and give a copy of the book to their loved one — more power to them,” he said. “He/She will likely be disappointed that you’re so cheap, though.”

I think that’s awesome. More power to Creative Commons people!

Story tip from the Creative Commons blog.