Notes

Posted byRandall 272 Comments on Notes

I had a lot of fun putting together today’s comic. Anyone who likes strange charts like this should check out Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. It’s long been one of my favorite books. Thank you to my friend Tina for color advice, and to my brother Ricky for some Lord of the Rings detail corrections.

Also thank you to Olga and Noam for the lovely animated version of comic #442.

272 replies on “Notes”

  1. Absolutely fantastic! The LOTR chart is amazingly accurate to the movies, and I laughed at the Twelve Angry Men one. This is something I would want to be able to put up on my wall beside the map of online communities.

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  3. It’s not exactly an error since the graph is of the movie, but maybe it’s worth noting that saruman and wormtongue come all the way to hobbiton and are ultimately killed there after frodo and friends take back control. Then again, maybe it isn’t.

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  4. I really enjoyed this comic, but a small note:

    In the full version, some of the text in the “Jurassic Park” section is corrupted. (Two of the names at the beginning, “nerdy eaten” (?), and “visitor center” (?))

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  5. The bit about Primer made me laugh for a whole minute, ’cause it’s so true. I show that movie to people expressly to make their heads hurt and keep them awake at night while they try to figure it out. 🙂

    Also, I’d say this is definitely a candidate for poster treatment.

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  8. Heh. I had to draw something similar for my girlfriend (and partly for myself, if I’m being honest) to map out the Star Trek timeline and its plot implications after the most recent movie.

    [captcha: rockne 44th]

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  9. Very nice. I noticed that Tom Bombadil was missing, though. Just because he was left out of the movies doesn’t mean he’s not part of the cast of significant LOTR characters 🙂 .

    Good stuff on the Primer one, though. That definitely made me laugh.

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  10. That is… mesmerizing. In fact, I would argue that it’s the best xkcd yet. (And does it concern anyone else that one raptor was left alive in Jurassic Park?) I look forward to buying the poster.

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  11. Ah, sorry — ignore my earlier comment. I just noticed the word MOVIE in the title.

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  12. Great comic, but with Mikachu I lament yet another snubbing of the Shire’s Scourging. And Tom Bombadil. And the Barrow Weights. and Entwives. And Glorfindel, . It would also have been nice to see Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin make reappearances in spectral form.

    The Primer stuff was spot on though. I need to buy that movie.

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  14. absolutely brilliant! the LOTR chart is a work of art, seriously. definitely would like a poster of this one…

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  15. …Though come to think of it, the paths in Primer should branch and should produce more end points than inputs. (I’m totally nitpicking, now).

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  16. I am thoroughly impressed by the LotR chart, even if I’d be more likely to put a “book version” on my wall than a “movie version”. The detail is fantastic. Nicely done, and thanks!

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  17. I really liked todays comic, but like Mikachu I found myself lamenting for yet another snubbing of the Shire’s Scourging. And the barrow weights, and the Ent wives, Tom Bombadil and Glorfindel.
    I would have also have included the spectral re-appearances of Obi-one, Yoda, and perhaps even Anakin in the chart as well.
    Primer though, was spot on. I really need to purchase that movie.

    Cheers,

    JK

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  19. This is the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. You are a god among men.

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  20. Both an awesome resource, and possibly the most meticulously detailed punchline setup of all time.

    Nerd comedy quibbling: if you plotted the Sarlacc on the Star Wars chart, then you could carry Boba Fett, in association with the Sarlacc, off the right side of the chart.

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  21. Absolutely brilliant. One of the best yet, and definitely poster-worthy. Two comments:

    First: The LotR one seems to be primarily movie based, but has the odd book reference thrown in. One example is that in the graphic Elrond visits Aragorn before Merry and Gandalf leave the others, post-Isengard (as it is in the book). However, in the movie Elrond does not visit until the mustering of the Rohirrim at Dunharrow.

    Second: At the very left of the Jurassic Park chard, the names of Muldoon and Arnold are mis-matched. Other than that, looks perfect to me.

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  22. I would pay a bunch of money for a poster of the LOTR one. You could even leave in the quibbles everyone’s mentioning… just so the LOTR geeks who come by my office have nits to pick!

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  23. I wonder if you could classify characters’ roles in the movie (main/supporting character, protagonist/antagonist, etc) based on some features of these graphs (integral of the absolute value of the derivative == primary protagonist/main character, for example).

    Also, you win the internet. Good day, sir.

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  24. A Pirates of the Caribbean chart would be interesting. And by interesting, I mean dizzying. Especially the whole middle part of World’s End.

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  25. Gollum was captured and tortured by Sauron near the beginning of the first movie, IIRC.

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  28. The rule that that indicates a death with a dot and terminating the line would make things tricky when plotting a movie like “Ghost”, or “Weekend at Bernies”.

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  30. Brilliant! Brilliant!

    Data porn, for comics readers.

    Clearly it was inspired by Professor Tufte. If I find myself teaching middle school, you betcha these charts will end up in front of students.

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  32. Oh my… I had to come comment just to say I’d love this in poster form, only to find that pretty much everyone else has made the same request.

    But I’m still posting! Simply, amazing!

    Also, though I agree that a “book version” of LotR would be awesome, I wouldn’t wish that sort of a project on you. ;D

    Take care!

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  33. Randall? This comic made me seriously consider finding you and driving 8 hours to shake your hand. I literally had a spit-take of my kool-aid, followed by about three minutes of solid, uncontrollable laughter.

    Also, I’m glad I’m not the only one to love Primer.

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  34. @Derrick: I don’t know what you’re talking about — Elrond doesn’t leave Rivendell until Sauron is defeated. I don’t remember the movies well, but perhaps you’re thinking of Halbarad, Aragon’s comarde, who catches up with them after the Battle of Helm’s Deep? He travels with Elladan and Elrohir (Elrond’s sons) to encourage Aragorn to take the Paths of the Dead.

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  36. I was just about to bitch about a few technical details, then like Vik Mulligan, I noticed “MOVIE” in the description. Good work!

    And, like everyone else, this MUST be made into a poster. I would pay money for this. And more if it were signed . (Since I ever-so-lovingly missed out of the signed book option because I ordered the book TOO early for that opportunity. D:<)

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  38. Not even 30 minutes before I saw today’s comic I had finished watching Primer. Weird.

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  39. I just thought you’d like to know that today’s comic made you my hero. I just finished watching the LOTR movies and the old Star Wars movies again and the intricacy of these drawings make you SUPER EPIC in my book, Randall.

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  42. Sweet 😀

    Although, in your graph Wormtongue starts out with Saruman, whereas Gandalf in the film describes his control over Theoden as an old device of Saruman, doesnt that put him in the Rohan court from the beginning? or is it to show his alignment?

    should definetely be made poster!

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  46. Oooh, poster this!
    (And if it could be for all the Star Wars movies, too…)

    I don’t get where you get the time for this 🙂 I’m making visualisations for my thesis and it’s soo boring gathering the info.

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  49. This is amazing, except that the LoTR poster (as others have said) seems to be a mix of movie and book lore. Be careful, Mr. Munroe, you have angered the LoTR nerds…

    and in response to a certain Mr. Evan: Boba Fett escapes from the Sarlacc, so that wouldn’t really work.

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  50. I haven’t read all the comments, so don’t kill me if this is a repeat, but Boba Fett doesn’t die on the sail barge. The worm thing spits him out and he is rescued by another bounty hunter (Dengar…maybe…?).

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