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Comic series

2025-07-21T09:48:06Z

2001:4450:8178:2200:7C9E:FACB:35FD:7717: /* Other series */

<noinclude>:''For a list of the comic series, see [[:Category:Comic series]].''

</noinclude>The xkcd strips that are part of a '''comic series''' are directly related to each other, rather than simply sharing a [[:Category:Comics by topic|recurring topic]]. A series must be composed of at least two comics, and it must be clear that [[Randall]] intentionally created it as a series. This can usually be inferred from similar patterns in the comics' titles ([[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phones]]) or captions ([[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]]), sequential numbers in the titles ([[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]]), release dates purposefully deviating from the normal schedule ([[:Category:Journal|Journal]]), a partnership with other artists ([[:Category:Guest Week|Guest Week]]) or companies ([[:Category:A Smarter Planet|A Smarter Planet]]), or Randall simply posting a list of all the comics that are part of a series ([[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel]]).

Many of the early comic series have been released in a series of five consecutively released comics, with each episode being released on a weekday. After 2010, no series followed a similar release schedule, as they all followed the normal shedule of three comics a week.

<noinclude>

Here is a list of all the comics series on xkcd:
:{{TOC}}

==True series==
This is a chronological list of all the series created by Randall. This list is sorted based on the release date of the third comic in a series.

=== [[:Category:Sketches|Sketches]] ===

: {{:Category:Sketches}}

=== [[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel]] ===

: {{:Category:The Boy and his Barrel}}

=== [[:Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders]] ===

: {{:Category:Red Spiders}}

=== [[:Category:Opening dialogue by Scott|Opening dialogue by Scott]] ===

: A three comic series released consecutive over the last part of a week. They were released the first week after xkcd comics where no longer released on LiveJournal but only released on xkcd. The first was released on January 31st 2006. The first comic released that week and only on xkcd was not part of this series. So when [[Randall]] wished to have all these three with the same title text (''Opening dialogue by Scott'') in the same week, the first [[57: Wait For Me]] was released already on the Tuesday after the Monday release. This was the first time a series had been released consecutively in a week. But the three comics where not directly related.

=== [[:Category:Parody Week|Parody Week]] ===

: {{:Category:Parody Week}}

=== [[:Category:Choices|Choices]] ===

: {{:Category:Choices}}

=== [[:Category:1337|1337]] ===

: {{:Category:1337}}

=== [[:Category:Journal|Journal]] ===

: {{:Category:Journal}}

=== [[:Category:Secretary|Secretary]] ===

: {{:Category:Secretary}}

=== [[:Category:A Smarter Planet|A Smarter Planet]] ===

: A two comic series from the summer of 2009 made specially for IBM's blog A Smarter Planet, and thus not part of the regular xkcd comics. Although the obviously have been made as a set, their stories are not related in any way, and their titles [[Conservation]] and [[Prescriptions]] are also not related. So they would only make a series because they were made for the same specific reason. 2 unreleased comics included: [[ibm hc 2]] and [[ibm hc 3]].

=== [[:Category:The Race|The Race]] ===

: A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the beginning of May 2009. It was the fourth and last series released like this (as of 2025) where the five comics were directly connected in a continuation story line. But one more series were released like this the year after, but those comics stories where not related.

=== [[:Category:Five-Minute Comics|Five-Minute Comics]] ===

: A three comic series released consecutively over a week using the normal release schedule in the middle of November 2010. This is the second time a series has been released with three in one week, following the Opening dialogue by Scott in 2006 (but that time there were four comics in the week, one not belonging to the series). It is thus the only time that a week with three comics only where all released as a series. It was the first of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer.

=== [[:Category:Guest Week|Guest Week]] ===

: A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the end of November 2010. It is so far (as of 2016) the last time of six that this occurred. The theme was the same, with five web comic artist making guest appearances on xkcd, so there were no connections between the comics themselves. It is the second time this happened, the first time was the first five day series in August 2006. It was the second of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer. Since this comic there has never been released more than three comics in a week.

=== [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phones]] ===

: A nine comic series (as of 2025) released over more than nine years between the first [[1363: xkcd Phone]] in May 2014 and the latest [[2831: xkcd Phone Flip]], from September 2023. It was first with the release of the second [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]] in December 2014 with the same title and a number 2. This is the first series to progress beyond 2, all the way to 6. Only in Journal (that went to 5) did the numbering without including "part" progress beyond 2, and that was a true series where the story was connected. This is also what makes this a special type of series in xkcd not seen before, as it is clear that these are a series, but they are not connected as a story.

:Since then a few other comics have used the same system and reached at least 3, also where the comics are not part of a directly continued story. These are the Substitution series, where there as here are no relation except concept, Stargazing, where there is a bit more connection but no continuation and Code Quality, that reached three and then continued with different titles in the same series, thus reminding about the phone series. There where also other comics that progressed to getting a 2 after the name of the first. But that has already been seen before.

:After number six the number did not just go one up (2-6 for the second to sixth), but used 2000 to coincide with it being comic 2000 on xkcd. But then the next, number eight, used the number 12 as it was released near the release of {{w|iPhone 12}}. Finally the ninth was called xkcd Phone Flip, not even using a number to make fun of phones where the screen can be folded.

:This is by now the longest series with most comics connected to it (9 vs 8 in the Bad Map Projection series) and also the longest time span, with more than 9 years vs. close to eight years for the map series. However, the Stargazing series also had a new comic in 2025 that took that series to over 9 years with the fourth installment.

=== [[:Category:Substitution|Substitution series]] ===

: A three comic series (as of 2016) released over almost three years between the first [[1288: Substitutions]] in November 2013 to the third [[1679: Substitutions 3]] from May 2016, It first became a series with the second comic [[1625: Substitutions 2]] released in January 2016, explaining why it is placed after the two above.

:It is not a continuing series, but rather the same concept used again, more related to the xkcd Phone or Exoplanet names above, than to a comic series like Well. It was for long the only series, with numbers added, released like this over long time, that was at only three releases. But in February 2020 the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series also got a third installment.

=== [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]] ===

: A five comic series (so far as of April 2019) released with exactly four years years between the first and so far last in the series. When the first comic [[1513: Code Quality]] was released on the 17th of April 2015 it was not a series. That was first obvious when [[1695: Code Quality 2]] was released in June 2016. This series reminds of Well and Android, but with much longer time between the two releases.

:The series continued with [[1833: Code Quality 3]] in May 2017. It then changed the naming in [[1926: Bad Code]], which clearly belonged to the other three. This was released in December 2017. And has so far the series ended with yet another comic that changed the name again, this time to [[2138: Wanna See the Code?]] released on the 17th of April 2019, on the four year anniversary of the first in the series.

=== [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] ===

: So far four comics have been released over more than four years, but given the Map projections have numbers between 45 and 358 there could be many more to come.

:The first was released on January 11th 2017, it was <nowiki>
; 107</nowiki>: [[1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize]]. And it became a series with the second comic released just a little more than a month later on February 15th with <nowiki>
; 79</nowiki>: [[1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones]]. The third, came almost three years later, and had <nowiki>
; 358</nowiki>: [[2256: Bad Map Projection: South America]]. It was released in January 2020. And one and a half year later the fourth <nowiki>
; 299</nowiki> [[2489: Bad Map Projection: The Greenland Special]] came out in July 2021. This was followed by <nowiki>
; 248</nowiki>: [[2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator|Madagascator]] in April 2022, then <nowiki>
; 152</nowiki>: [[2807: Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)|ABS(Longitude)]] in Jyly 2023, <nowiki>
; 45</nowiki>: [[2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas|2951: Exterior Kansas]] in June 2024 and finally so far with the 8th <nowiki>
; 102</nowiki>: [[2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia|The United Stralia]] in October 2024. The series seems to be something Randall will return to infrequently, having released comics in the series over a period of almost 8 years. At the moment it is only the xkcd phone series that has more entries with nine comics. also the only series to run over a longer time-span, with more than nine years between first and last release. It is similar to the later comic series Cursed Connectors.

=== [[:Category:X Years|X Years]] ===

: A three comic series (as of 2020) released over eight years between the first [[1141: Two Years]] from November 2012 to the third [[2386: Ten Years]] from November 2020.

:It first became a series with the second comic [[1928: Seven Years]] released in December 2017, five years later, duh! This is the date that is used to arrange it in this list.

:The series is about how many years it has been since Randall's wife's cancer diagnosis.

=== [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] ===

: {{:Category:Stargazing}}

=== [[:Category:Scale World|Scale World]] ===

: {{:Category:Scale World|Scale World}}

=== [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] ===

: So far seven comics have been released over two and half year, but given the connectors have numbers from 46 to 280 there could be many more to come.

:The first was released on July 23rd 2021, it was <nowiki>
; 187</nowiki>: [[2493: Dual USB-C]]. And it became a series with the second comic released just two comics later the next week on July 28th with <nowiki>
; 65</nowiki>: [[2495: Universal Seat Belt]].
:Since then there have been <nowiki>
; 102</nowiki>: [[2503: Memo Spike Connector|Memo Spike Connector]] and <nowiki>
; 280</nowiki>: [[2507: USV-C|USV-C]] both in August 2021, <nowiki>
; 78</nowiki>: [[2589: Outlet Denier|Outlet Denier]] in March 2022, <nowiki>
; 120</nowiki>: [[2642: Meta-Alternating Current|Meta-Alternating Current]] i July 2022 and finally <nowiki>
; 46</nowiki>: [[2880: Sheet Bend|Sheet Bend]] in January 2024.

:It is thus similar to the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series. And is now just one short of the number of bad maps on a much shorter time span.

==Other series==
Here is a list of the (11 as of 2025) other types of series that has been used for explaining certain aspects of xkcd without being a series in any clear way on xkcd:

=== [[April Fools' Day comics]] ===

: {{:April Fools' Day comics}}

=== [[:Category:Comics sharing name|Comics sharing name]] ===

: This category lists comics that share name with another comic, or almost shares name. So many series would be here. But there are also some series like comics that are not directly related in a series, like the new years comics released under the title of the new year. (2012, 2014 and 2016 so far). Many of the comics that share name or almost share name is not in any way part of the same series. The category is mainly used for explaining comics with similar name.

=== [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19]] ===

: These comics are inspired by the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

=== [[:Category:Facts|Facts]] ===

: {{:Category:Facts}}

=== [[:Category:Fun fact|Fun fact]] ===

: {{:Category:Fun fact}}

=== [[:Category:How to annoy|How to annoy]] ===

: {{:Category:How to annoy}}

=== [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] ===

: {{:Category:My Hobby}}

=== [[:Category:Pet Peeves|Pet Peeves]] ===

: {{:Category:Pet Peeves}}

=== [[:Category:Protip|Protip]] ===

: {{:Category:Protip}}

=== [[:Category:Science tip|Science tip]] ===

: {{:Category:Science tip}}

=== [[:Category:Tips|Tips]] ===

: {{:Category:Tips}}

[[Category:Comics|Series]]
[[Category:Comic series| ]]

Comic series

2025-07-21T09:47:43Z

2001:4450:8178:2200:7C9E:FACB:35FD:7717: /* Other series */

<noinclude>:''For a list of the comic series, see [[:Category:Comic series]].''

</noinclude>The xkcd strips that are part of a '''comic series''' are directly related to each other, rather than simply sharing a [[:Category:Comics by topic|recurring topic]]. A series must be composed of at least two comics, and it must be clear that [[Randall]] intentionally created it as a series. This can usually be inferred from similar patterns in the comics' titles ([[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phones]]) or captions ([[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]]), sequential numbers in the titles ([[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]]), release dates purposefully deviating from the normal schedule ([[:Category:Journal|Journal]]), a partnership with other artists ([[:Category:Guest Week|Guest Week]]) or companies ([[:Category:A Smarter Planet|A Smarter Planet]]), or Randall simply posting a list of all the comics that are part of a series ([[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel]]).

Many of the early comic series have been released in a series of five consecutively released comics, with each episode being released on a weekday. After 2010, no series followed a similar release schedule, as they all followed the normal shedule of three comics a week.

<noinclude>

Here is a list of all the comics series on xkcd:
:{{TOC}}

==True series==
This is a chronological list of all the series created by Randall. This list is sorted based on the release date of the third comic in a series.

=== [[:Category:Sketches|Sketches]] ===

: {{:Category:Sketches}}

=== [[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel]] ===

: {{:Category:The Boy and his Barrel}}

=== [[:Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders]] ===

: {{:Category:Red Spiders}}

=== [[:Category:Opening dialogue by Scott|Opening dialogue by Scott]] ===

: A three comic series released consecutive over the last part of a week. They were released the first week after xkcd comics where no longer released on LiveJournal but only released on xkcd. The first was released on January 31st 2006. The first comic released that week and only on xkcd was not part of this series. So when [[Randall]] wished to have all these three with the same title text (''Opening dialogue by Scott'') in the same week, the first [[57: Wait For Me]] was released already on the Tuesday after the Monday release. This was the first time a series had been released consecutively in a week. But the three comics where not directly related.

=== [[:Category:Parody Week|Parody Week]] ===

: {{:Category:Parody Week}}

=== [[:Category:Choices|Choices]] ===

: {{:Category:Choices}}

=== [[:Category:1337|1337]] ===

: {{:Category:1337}}

=== [[:Category:Journal|Journal]] ===

: {{:Category:Journal}}

=== [[:Category:Secretary|Secretary]] ===

: {{:Category:Secretary}}

=== [[:Category:A Smarter Planet|A Smarter Planet]] ===

: A two comic series from the summer of 2009 made specially for IBM's blog A Smarter Planet, and thus not part of the regular xkcd comics. Although the obviously have been made as a set, their stories are not related in any way, and their titles [[Conservation]] and [[Prescriptions]] are also not related. So they would only make a series because they were made for the same specific reason. 2 unreleased comics included: [[ibm hc 2]] and [[ibm hc 3]].

=== [[:Category:The Race|The Race]] ===

: A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the beginning of May 2009. It was the fourth and last series released like this (as of 2025) where the five comics were directly connected in a continuation story line. But one more series were released like this the year after, but those comics stories where not related.

=== [[:Category:Five-Minute Comics|Five-Minute Comics]] ===

: A three comic series released consecutively over a week using the normal release schedule in the middle of November 2010. This is the second time a series has been released with three in one week, following the Opening dialogue by Scott in 2006 (but that time there were four comics in the week, one not belonging to the series). It is thus the only time that a week with three comics only where all released as a series. It was the first of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer.

=== [[:Category:Guest Week|Guest Week]] ===

: A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the end of November 2010. It is so far (as of 2016) the last time of six that this occurred. The theme was the same, with five web comic artist making guest appearances on xkcd, so there were no connections between the comics themselves. It is the second time this happened, the first time was the first five day series in August 2006. It was the second of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer. Since this comic there has never been released more than three comics in a week.

=== [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phones]] ===

: A nine comic series (as of 2025) released over more than nine years between the first [[1363: xkcd Phone]] in May 2014 and the latest [[2831: xkcd Phone Flip]], from September 2023. It was first with the release of the second [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]] in December 2014 with the same title and a number 2. This is the first series to progress beyond 2, all the way to 6. Only in Journal (that went to 5) did the numbering without including "part" progress beyond 2, and that was a true series where the story was connected. This is also what makes this a special type of series in xkcd not seen before, as it is clear that these are a series, but they are not connected as a story.

:Since then a few other comics have used the same system and reached at least 3, also where the comics are not part of a directly continued story. These are the Substitution series, where there as here are no relation except concept, Stargazing, where there is a bit more connection but no continuation and Code Quality, that reached three and then continued with different titles in the same series, thus reminding about the phone series. There where also other comics that progressed to getting a 2 after the name of the first. But that has already been seen before.

:After number six the number did not just go one up (2-6 for the second to sixth), but used 2000 to coincide with it being comic 2000 on xkcd. But then the next, number eight, used the number 12 as it was released near the release of {{w|iPhone 12}}. Finally the ninth was called xkcd Phone Flip, not even using a number to make fun of phones where the screen can be folded.

:This is by now the longest series with most comics connected to it (9 vs 8 in the Bad Map Projection series) and also the longest time span, with more than 9 years vs. close to eight years for the map series. However, the Stargazing series also had a new comic in 2025 that took that series to over 9 years with the fourth installment.

=== [[:Category:Substitution|Substitution series]] ===

: A three comic series (as of 2016) released over almost three years between the first [[1288: Substitutions]] in November 2013 to the third [[1679: Substitutions 3]] from May 2016, It first became a series with the second comic [[1625: Substitutions 2]] released in January 2016, explaining why it is placed after the two above.

:It is not a continuing series, but rather the same concept used again, more related to the xkcd Phone or Exoplanet names above, than to a comic series like Well. It was for long the only series, with numbers added, released like this over long time, that was at only three releases. But in February 2020 the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series also got a third installment.

=== [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]] ===

: A five comic series (so far as of April 2019) released with exactly four years years between the first and so far last in the series. When the first comic [[1513: Code Quality]] was released on the 17th of April 2015 it was not a series. That was first obvious when [[1695: Code Quality 2]] was released in June 2016. This series reminds of Well and Android, but with much longer time between the two releases.

:The series continued with [[1833: Code Quality 3]] in May 2017. It then changed the naming in [[1926: Bad Code]], which clearly belonged to the other three. This was released in December 2017. And has so far the series ended with yet another comic that changed the name again, this time to [[2138: Wanna See the Code?]] released on the 17th of April 2019, on the four year anniversary of the first in the series.

=== [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] ===

: So far four comics have been released over more than four years, but given the Map projections have numbers between 45 and 358 there could be many more to come.

:The first was released on January 11th 2017, it was <nowiki>
; 107</nowiki>: [[1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize]]. And it became a series with the second comic released just a little more than a month later on February 15th with <nowiki>
; 79</nowiki>: [[1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones]]. The third, came almost three years later, and had <nowiki>
; 358</nowiki>: [[2256: Bad Map Projection: South America]]. It was released in January 2020. And one and a half year later the fourth <nowiki>
; 299</nowiki> [[2489: Bad Map Projection: The Greenland Special]] came out in July 2021. This was followed by <nowiki>
; 248</nowiki>: [[2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator|Madagascator]] in April 2022, then <nowiki>
; 152</nowiki>: [[2807: Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)|ABS(Longitude)]] in Jyly 2023, <nowiki>
; 45</nowiki>: [[2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas|2951: Exterior Kansas]] in June 2024 and finally so far with the 8th <nowiki>
; 102</nowiki>: [[2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia|The United Stralia]] in October 2024. The series seems to be something Randall will return to infrequently, having released comics in the series over a period of almost 8 years. At the moment it is only the xkcd phone series that has more entries with nine comics. also the only series to run over a longer time-span, with more than nine years between first and last release. It is similar to the later comic series Cursed Connectors.

=== [[:Category:X Years|X Years]] ===

: A three comic series (as of 2020) released over eight years between the first [[1141: Two Years]] from November 2012 to the third [[2386: Ten Years]] from November 2020.

:It first became a series with the second comic [[1928: Seven Years]] released in December 2017, five years later, duh! This is the date that is used to arrange it in this list.

:The series is about how many years it has been since Randall's wife's cancer diagnosis.

=== [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] ===

: {{:Category:Stargazing}}

=== [[:Category:Scale World|Scale World]] ===

: {{:Category:Scale World|Scale World}}

=== [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] ===

: So far seven comics have been released over two and half year, but given the connectors have numbers from 46 to 280 there could be many more to come.

:The first was released on July 23rd 2021, it was <nowiki>
; 187</nowiki>: [[2493: Dual USB-C]]. And it became a series with the second comic released just two comics later the next week on July 28th with <nowiki>
; 65</nowiki>: [[2495: Universal Seat Belt]].
:Since then there have been <nowiki>
; 102</nowiki>: [[2503: Memo Spike Connector|Memo Spike Connector]] and <nowiki>
; 280</nowiki>: [[2507: USV-C|USV-C]] both in August 2021, <nowiki>
; 78</nowiki>: [[2589: Outlet Denier|Outlet Denier]] in March 2022, <nowiki>
; 120</nowiki>: [[2642: Meta-Alternating Current|Meta-Alternating Current]] i July 2022 and finally <nowiki>
; 46</nowiki>: [[2880: Sheet Bend|Sheet Bend]] in January 2024.

:It is thus similar to the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series. And is now just one short of the number of bad maps on a much shorter time span.

==Other series==
Here is a list of the (q1 as of 2025) other types of series that has been used for explaining certain aspects of xkcd without being a series in any clear way on xkcd:

=== [[April Fools' Day comics]] ===

: {{:April Fools' Day comics}}

=== [[:Category:Comics sharing name|Comics sharing name]] ===

: This category lists comics that share name with another comic, or almost shares name. So many series would be here. But there are also some series like comics that are not directly related in a series, like the new years comics released under the title of the new year. (2012, 2014 and 2016 so far). Many of the comics that share name or almost share name is not in any way part of the same series. The category is mainly used for explaining comics with similar name.

=== [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19]] ===

: These comics are inspired by the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

=== [[:Category:Facts|Facts]] ===

: {{:Category:Facts}}

=== [[:Category:Fun fact|Fun fact]] ===

: {{:Category:Fun fact}}

=== [[:Category:How to annoy|How to annoy]] ===

: {{:Category:How to annoy}}

=== [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] ===

: {{:Category:My Hobby}}

=== [[:Category:Pet Peeves|Pet Peeves]] ===

: {{:Category:Pet Peeves}}

=== [[:Category:Protip|Protip]] ===

: {{:Category:Protip}}

=== [[:Category:Science tip|Science tip]] ===

: {{:Category:Science tip}}

=== [[:Category:Tips|Tips]] ===

: {{:Category:Tips}}

[[Category:Comics|Series]]
[[Category:Comic series| ]]

Comic series

2025-07-21T09:46:51Z

2001:4450:8178:2200:7C9E:FACB:35FD:7717:

<noinclude>:''For a list of the comic series, see [[:Category:Comic series]].''

</noinclude>The xkcd strips that are part of a '''comic series''' are directly related to each other, rather than simply sharing a [[:Category:Comics by topic|recurring topic]]. A series must be composed of at least two comics, and it must be clear that [[Randall]] intentionally created it as a series. This can usually be inferred from similar patterns in the comics' titles ([[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phones]]) or captions ([[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]]), sequential numbers in the titles ([[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]]), release dates purposefully deviating from the normal schedule ([[:Category:Journal|Journal]]), a partnership with other artists ([[:Category:Guest Week|Guest Week]]) or companies ([[:Category:A Smarter Planet|A Smarter Planet]]), or Randall simply posting a list of all the comics that are part of a series ([[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel]]).

Many of the early comic series have been released in a series of five consecutively released comics, with each episode being released on a weekday. After 2010, no series followed a similar release schedule, as they all followed the normal shedule of three comics a week.

<noinclude>

Here is a list of all the comics series on xkcd:
:{{TOC}}

==True series==
This is a chronological list of all the series created by Randall. This list is sorted based on the release date of the third comic in a series.

=== [[:Category:Sketches|Sketches]] ===

: {{:Category:Sketches}}

=== [[:Category:The Boy and his Barrel|The Boy and his Barrel]] ===

: {{:Category:The Boy and his Barrel}}

=== [[:Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders]] ===

: {{:Category:Red Spiders}}

=== [[:Category:Opening dialogue by Scott|Opening dialogue by Scott]] ===

: A three comic series released consecutive over the last part of a week. They were released the first week after xkcd comics where no longer released on LiveJournal but only released on xkcd. The first was released on January 31st 2006. The first comic released that week and only on xkcd was not part of this series. So when [[Randall]] wished to have all these three with the same title text (''Opening dialogue by Scott'') in the same week, the first [[57: Wait For Me]] was released already on the Tuesday after the Monday release. This was the first time a series had been released consecutively in a week. But the three comics where not directly related.

=== [[:Category:Parody Week|Parody Week]] ===

: {{:Category:Parody Week}}

=== [[:Category:Choices|Choices]] ===

: {{:Category:Choices}}

=== [[:Category:1337|1337]] ===

: {{:Category:1337}}

=== [[:Category:Journal|Journal]] ===

: {{:Category:Journal}}

=== [[:Category:Secretary|Secretary]] ===

: {{:Category:Secretary}}

=== [[:Category:A Smarter Planet|A Smarter Planet]] ===

: A two comic series from the summer of 2009 made specially for IBM's blog A Smarter Planet, and thus not part of the regular xkcd comics. Although the obviously have been made as a set, their stories are not related in any way, and their titles [[Conservation]] and [[Prescriptions]] are also not related. So they would only make a series because they were made for the same specific reason. 2 unreleased comics included: [[ibm hc 2]] and [[ibm hc 3]].

=== [[:Category:The Race|The Race]] ===

: A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the beginning of May 2009. It was the fourth and last series released like this (as of 2025) where the five comics were directly connected in a continuation story line. But one more series were released like this the year after, but those comics stories where not related.

=== [[:Category:Five-Minute Comics|Five-Minute Comics]] ===

: A three comic series released consecutively over a week using the normal release schedule in the middle of November 2010. This is the second time a series has been released with three in one week, following the Opening dialogue by Scott in 2006 (but that time there were four comics in the week, one not belonging to the series). It is thus the only time that a week with three comics only where all released as a series. It was the first of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer.

=== [[:Category:Guest Week|Guest Week]] ===

: A five comic series released over five consecutive days from Monday-Friday at the end of November 2010. It is so far (as of 2016) the last time of six that this occurred. The theme was the same, with five web comic artist making guest appearances on xkcd, so there were no connections between the comics themselves. It is the second time this happened, the first time was the first five day series in August 2006. It was the second of two weeks in a row with series. Both series were made to give Randall some time to cope with his wife’s cancer. Since this comic there has never been released more than three comics in a week.

=== [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phones]] ===

: A nine comic series (as of 2025) released over more than nine years between the first [[1363: xkcd Phone]] in May 2014 and the latest [[2831: xkcd Phone Flip]], from September 2023. It was first with the release of the second [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]] in December 2014 with the same title and a number 2. This is the first series to progress beyond 2, all the way to 6. Only in Journal (that went to 5) did the numbering without including "part" progress beyond 2, and that was a true series where the story was connected. This is also what makes this a special type of series in xkcd not seen before, as it is clear that these are a series, but they are not connected as a story.

:Since then a few other comics have used the same system and reached at least 3, also where the comics are not part of a directly continued story. These are the Substitution series, where there as here are no relation except concept, Stargazing, where there is a bit more connection but no continuation and Code Quality, that reached three and then continued with different titles in the same series, thus reminding about the phone series. There where also other comics that progressed to getting a 2 after the name of the first. But that has already been seen before.

:After number six the number did not just go one up (2-6 for the second to sixth), but used 2000 to coincide with it being comic 2000 on xkcd. But then the next, number eight, used the number 12 as it was released near the release of {{w|iPhone 12}}. Finally the ninth was called xkcd Phone Flip, not even using a number to make fun of phones where the screen can be folded.

:This is by now the longest series with most comics connected to it (9 vs 8 in the Bad Map Projection series) and also the longest time span, with more than 9 years vs. close to eight years for the map series. However, the Stargazing series also had a new comic in 2025 that took that series to over 9 years with the fourth installment.

=== [[:Category:Substitution|Substitution series]] ===

: A three comic series (as of 2016) released over almost three years between the first [[1288: Substitutions]] in November 2013 to the third [[1679: Substitutions 3]] from May 2016, It first became a series with the second comic [[1625: Substitutions 2]] released in January 2016, explaining why it is placed after the two above.

:It is not a continuing series, but rather the same concept used again, more related to the xkcd Phone or Exoplanet names above, than to a comic series like Well. It was for long the only series, with numbers added, released like this over long time, that was at only three releases. But in February 2020 the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series also got a third installment.

=== [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]] ===

: A five comic series (so far as of April 2019) released with exactly four years years between the first and so far last in the series. When the first comic [[1513: Code Quality]] was released on the 17th of April 2015 it was not a series. That was first obvious when [[1695: Code Quality 2]] was released in June 2016. This series reminds of Well and Android, but with much longer time between the two releases.

:The series continued with [[1833: Code Quality 3]] in May 2017. It then changed the naming in [[1926: Bad Code]], which clearly belonged to the other three. This was released in December 2017. And has so far the series ended with yet another comic that changed the name again, this time to [[2138: Wanna See the Code?]] released on the 17th of April 2019, on the four year anniversary of the first in the series.

=== [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] ===

: So far four comics have been released over more than four years, but given the Map projections have numbers between 45 and 358 there could be many more to come.

:The first was released on January 11th 2017, it was <nowiki>
; 107</nowiki>: [[1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize]]. And it became a series with the second comic released just a little more than a month later on February 15th with <nowiki>
; 79</nowiki>: [[1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones]]. The third, came almost three years later, and had <nowiki>
; 358</nowiki>: [[2256: Bad Map Projection: South America]]. It was released in January 2020. And one and a half year later the fourth <nowiki>
; 299</nowiki> [[2489: Bad Map Projection: The Greenland Special]] came out in July 2021. This was followed by <nowiki>
; 248</nowiki>: [[2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator|Madagascator]] in April 2022, then <nowiki>
; 152</nowiki>: [[2807: Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)|ABS(Longitude)]] in Jyly 2023, <nowiki>
; 45</nowiki>: [[2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas|2951: Exterior Kansas]] in June 2024 and finally so far with the 8th <nowiki>
; 102</nowiki>: [[2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia|The United Stralia]] in October 2024. The series seems to be something Randall will return to infrequently, having released comics in the series over a period of almost 8 years. At the moment it is only the xkcd phone series that has more entries with nine comics. also the only series to run over a longer time-span, with more than nine years between first and last release. It is similar to the later comic series Cursed Connectors.

=== [[:Category:X Years|X Years]] ===

: A three comic series (as of 2020) released over eight years between the first [[1141: Two Years]] from November 2012 to the third [[2386: Ten Years]] from November 2020.

:It first became a series with the second comic [[1928: Seven Years]] released in December 2017, five years later, duh! This is the date that is used to arrange it in this list.

:The series is about how many years it has been since Randall's wife's cancer diagnosis.

=== [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] ===

: {{:Category:Stargazing}}

=== [[:Category:Scale World|Scale World]] ===

: {{:Category:Scale World|Scale World}}

=== [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] ===

: So far seven comics have been released over two and half year, but given the connectors have numbers from 46 to 280 there could be many more to come.

:The first was released on July 23rd 2021, it was <nowiki>
; 187</nowiki>: [[2493: Dual USB-C]]. And it became a series with the second comic released just two comics later the next week on July 28th with <nowiki>
; 65</nowiki>: [[2495: Universal Seat Belt]].
:Since then there have been <nowiki>
; 102</nowiki>: [[2503: Memo Spike Connector|Memo Spike Connector]] and <nowiki>
; 280</nowiki>: [[2507: USV-C|USV-C]] both in August 2021, <nowiki>
; 78</nowiki>: [[2589: Outlet Denier|Outlet Denier]] in March 2022, <nowiki>
; 120</nowiki>: [[2642: Meta-Alternating Current|Meta-Alternating Current]] i July 2022 and finally <nowiki>
; 46</nowiki>: [[2880: Sheet Bend|Sheet Bend]] in January 2024.

:It is thus similar to the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series. And is now just one short of the number of bad maps on a much shorter time span.

==Other series==
Here is a list of the (13 as of 2025) other types of series that has been used for explaining certain aspects of xkcd without being a series in any clear way on xkcd:

=== [[April Fools' Day comics]] ===

: {{:April Fools' Day comics}}

=== [[:Category:Comics sharing name|Comics sharing name]] ===

: This category lists comics that share name with another comic, or almost shares name. So many series would be here. But there are also some series like comics that are not directly related in a series, like the new years comics released under the title of the new year. (2012, 2014 and 2016 so far). Many of the comics that share name or almost share name is not in any way part of the same series. The category is mainly used for explaining comics with similar name.

=== [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19]] ===

: These comics are inspired by the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

=== [[:Category:Facts|Facts]] ===

: {{:Category:Facts}}

=== [[:Category:Fun fact|Fun fact]] ===

: {{:Category:Fun fact}}

=== [[:Category:How to annoy|How to annoy]] ===

: {{:Category:How to annoy}}

=== [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] ===

: {{:Category:My Hobby}}

=== [[:Category:Pet Peeves|Pet Peeves]] ===

: {{:Category:Pet Peeves}}

=== [[:Category:Protip|Protip]] ===

: {{:Category:Protip}}

=== [[:Category:Science tip|Science tip]] ===

: {{:Category:Science tip}}

=== [[:Category:Tips|Tips]] ===

: {{:Category:Tips}}

[[Category:Comics|Series]]
[[Category:Comic series| ]]