25: Barrel - Part 4
| Barrel - Part 4 |
| Original title: Monday's Drawing |
 Title text: :( Original caption: By the way, here are all the barrel comics on a single (easily linked) page: http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html I cheated, and went back and lightened the gridlines in #2. It was just bothering me. I'll try not to do that much. But as I'm not destroying anyone's childhood, I don't feel like I'm really pulling a George Lucas. I mean, I'm not destroying more than one childhood. Oops. |
Explanation
This was the twenty-sixth comic originally posted to LiveJournal. The previous one was 37: Hyphen, and the next one was 26: Fourier.
In the first three comics of the The Boy and his Barrel series, Barrel Boy explored the ocean in a barrel and then encountered a whirlpool, all with a reaction of innocent wonder. Here, the empty barrel floating adrift, the title text, and a previous announcement by Randall that this would be the conclusion of the series, imply that the boy's encounter with the whirlpool separated him from the barrel, and he may have died.
This is the fifth in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features Barrel Boy, a character that is different from what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The full series can be found here. After Randall released the full The Boy and his Barrel story on the site, it became clear that the original comic 20: Ferret was also part of the series. The comics are listed in the order chosen by Randall:
- 1: Barrel - Part 1
- 20: Ferret
- 11: Barrel - Part 2
- 22: Barrel - Part 3
- 25: Barrel - Part 4
- 31: Barrel - Part 5
There was no original caption on LiveJournal for this comic. However, just three hours and four minutes after posting it, Randall made a new post, titled Barrel series, which is available above the Explanation on this page. In the first part of the post, he advertises the new page he created for "all the barrel comics", implying this was supposed to be the end of the The Boy and his Barrel series (the link is now defunct, but there's an archived version). In the caption of the previous comic, he also said "Tune in Monday for the conclusion to the story of the boy and his barrel". However, this would turn out to not be the last comic in the series, as 31: Barrel - Part 5 and 20: Ferret would be included later likely to give an unplanned good ending to the story. In the second part of the post, he jokingly implies that Barrel Boy passed away, which will be found to be incorrect in the actual last comic in the series.
Transcript
- [The barrel is shown on a grid paper background, floating sideways and empty in a choppy sea.]
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refresh comments!Discussion
The title text suggests that something bad has happened, not simply that he is swimming elsewhere or that Randall is disappointed the boy is no longer floating in the barrel. Grahame (talk) 05:30, 18 October 2013 (UTC)Grahame
- Fixed. 108.162.216.45 02:54, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
- The title text suggests unhappiness at the knowledge that the boy is apparently no longer inside the barrel that has been preserving his life so far. We can speculate that something bad has happened, but a sad smiley does not do that for us. 108.162.219.58 01:12, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
- Agreed - the sadness could be that the boy has embarked on a new stage of his adventure, and we're not able to follow it.141.101.76.16 10:28, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
- I'd agree with you. Your metaphor reminded me of possibly moving out or a loved one's death. -- DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 21:26, 10 March 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
@Koolkat38: Updated the link you added to the Barrel series, to be more direct, in all the instances. Though this might have been unnecessary given the exact same link is mentioned in the lower part of the explanation. Still, good to think of, and perhaps the latter (original) link is now unneccesary. 141.101.98.77 12:56, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
Repeated vandalism
Page history suggests this article has been vandalized multiple times within past weeks, with no recent legitimate edits. Article should be locked. 172.70.214.185 17:13, 26 May 2022 (UTC)
