31: Barrel - Part 5

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Barrel - Part 5
Too good not to happen.
Title text: Too good not to happen.

Explanation

This gives a happy ending to the Barrel series. The flying ferret is from 20: Ferret. The humor is derived from the juxtaposition of two unlike elements - in this case, the contemplative and even dark nature of the Barrel series being resolved through the timely intervention of a comical flying mammal.

The series is probably inspired by the novella The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Randall is well known to be a fan of this book.

This is the last in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features a character that is not consistent with what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The character is in a barrel.

After Randall released the full The Boy and his Barrel story on xkcd it has been clear that the original Ferret story should also be included as part of the barrel series.

The full series can be found here. But below they are listed in the order Randall has put them in his collection linked to above:

Transcript

[Boy floating on piece of driftwood in ocean.]
[Zoomed out view of boy floating on piece of driftwood in ocean.]
[Ferret with airplane wings and tail above the ocean.]
[The empty ocean.]
[Flying ferret carrying the boy to safety.]
[Ocean with ferret carrying boy in distance, sun on the horizon.]

Trivia

  • Original Randall comment: "The ferret got to fly, in the end!"
  • This is the thirty-third comic posted to livejournal. The previous was 28: Elefino. The next was 32: Pillar.
  • The sad comment at 25: Barrel - Part 4 implying the harm to the boy and the RIP comment at 20: Ferret imply that the boy has died and joined the ferret.


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Discussion

this series feels like a homage to "The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry". the sketches have the same - quality ( for want of a better word) Arjunsharma (talk) 07:52, 25 March 2013 (UTC)jun

This was also my first thought today when I did look at this comic again. Maybe the Barrel is just the Meteor from "The Little Prince".--Dgbrt (talk) 21:50, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

I have to wonder if the flying ferret has anything to do with Richard Bach, a noted aviation author who published a series of flying books called "The Ferret Chronicles" in 2002-2003? --144.92.241.6 21:56, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Should the last trivium be put in the explanation section? 0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101 (talk page) 04:38, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

Last panel reminiscent of http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/4 141.101.81.87 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)