comics – The Map Room

xkcd: ‘Exterior Kansas’

Published on 28 June 202428 June 2024 by Jonathan Crowe

xkcd: 'Bad Map Projection #45: Exterior Kansas' (26 June 2024), a map with Kansas at the edges and the borders of the U.S. at the centre. — Randall Munroe, “Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas,” *xkcd*, 26 June 2024.

In the latest iteration of xkcd’s series of bad map projections, Randall puts Kansas—the putative centre of the contiguous 48 states—at the edge of the map.

Why Oh Why Does an Alphabetical Cartogram Have to Be a Thing?

Published on 5 May 20245 May 2024 by Jonathan Crowe

xkcd comic for 1 May 2024 called Alphabetical Cartogram. — Randall Munroe, “Alphabetical Cartogram,” xkcd, 1 May 2024.

More proof that Randall hates us and wants to hurt our eyes comes from last Wednesday’s xkcd, which does what I’m pretty sure no cartogram has ever done: size by alphabetical order.

xkcd: ‘Every Eclipse Path Map’

Published on 18 April 202418 April 2024 by Jonathan Crowe

An xkcd cartoon about eclipse path maps. — Randall Munroe, “Every Eclipse Path Map,” xkcd, 17 Apr 2024.

Looks like we’re not quite done with eclipse maps, especially the whimsical sort, and it’s not at all invalid for xckd to have (what is probably going to be) the last word on the subject (at least for a while), with this fictional map showing the fictional path of a fictional eclipse over a fictional landscape, with rueful descriptions of fictional places where trying to see the fictional eclipse will come to a bad end for the fictional observers. (And you thought it was bad you got clouds.)

xkcd on Greenland’s Size

Published on 3 April 20245 April 2024 by Jonathan Crowe

xkcd: Greenland Size (25 Mar 2024) — Randall Munroe, “Greenland Size”, xkcd, 25 March 2024.

The 25 March 2024 xkcd honours Greenland’s place as a measure of cartographic distortion. It’s also, unexpectedly, a riff on the idea of the 1:1 scale map (cf. Borges), especially if you consult the comic’s alt text: “The Mercator projection drastically distorts the size of almost every area of land except a small ring around the North and South Poles.”

Previously: xkcd: The Greenland Special.

xkcd’s Dubious Islands Aren’t Technically Wrong

Published on 18 October 2023 by Jonathan Crowe

Dubious Islands, an xkcd comic — Randall Munroe, “Dubious Islands,” xkcd, 6 Oct 2023.

When I saw the xkcd for October 6th, I said to myself: that can’t be right. But I checked and yes, Wollaston Lake and Isa Lake are bifurcation lakes, so it is.

‘Whoops, Made All Longitudes Positive’

Published on 31 July 2023 by Jonathan Crowe

xkcd:Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude) — Randall Munroe, “Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude),” xkcd, 26 Jul 2023.

The latest in Randall Munroe’s Bad Map Projection series on xkcd is perhaps his most evil yet: it turns all longitudes positive—i.e., it turns west longitude into east longitude, putting Quebec somewhere in Kazakhstan and the Panama Canal off Sri Lanka.

Visualizing Continental Drift, Typographically

Published on 24 July 2023 by Jonathan Crowe

xkcd comic showing continental drift; in the Atlantic Ocean is the following text: If you covered the surface of the Atlantic Ocean with twelve-point printed text, with the lines wrapping at the coasts, the expansion of the ocean basin due to plate tectonics would increase your word count by about 100 words per second. — Randall Munroe, “Geohydrotypography,” xkcd, 17 July 2023.

Well, that’s one way to visualize the rate of continental drift.

xkcd’s Drainage Basin Deep Cut

Published on 12 June 2023 by Jonathan Crowe

An xkcd comic showing a map of drainage basins of the United States, with the title “U.S. Drainage Basins” crossed out and replaced with “Where Alex Mack Will End Up.” — Randall Munroe, “Drainage Basins,” xkcd, 2 June 2023.

This xkcd cartoon requires deep Nickelodeon knowledge to understand.

xkcd: ‘Island Storage’

Published on 3 March 2023 by Jonathan Crowe

xkcd #2742, 'Island Storage' (24 Feb 2023) — Randall Munroe, “Island Storage,” xkcd, 24 Feb 2023.

The xkcd from last Friday, “Island Storage,” is the most recent map-related way that Randall Munroe has hurt us in the eyes.

SMBC on GPS

Published on 17 February 2023 by Jonathan Crowe

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has a take on what GPS does to our ability to navigate.

xkcd’s Madagascator Projection

Published on 1 May 20223 May 2022 by Jonathan Crowe

xkcd: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator (29 Apr 2022) — Randall Munroe, “Bad Map Projection: Madagascator,“ xkcd, 29 Apr 2022.

Uncharacteristically for xkcd’s Bad Map Projection series, the Madagascator is actually totally legitimate as a projection. Not that it’s any less mischievous, mind.

Update, 3 May: Turns out there was more to this xkcd cartoon. See Mercator: Extreme.

xkcd: The Goode Homolosine to the Rescue!

Published on 6 February 2022 by Jonathan Crowe

Randall Munroe, “Sea Chase,” xkcd, 4 Feb 2022.

Randall Munroe’s map projection humour is increasingly on point, as last Friday’s xkcd demonstrates. (The mouseover text is even better: “There are two rules on this ship: Never gaze back into the projection abyss, and never touch the red button labeled DYMAXION.”)

Previously: xkcd: The Greenland Special; xkcd: All South Americas; Blame the Mercator Projection; xkcd’s Time Zone Map; xkcd’s Liquid Resize Map Projection.

xkcd Sabotages Those Flag Maps

Published on 17 October 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

Randall Munroe, “Flag Map Sabotage,” xkcd, 13 Oct 2021.

Maps where countries are coloured in with flag patterns: I’ve seen a lot of them around, especially on Reddit, but I haven’t necessarily liked them; xkcd’s comic from last Wednesday goes one step further in that it offers a way to hack them.