Link by Link - Creator of Web Cartoon xkcd Writing a Paper Book

Other websites that became books:

I Can Has Cheezburger?, Garfield Minus Garfield, Hot Chicks With Douchebags, Suck.com, Indexed, Sleeveface, Passive Aggressive Notes, REAL Ultimate Power

http://www.avclub.com/articles/why-buy-the-cow-27-popular-we...

I agree, but I suspect most of them went through a traditional publisher. The big difference with what we're doing is that breadpig inverts the profit structure -- the artist (that is, xkcd) receives a majority of the profits from the book. We're aiming to deliver a high quality product similar to what you'd get from a 'traditional publisher' (we're using their suppliers for paper, printing, etc.) but properly rewarding the people creating the value.

Admittedly, one of the ways we've done this is by mitigating the risk that usually comes with publishing a book (surprisingly, to me at least, as risky and blockbuster-dependent as a Hollywood film) -- xkcd's readers know that merch (and this is one extension of it) is what pays the bills. And there's plenty of them, hopefully more than a few will want this on their bookshelf beside their old Calvin&Hobbes collection (I know I do, that's why I wanted to help this come to fruition).

Another well known webcomic which has been released in print form is Megatokyo. In fact, they're up to five volumes now! See: http://www.megagear.com/category_s/67.htm

We had some interesting discussions about how to best do it - jedberg@reddit had one of the cooler ones that involved building your own decoder to pass over the obscured text. In the end, Randy suggested a discrete Copyright-esque position and font that was a simple, elegant solution.

See, I forgot this was Hacker News.

troll

When I read beadpig was involved, I became giddy. A product that combines two super awesome things into one... I want this book.

Also, seeing you referred to as "Mr. Ohanian" is creepy.

P.S. We've worked out a plan for that whole advertising thing. While I'm using HN as a messaging service.