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Top Math Comics

Ranked by the Spiked Math Comic Ranking Algorithm (SM-CRA)

On this page you will find links to the top math related comics available on the web, along with a brief description of the comic and links to their best work (as judged either by myself, the comic author, or user ratings of the comics).

How are the comics ranked?
What I did is came up with a comic ranking formula which takes into consideration the following five categories:
(i) Total number of comics published
(ii) Number of comics published that are `related' to math
(iii) Update Frequency
(iv) Popularity
(v) Level of Mathematics

The first three are easy to compute for each comic. For (iv), the popularity is measured based on analyzing the number of unique domains that link to the comic. For (v), the `Level of Math' is a number between 0 and 1 that measures how mathematical the math related strips are. Comics with math that go beyond High School math are ranked higher in category (v) than those that only have elementary mathematics.

Finally, the ranking of the comics is accomplished by using a function that puts weights on each of the categories above and takes into consideration how mathematical the comic is.

Rank = 1/25

SM-CRA = 82

xkcd

URL: http://xkcd.com
Archive: http://xkcd.com/archive/
Feed: http://www.xkcd.com/rss.xml

Update Schedule: Every Mon, Wed, Fri
Comic Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License

Tagline: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Author: Randall Munroe

- graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2006 with a degree in physics
- previously worked on robots at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia

Brief Comic Description:

- cast consists of stick figures
- some strips feature pop-culture references
- lots of science jokes
- each comic has mouseover text for an added joke or quirky remark

Best Math Comics:

Purity // Math Paper // Matrix Tranform // Su Doku // NP-Complete // Mobius Battle

Rank = 2/25

SM-CRA = 75

Brown Sharpie

URL: http://brownsharpie.courtneygibbons.org
Feed: http://brownsharpie.courtneygibbons.org/?feed=rss2

Update Schedule: Once a week... indefinitely!
Comic Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Tagline: Mathematical Cartoons inspired by Sharpie Fumes.

Author: Courtney Gibbons

- attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln specializing in Commutative Algebra
- loves cats and beer

Brief Comic Description:

- comic drawn with a brown sharpie
- has been around for a few years now

Best Math Comics:

Bananach Tarski // Math Gossip // Left-Handed Limit // Fancy Geometry // Hyper Surfaces

Rank = 3/25

SM-CRA = 69

Spiked Math

URL: http://spikedmath.com
Archive: http://spikedmath.com/archives.html
Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SpikedMath

Update Schedule: Updated -12e^-ipi times per month
Comic Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5

Tagline: A math comic dedicated to humor, educate and entertain the geek in you.

Author: Mike

- completed his Ph.D. in mathematics in 2010

Brief Comic Description:

- lots of math puns
- in color!

Best Math Comics:

The Joke Book // The Date Graph // Mathematics // World Annihilation // Paradox Day // My Two Girls

Rank = 4/25

SM-CRA = 67

Proof of False

URL: http://proof-of-false.the-user.org

Update Schedule: No longer being updated.
Comic Licensing: Unknown

Tagline: A comic dedicated to math jokes that no other comic could tell.

Author: Andrew Spann

- graduate student at the Stanford Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering

Brief Comic Description:

- comic ran in the MIT Tech from May 2006 - May 2008
- archive contains 50 comics

Best Math Comics:

[#12] // [#29] // [#30] // [#40]

Rank = 5/25

SM-CRA = 66

:: twisted pencil ::

URL: http://www.twistedpencil.com/
Archive: http://www.twistedpencil.com/index.php?x=browse

Update Schedule: Comic is currently on an extended vacation
Comic Licensing: Unknown

Author: Jette Petersen

- friends with Brown Sharpie author

Brief Comic Description:

- consists of mathematics, puns, and puppets!

Best Math Comics:

Bocce Ball // Top Five Guesses // Another useless invention // Proof by Exhuastion // Brilliant // Integration by Hearts

Rank = 6/25

SM-CRA = 65

mathTICs

URL: http://www.mathtics.doze.at/index.html
Archive: http://www.mathtics.doze.at/texts/mathTICs-search.html

Update Schedule: Updated sporadically
Comic Licensing: Copyright belongs to author

Tagline: A collection of mathematical comics and cartoons.

Author: Dominik Zeillinger

- received his Ph.D. from Universitat Innsbruck in 2005 in Algebraic Geometry

Brief Comic Description:

- various comics and cartoons in full color

Best Math Comics:

Piano Curve // Algebraic Topology Lecture // Algebraic Topology Lecture II // Shower Curtain

Rank = 7/25

SM-CRA = 64

(x, why?)

URL: http://xwhy.comicgenesis.com
Archive: http://mrburkemath.net/xwhy/archive.html
Feed: http://xwhy.comicgenesis.com/rss.xml

Update Schedule: Updated approximately 3 times per week
Comic Licensing: Copyright belongs to author

Author: Chris Burke

- a high school math teacher in New York
- a part-time writer
- fan of science-fiction/fantasy books and films

Brief Comic Description:

- tons of comics focused primarily on math
- also contains a blog with humor and general math discussion
- (x, why?) started as a side project on a class blog

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 8/25

SM-CRA = 57

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

URL: http://www.smbc-comics.com/
Archive: http://www.smbc-comics.com/archive/
Feed: http://www.smbc-comics.com/rss.php

Update Schedule: Updates daily
Comic Licensing: Not stated

Author: Zach Weiner

- has a degree in Literature
- currently co-publishes two other webcomics in addition to SMBC

Brief Comic Description:

- the humor is often bizarre and/or sexual
- you can see a bonus joke by hovering over the red button

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 9/25

SM-CRA = 54

Not So Humble Pi

URL: http://notsohumblepi.com/
Archive: http://notsohumblepi.com/mathtoons_gallery/
Feed: http://notsohumblepi.com/feed/

Update Schedule: Rarely updated
Comic Licensing: Copyright belongs to author

Tagline: Proof that math has a great sense of humor.

Author: Craig

Brief Comic Description:

- full color math cartoons

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 10/25

SM-CRA = 45

Foxtrot

URL: http://www.foxtrot.com
Feed: http://www.foxtrot.com/feed/

Update Schedule: Every Sunday
Comic Licensing: Copyright protected

Author: Bill Amend

- has a degree in Physics from Amherst College

Brief Comic Description:

- often contains geek humor
- syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate
- was published daily from 1988 to 2006

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 11/25

SM-CRA = 45

Abstruse Goose

URL: http://abstrusegoose.com
Archive: http://abstrusegoose.com/archives
Feed: http://abstrusegoose.com/feed

Update Schedule: Updated about twice a week
Comic Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License

Author: Mr Goose

- prefers to remain anonymous, but not too hard to identify

Brief Comic Description:

- black and white strip with math and physics humor
- has secret and double secret archives

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 12/25

SM-CRA = 44

Oh You, Math!

URL: http://ohyoumath.tumblr.com/
Archive: http://ohyoumath.tumblr.com/archive
Feed: http://ohyoumath.tumblr.com/rss

Update Schedule: Rarely updated

Author: Sam

- prefers Samm
- has eight years experience playing the violin

Brief Comic Description:

- small collection of math comics
- a few are in color while others are black and white

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 13/25

SM-CRA = 44

The Nerdvana

URL: http://thenerdvana.com

Update Schedule: Unknown
Comic Licensing: Unknown

Tagline: Unleash the nerd in you! Does your IQ exceed your weight? If so, you are in the right place.

Author: Ravi

- a passionate designer who studies mechanical engineering

Brief Comic Description:

- new webcomic that started in 2011
- currently only a few strips published but has a lot of potential

Best Math Comics:

Cross Product

Rank = 14/25

SM-CRA = 43

Luke Surl

URL: http://www.lukesurl.com
Archive: http://www.lukesurl.com/archive
Feed: http://www.lukesurl.com/feed

Update Schedule: Every Mon, Wed, Fri
Comic Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0

Author: Luke Surl

- Studied chemistry at the University of Cambridge

Brief Comic Description:

- over 400 comic strips in the archive
- focuses on science, religion, love, maths, computers, Shakespeare

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 15/25

SM-CRA = 38

Slim Figures

URL: http://www.slimfigures.co.uk/
Archive: http://www.slimfigures.co.uk/archive.php

Update Schedule: Once per week
Comic Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License

Tagline: A webcomic of science, satire and dark thoughts.

Author: David Beet

Brief Comic Description:

- a lot of comics relate to math, physics and astronomy
- some of the comics are dark
- each comic has mouseover text

Best Math Comics:

Snow White and the seven linear transformations // Packing life's knapsack // Some people actually think that ARITHMETIC is MATHEMATICS

Rank = 16/25

SM-CRA = 37

Peebles Lab

URL: http://www.peebleslab.com/
Archive: http://www.peebleslab.com/archive.php
Feed: http://www.peebleslab.com/rss

Update Schedule: Updated about once per week
Comic Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0

Tagline: Taglines vary, some include: Rocking Out Since 2008, Protecting National Security Since 2008, & Committing Thoughtcrime Since 2008.

Author: There are two authors: Andrew Stella & David Kilian

Brief Comic Description:

- physics related comic with math thrown in the mix
- mostly stick figures

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 17/25

SM-CRA = 37

Super Seniors

URL: http://superseniors.wordpress.com/

Update Schedule: No longer updated
Comic Licensing: Unknown

Tagline: A webcomic & blog by David Keith.

Author: David Keith

- received B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from UC Riverside
- currently working for Intel in their Circuit Marginality Validation Team

Brief Comic Description:

- comic was published in the UCR Highlander (school paper) for 2 years
- all comics were created in MS Paint
- comics focus on the university lifestlye

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 18/25

SM-CRA = 35

Vegan Pirate

URL: http://veganpirate.comicgenesis.com

Update Schedule: Unknown
Comic Licensing: Unknown

Author: Unknown

Brief Comic Description:

- rather new webcomic focusing on religion, science and math
- drawn mostly on paint and glued together in photoshop

Best Math Comics:

How to do Math

Rank = 19/25

SM-CRA = 30

Indexed

URL: http://thisisindexed.com/
Feed: http://thisisindexed.com/feed/

Update Schedule: Updated every weekday

Tagline: Published weekday mornings as the coffee brews.

Author: Jessica Hagy

Brief Comic Description:

- collection of charts and diagrams hand drawn on 3x5 index cards

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 20/25

SM-CRA = 17

Andrews Guide to Mathematics

URL: http://www.andrewsguidetomathematics.com/
Archive: http://www.andrewsguidetomathematics.com/archive.html
Feed: http://www.andrewsguidetomathematics.com/feed.xml

Update Schedule: No longer updated

Tagline: Minor Reflections.

Author: Andrew

Brief Comic Description:

- some strips contain elementary mathematics and numbers

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 21/25

SM-CRA = 16

A Geek Story

URL: http://ageekstory.com/sketch
Feed: http://ageekstory.com/sketch/feed/

Update Schedule: No longer updated

Tagline: Daily sketches.

Author: Unknown

- loves photography, the internet, doodling, etc.

Brief Comic Description:

- webcomic about random geeky things
- sometimes can be mathematical
- focuses on social networks, the internet, iphone, and girls

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 22/25

SM-CRA = 15

Polytopes

URL: http://comic.mercentown.org/index.htm
Archive: http://comic.mercentown.org/archive.htm

Update Schedule: No longer updated
Comic Licensing: Unknown

Author: J. Scott Jewell

Brief Comic Description:

- 80 comics posted in full color
- features geometric shapes as the characters

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 23/25

SM-CRA = 15

Blig Blug and Friends

URL: http://bligblug.blogspot.com/
Archive: http://bligblug.blogspot.com/search/label/mathematics
Feed: http://bligblug.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Update Schedule: Updated once a week
Comic Licensing: Unknown

Author: Tom Canel

Brief Comic Description:

- often features drawings involving mathematical symbols

Best Math Comics:

Rank = 24/25

SM-CRA = 14

Brightly Wound

URL: http://brightlywound.com/
Feed: http://www.brightlywound.com/rss.xml

Update Schedule: No longer updated
Comic Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0

Tagline: A webcomic of physics, astronomy, math, and grammar.

Author: Mike?

Brief Comic Description:

- webcomic with stick figures
- often relating to science

Best Math Comics:

Klein Bottle // Curls // The Matrix // Nickelback

Rank = 25/25

SM-CRA = 8

The Usual Ghosts

URL: http://theusualghosts.blogspot.com/

Update Schedule: No longer updated
Comic Licensing: Unknown

Tagline: Comics about life, ghosts and science.

Author: Tanuj Trivedi?

- currently studying at the University of Texas
- electrical engineer from Nirma University (in India)

Brief Comic Description:

- comic feature ghosts, crude humor and science

Best Math Comics:

- are there any math related ones?