Barrel - Part 4
Barrel - Part 4
[The barrel is shown on a grid paper background, floating sideways and empty in a choppy sea.]
Barrel series By the way, here are all the barrel comics on a single (easily linked) page: http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html [This is an archived version of the page. The original link is dead. This text is not included in the statement.] 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.

In the first three comics of the series, the character explored the ocean in a barrel and then encountered a whirlpool, all with a reaction of innocent wonder. Here, the empty barrel floating adrift, plus the title text and a previous announcement by Randall that this would be the conclusion of barrel boy's story, imply that the character's encounter with the whirlpool separated him from the barrel, and he may have come to some harm.
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 a character who is not consistent with what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The character was in the barrel in parts 1-3.
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:
[The barrel is shown on a grid paper background, floating sideways and empty in a choppy sea.]
Barrel series By the way, here are all the barrel comics on a single (easily linked) page: http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html [This is an archived version of the page. The original link is dead. This text is not included in the statement.] 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.
