0381: "Mobius Battle"

[humanoftheforest]

I hate to be picky, but i don't think the top panel was reproduced quite right in the looped drawing. I don't see the little "sound rays" which indicate the coming kicker. It ought to be in the upper-left panel in the loop. Or am i missing something?
(Still awesome! )

[Robin S]

I once had an idea similar to this, though the idea of having both "sides" take place simultaneously (and thus have a single character as the victim of his own revenge ad infinitum) is pure genius.

[bulbmusic5]

Re: mudge's animation

I was waiting for someone to do that. That, I think, is exactly what this comic needed.

(I'd use a quote, but it doesn't seem to work well for the attachment.)

[Robin S]

Also, it could do with being slowed down a bit. Having it take place at high-speed spoils it a bit, in my opinion.

I've just noticed this:

I can never stop reading strips about mobius.

Hehehe.

[Csaboka]

How lucky it is that both H and A are symmetric letters. The same thing wouldn't have worked with HEHEHEHEH

And I've just realized that the final H is important as well, otherwise one of the guys would go AHAHAHAH...

Even the swearing has to be made by symmetric letters... Möbius strips severely limit your vocabulary, it seems

[madjo]

How lucky it is that both H and A are symmetric letters. The same thing wouldn't have worked with HEHEHEHEH

And I've just realized that the final H is important as well, otherwise one of the guys would go AHAHAHAH...

Even the swearing has to be made by symmetric letters... Möbius strips severely limit your vocabulary, it seems

But the only thing that hints you that the images get reversed is the swearing of the guy, which ends and then starts with an '!'

[Robin S]

Not even necessarily that, since "!" is also used in place of a letter partway through the word.

['; DROP DATABASE;--]

and you'd need a specially designed aperture plate or you'd end up seeing that right audio track being displayed on the screen as a bunch of purple lines.

Electrical tape.

[spiderqueen]

... anybody here ever read

Spoiler:

the short story "Other People"

by Neil Gaiman? It was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this.

Love the strip, anyway. I think this is my favourite for quite some time now.

[Robin S]

Have you just spoilt it for us?

[akashra]

Guy down the road is the senior technician/manager for a large chain cinema here in Melbourne. This strip gives me an idea I'd so love to to be able to swing as a 'favour'

[Sinik]

And here I always thought a Mobius Strip was a strip club in Seattle.


(Ba dump pish)

[spiderqueen]

Have you just spoilt it for us?

Well, no more than Mr. Gaiman does by introducing it as a "Mobius strip of a story" in the foreword, I think? I apologise if I did - I've gone back and spoiler-tagged my post (and taken the reference in the quote out of this one).

[stzein]

First thing I did when I saw this comic was press CTRL-P. I imagine I'm not the only one. Then I cut it out, twisted it and taped the end together, like I imagine many of you did.
Then I noticed that it didn't work... I imagine -or hope- I'm not the only one.

Now I see some of you have solved this by printing it on two sides. That idea occurred to me too, but it just destroys the idea don't you think?
Luckily I had a bottle of vegetable oil at hand. Now I have a möbius strip made of win and grease

[mackprime]

I Printed out the comic part on both sides of an A4, it turneed out ok.
(link to pictures here below)
http://mdrummond.blogspot.com/2008/02/xkcd-mobius-strips.html

[Markavian]

Why is he still suprised !! after being kicked for the second time? It makes sense for the first loop, but if you've just been hit by a ball that you kicked at yourself, surely you'd be less suprised the next time round... it suggests the animation can only loop twice before it doesn't make sense anymore.

[RuBLed]

Oh my.. now I had to get some transparent projector slides and print this thing... ohhh the things xkcd force me to do..

[Mulch]

For some reason, this strip just doesn't seem as edgy as xkcd normally is.

[sql_lall]

You know, if one said AHAHAH and the other HAHAHA, i reckon it'd give them their own identities
But otherwise, awesome Mobius strip

[Robin S]

Why is he still suprised !! after being kicked for the second time? It makes sense for the first loop, but if you've just been hit by a ball that you kicked at yourself, surely you'd be less suprised the next time round... it suggests the animation can only loop twice before it doesn't make sense anymore.

If you want to rationalize it, say that it's a time loop. They wouldn't remember things which had happened more than one loop ago.

[macronencer]

YES YES YES!!

This is one of Randall's best ever. Thank you!

[jaap]

For some reason, this strip just doesn't seem as edgy as xkcd normally is.

Hahaha! Very good.

Spoiler:

A Moebius strip only has one edge...

[Dobblesworth]

There has been an absence of mathematical-themed strips these past weeks [I think...], so this one makes for a very good addition to xkcd.

I think the audience can really truly appreciate it if they think seriously about taking the 2-D image and projecting it into 3-D in their head, or by printing off the images and construcing a Mobius strip itself.

[Robin S]

I disagree. The Möbius strip's important feature is topological: once you get to the "bottom" of the strip, you have to reflect in a vertical axis in order to start again at the top. I can't see how a 3d visualization would help.

[K.Raven]

Freakin Awesome!!!

The second I saw the strip I literally LOL'ed.

[dxb338]

For some reason, this strip just doesn't seem as edgy as xkcd normally is.

Yeah, and the story is completely one sided.

[dxb338]

d'oh! Sorry to double post but I had to be annoying and say this cause it just came to me...

What happens when you read a Mobius comic strip?

Spoiler:

Chirality ensues

/is on Fark way too much
//slashies

[Arancaytar]

I read it this morning, but it took me until now to figure out that he's really fighting himself.

[mudge]

Okay, I really have to let this go. I'm going to be late to class now!

mobius-comic4.gif (20.26 KiB) Viewed 4945 times

[Medders]

Paper's good, but you can't beat a bit of transparency...





(Edit: Photos in a sec, fixing the images.)
(Edit: Fixed )

[Felstaff]

Genius, or a stroke thereof.

The endless time-loop, pictured in all its simplicity using a single strip of paper. How wonderfully complex.

Reminds me of this pbf comic, which is also excellent. Although drawing the entire history of time may result in more than one strip of paper.

Actually, I guess that wouldn't work, because the second loop would be reversed and/or mirrored? I haven't got the cranial capacity to work that one out.

[Dobblesworth]

I disagree. The Möbius strip's important feature is topological: once you get to the "bottom" of the strip, you have to reflect in a vertical axis in order to start again at the top. I can't see how a 3d visualization would help.

What I was suggesting is that an assembled print-out of the strip, either done double-sided + reversed, or on transparent paper (as discussed previously), is a sure-fire way to appreciate the complexity of Mobius Fight and follow the events a little closer. Of course, seeing as someone's wasted spent several hours doing an animated gif of the comic, my idea's not so necessary now.

[lowbart]

so I guess I can just look at the picture because I happen to have a computer which displays images.

Where can I get one of these things.

[MotorToad]

Heh, the comic --both original and animated-- are brilliant. I'm pretty sure the Mobius Movie has been done before, though. Has no one seen Closer? (Warning: If you haven't, don't!)

[Pesto]

Genius, or a stroke thereof.

The endless time-loop, pictured in all its simplicity using a single strip of paper. How wonderfully complex.

Reminds me of this pbf comic, which is also excellent. Although drawing the entire history of time may result in more than one strip of paper.

Actually, I guess that wouldn't work, because the second loop would be reversed and/or mirrored? I haven't got the cranial capacity to work that one out.

I thought you were going to link to [ulr=http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF094-Freaking_Vortex.gif]this one[/url].

[nilbus]

hah people beat me to it. but here's mine.

[AbalidothAscendant]

Genius, or a stroke thereof.

The endless time-loop, pictured in all its simplicity using a single strip of paper. How wonderfully complex.

Reminds me of this pbf comic, which is also excellent. Although drawing the entire history of time may result in more than one strip of paper.

Actually, I guess that wouldn't work, because the second loop would be reversed and/or mirrored? I haven't got the cranial capacity to work that one out.

I thought you were going to link to [ulr=http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF094-Freaking_Vortex.gif]this one[/url].

They both apply, in different ways.

[yjester]

Genious, genious, genious!! I don't know what I like more, this one or Future strip, both dealing with strange time.

And thanks for all the gifs, I didn't figured out about the chirality.

[xkcd_n00bz]

So am I the only one wishing I had a few extra million lying around that could fund a feature length animated Mobius movie? Think of it, you could constantly sell tickets, there would be no need for start and end times. Patrons could enter the theater at any time during the show, stay for a while and then go when they had seen the whole thing.

Now I have a möbius strip made of win and grease

There is no other context of conversation possible in any language in which this sentance would make perfect sense.

[Pandercolour]

Someone's ging to have to explain this one to me.