A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?—revised and annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important questions you never thought to ask—coming from November 2024. Preorder here!
[[A bird with apparently fractal wings hovers above a dude, standing with a friend.]]
Friend: Dude, you've got a Time Vulture.
Dude: Holy crap! What is it?
Friend: They're predators that use aging to kill prey.
Dude: Huh? What do you mean?
[[The panel zooms in on the Friend's face. Dude comments from off-panel.]]
Friend: They live for millenia and use little energy. They can slow down their internal clocks so time speeds past. To hunt, they lock on to some prey, and when it stops moving, they eat it.
Dude (off-panel): But what if the prey doesn't die?
Friend: I don't think you quite understand.
Dude: I mean,
I'm
not about to die...
Friend: From the vulture's viewpoint, everyone says that moments before they do.
{{Title text: In a way, all vultures are Time Vultures; some just have more patience than others.}}
xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS at a screen resolution of 1024x1. Please enable your ad blockers, disable high-heat drying, and remove your device from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode. For security reasons, please leave caps lock on while browsing.