I met Randall at his book signing a few months ago at 111 Minna in SF. What the article says about him wanting to speak to each fan is absolutely true: as he signed my book, I commented on his phone (some kind of Android), saying something like "I totally had you pegged for a jailbroken iPhone guy."<p>We spent a few minutes (not too many; I noticed people behind me getting antsy) discussing the relative merits of Android vs. iPhone OS. Great guy, very friendly, and he personalized his autograph for me!<p>Edit: I almost forgot! The person in front of me in line turned out to be Randall's very first girlfriend (from middle school or summer camp or whatever). She brought him a picture of him that she had taken at the time, and they exchanged phone numbers and made plans for dinner. Small world...
This is 24hrs too late, but I must comment that I've been consistently impressed with Randall's commitment to his readers. We were at one event on the book tour, the Silicon Valley stop at Anybots, until at least 2am so that he could have healthy conversations with everyone who stuck it out in line. As if there weren't already a ton of reasons to heart xkcd, his appreciation of his readers is just one more attribute to add to the list.<p>(full disclosure: I started breadpig, which publishes the xkcd book, but everything I've written is 100% true regardless of that fact)