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Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Who are you?
Answer: My name is Mike and I am the creator of Spiked Math Comics. Even though I am trying to stay semi-anonymous, it is rather easy for someone to figure out my true identity. Currently, I am a postdoc at a Canadian University and hope to land a job in academics before the year 2015. As for my age, I'm under the age of 30 but that will eventually change. I completed my Ph.D. degree in 2010 in a crossover between graph theory and linear algebra (i.e., spectral graph theory). I love doing research and have published 8 papers in refereed math journals, submitted 3 additional papers, and am preparing 3 more for submission. In my most recent submission, I managed to slip in a reference to one of Courtney Gibbons' (BrownSharpie) math publications. Since we have similar research interests you might some day see a paper authored by "Brown Sharpie and Spiked Math"! (though I'd have to email her about this first). I also sit on the editorial board for a couple of journals, organize seminars/conferences and take on an active role as an educator. It's definitely a busy, busy, busy life.

Question: What is Spiked Math?
Answer: Spiked Math is a geeky webcomic that often contains mathematical puns, jokes and humor. Since it is completely written and drawn by me, the qualtiy of jokes often ranges from very poor to an instant classic (depending on my creativity and time constraints).

Question: Where does the motivation and ideas for Spiked Math come from?
Answer: Everywhere. Currently, I have a database of over 100 original ideas for comics, mostly crap ideas :-(, and a bunch of excellent user submitted ideas or ideas inspired by others. If I use someone else's idea or the comic is inspired by someone elses idea then I try my best to give credit where credit is due. It's pretty common for artists to draw something they believe they came up with but really the idea came from somewhere else (and they forgot or the similarity didn't occur to them at the time). If this happens to me, let me know and I'll credit the original source(s) to the best of my ability.

Question: How often is the comic updated?
Answer: I try to turn out 12+ comics per month. Depending on how busy my schedule is, it may be more or less. During the summer time it is definitely less.

Question: Can I use comic ### in my newsletter or classroom or article or project or presentation or website?
Answer: Absolutely!! Spiked Math is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License. This means you can't sell the comics without permission but are free to copy and reuse any of my "drawings" (noncommercially and so long as you leave the attribution/copyright in each comic). If you are unsure, send me an email and I'll let you know :D. If you want to use a comic in a textbook you are writing (or use it commercially), then send me an email and we can discuss it. So long as you aren't selling a book of the comics then I usually allow it. I do have higher resolution images of the newer comics if needed.

Question: And how exactly can I contact you?
Answer: If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me an email to: spikedmath at gmail.com. You can also leave comments in the comment area of each comic as I always read these.

Question: I have a truly awesome comic idea! Can I send it to you?
Answer: Absolutely, and perhaps when I have time I will put it into comic form.

Question: I made a paradoy/guest comic, can you post it on your website?
Answer: Maybe. Worst case is that I'll post it on my blog site and link to it from Spiked Math.

Question: Blog site? What other websites do you operate?
Answer: Right now I operate:

Question: How much time do you spend on these websites?
Answer: Way too much time! The forum, games site and Gauss Facts run with little time needed by me (other than posting on the forums and adding new games). However, creating new comics for Spiked Math Comics is a long and tiring process. I can spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours on a single comic. I feel bad when I spend 4+ hours on a comic and then it ends up being a dud, but the ones that are a hit makes up for all the duds. To keep Math Fail updated regularly requires me to be updated with what is happening with math humor on the net. I am subscribed to over 100 math blogs and regularly check out the math related websites and forums for math news and math humor so I can pass it along to you guys.

Question: How much money do you earn?
Answer: To put it in perspective, I earn 30 times MORE money per hour for math tutoring than I earn by creating comics and updating Math Fail. But Spiked Math and Math Fail aren't about money. It's about educating and motivating students/teachers/others in mathematics through the use of humor. If even just one person learns something from my sites, then I've accomplished what I set out to do!!

Question: If it's not about money, then why do you have ads and a donation button?
Answer: I pay roughly $180/month for a high end VPS, $8/year per domain and incur other related expenses. The ad revenue and donations I receive help to recover those costs. I just finished a Ph.D. and my current job unfortunately doesn't pay that well (students I tutored five years ago earn double, triple, and even quadruple what I currently earn). If I happen to have a surplus of money coming from Spiked Math, I spend some of it by advertising Spiked Math on other geeky webcomics in order to show my support of them and what they do.

After paying off Spiked Math expenses and advertising, any extra money is being saved so I can upgrade my hosting to a dedicated server and eventually buy a small inventory of Spiked Math posters, t-shirts and other merchandise to sell and give away in contests. Regarding Math-Shirts.com: I'm not happy with the quality of the dark colored t-shirts I sell on Math-Shirts, so will be converting that site to a different t-shirt company that can produce higher quality shirts (however, the lighter shirts currently up there are awesome quality and way better than what CafePress produces). If you purchased a shirt and find the quality not up to your standard, either contact me or Zazzle and we'll see about getting you a refund.

Question: How can I show my support for Spiked Math?
Answer: There are many ways you can show your support! Some ideas include:

Visiting the website.
Leaving nice comments on the website.
Subscribing to the rss feed.
Joining and participating in the forums.
Liking me on facebook / following me on twitter.
Telling your friends and enemies about Spiked Math.
Donating to the site.
Telling Mike you want Spiked Math merchandise, then when he comes out with it, buying it!
Linking to Spiked Math from your blog/website.

Of course, if the only thing you happen to do is visit the website, then you've already made me a very happy person!!

Question: Do you ever get hate mail?
Answer: Once in a while I do. Sometimes a comic/joke/picture turns out to be offensive to a particular demographic and I don't realize it until after it's posted. This first type of emails are allowable since I don't intentially mean to offend anyone. My goal is to entertain, educate and motivate people who have an interest in math, not to spread hatred or make people angry (if I happen to piss you off, then I do apologize - send me an email and we can chat about it). Other times, hate mail is from people just disliking Spiked Math in general. Sometimes it is from a disgruntled student who hates math or is seeking attention, and other times it is from a die-hard xkcd fan who thinks I am invading on Randall's territory. I often get comments comparing Spiked Math to xkcd stating how much lamer Spiked Math is.