explodingdog is the name of a website run by Sam Brown, pseudonym of Adam Culbert.[1] From 2000 to 2015, viewers e-mailed Brown short phrases for inspiration and he illustrated certain ones. The drawings are usually rendered digitally and are known for their simplistic style, and their poignant and sometimes unexpected take on the phrases on which they are based. Sam Brown has published limited-run print books of his explodingdog illustrations. He also sells merchandise with explodingdog illustrations and prints of the daily drawings to help offset costs.

Themes and Visual Motifs

Like many artists, Sam Brown uses many recurring themes and visual motifs in his explodingdog work.

A short list of visual motifs:

  • Stick figures
  • Red robots
  • Fish (frequently yellow)
  • Stars
  • Clouds
  • Monsters
  • Menacing cityscapes
  • Snakes
  • Ducks
  • Dogs
  • Dictators
  • Orange cones, which are, apparently, a game of sorts
  • Rockets

A short list of recurring themes:

  • Loss
  • Love
  • Joy
  • Loneliness
  • Menace
  • Confusion
  • Freedom

Influence

Over the years, there have been a number of different artistic projects inspired by explodingdog. These sites usually utilize the same "submitted by random people, and selected for inspiration" concept that explodingdog pioneered.

Webcomics

  • Whispered Apologies — An inversion of the explodingdog format in which artists submit comics to the site, and writers give the submitted comics text.
  • Boring3D
  • Diesel Sweeties – Traditional webcomic
  • NatalieDee – Daily webcomic
  • Critter Cuddles - Publishes a webcomic daily with daily drawings by email.

Music sites

  • Song Fight! — Originally started as a musical explodingdog spinoff, now a songwriting contest between multiple artists.
  • Request-A-Song.com The artists at this site took song title requests and turned them into original songs.
  • Songs To Wear Pants To this site will take any user submission of text/genre and turn it into a song.

References

  1. ↑ O'Connell, Pamela Licalzi (April 10, 2003). "NY Times, Online Diary". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
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