explodingdog is the name of a website run by Sam Brown, pseudonym of Adam Culbert. 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 External links explodingdog July 2001 Interview at The Morning News Three Imaginary Girls, July 2004 gel talk, May 2003 Austin Chronicle, March 2005 Bostonist, July 2006 NY Times, April 10, 2003 Wired, Nov 2000 2000s webcomics 2010s webcomics 2000 webcomic debuts 2015 webcomic endings American webcomics Webcomics in print