I came to the Exploding Dog website expecting blood and images that would give PETA members a heart attack. What I found was innocent and clever drawings of stick figures, red robots, and green monsters. The concept behind the site is very simple: you send Sam Brown {the lone artist/founder of explodingdog.com} a phrase, he draws a picture from the phrase and posts the drawing on his site: Simple, yet addictive.

The website began in January of 2000 as a small creative outlet and currently has a worldwide, cult-like following and I’ll be the first to admit I’m a part of it. Meet the man of a lot of pictures and not a lot of words and find out what he drinks, listens to, and how his website began…

Do you have a drink of choice? Coffee, hot chocolate, vodka?
I like decaf coffee.

Are you anti-caffeine?
No, it just makes me feel insane when I drink it.

How did you come up with the name for the site?
It was a game my friend and I would play where he would say a title and I would draw a picture. I put up some of the pictures and wrote on the website that anyone interested could send me titles and I would draw more pictures.

Where did the name of your URL come from?
Before I made the website I was making animations about dogs. Some were talking dogs, walking dogs, dogs in space, and one was an exploding dog. I was going to have the website be an extension of these animations, but I was not happy with the concept so I changed it.

Do you actually have a dog?
No, I do not have a dog.

Does your mom read the site?
Probably not that much.

Do you have any formal art training?
I graduated from the Hartford Art School in 1999.

Has there ever been a caption that you couldn’t think of a picture for?
Probably lots but I just did not draw them.

What’s your favorite website?
The Morning News

Do you have a 9-5?
No I do not have a 9-5.

Do you consider yourself a web designer, an illustrator, an artist or a ______ {fill in the blank}?
Probably an artist because I see myself doing more than just the internet stuff.

Have you ever gotten any dates from the site?
No, no dates.

There’s a building in Seattle that has one of your images painted on the side of it. Do people ask your permission to use you imagery?
No they did not ask permission. I have heard about it from a lot of people and have seen pictures of it. Some people ask, obviously not everyone.

Have you ever had an imaginary friend before?
Yes, when I was young I did have an imaginary friend.

What was your imaginary friends name? What adventures did you two go on?
I do not think he wants to go public just yet.

What’s the craziest email you’ve ever gotten?
I have gotten many emails from people dying and depressed but those were not really crazy, they just stick with me longer. I can not think of anything specifically crazy, but i get a lot of email so maybe it just does not sound crazy anymore.

Do you have any neurotic habits?
When I am driving around I try to avoid stoplights. People find it annoying because sometimes in means hitting lots more stop signs.

Is your glass half-empty of half full?
I am usually pretty optimistic.

Where do you draw inspiration from?
I can’t think of anything particular; everything can be inspiring depending on how you look at it.

Your site is very un-commercial. Have you had lots of requests for banner ad rates and such?
Yeah, but I have never seen them as being worth the hassle or the money to have the site look cluttered.

And finally, we are a music based website, so I have you ask you the generic question: What ís in your CD player right now?
The Clash is playing in my itunes.