Explosm

Explosm is an independent entertainment studio best known for creating and publishing Cyanide & Happiness. Its work spans webcomics, adult animation, tabletop games, video games and consumer merchandise, with absurdist comedy and satirical storytelling connecting its different formats. Based in the Dallas metropolitan area, the company develops original properties and distributes them through online publishing, streaming, retail and its own store.

The business began with a distributed group of internet cartoonists who met through stick-figure animation forums. Their daily webcomic launched on January 26, 2005, and became the foundation for a broader entertainment franchise. Commercial operations were formalized through the incorporation of Explosm LLC in Texas in 2009.

Animation and digital storytelling

Explosm expanded from sequential art into recurring animated shorts and longer episodic productions. A successful crowdfunding campaign supported independent production of The Cyanide & Happiness Show, which premiered on YouTube in 2014. The series subsequently reached audiences through services and channels including Seeso, VRV, Syfy’s TZGZ block, Animation+ and Tubi.

Alongside the show, the studio produces ongoing short-form animated comedy. Its animation work encompasses writing, storyboarding, character animation, voice acting and audio design. Other original series include Purgatony, Purgatony Presents: Dead Air and The Stockholms. Together, these productions extend the studio’s comic sensibility across both brief sketches and episodic storytelling.

Games and publishing

Tabletop publishing is another substantial part of Explosm’s output. Joking Hazard brought its comic-based humor into a party card game, followed by titles including Trial by Trolley, Master Dater and Texas Hold It. Its video game projects include the point-and-click adventure Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse and the battle royale game Rapture Rejects.

Crowdfunding and direct audience support have helped Explosm develop projects beyond the original webcomic. Its operating model combines original publishing, animation production, game development partnerships, merchandising and direct-to-consumer sales, allowing the same creative properties to reach audiences through several distinct forms of entertainment.