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Sunday, February 25, 2007

Minions #50 - Great Expectations



Visit:
THE MINION'S LAIR OF MERCHANDISE
Looking is free - at least until we can find a way to charge for it. We're evil, darn it!

Join the Minions reminder email list or the penguin gets it!*. It's free, it's easy, and you'll never miss a Minions at Work cartoon (or if you do, it won't be our fault!)

*Actually, the penguin always gets it, usually well before we do. He's got an IQ of 210 after all...

Notes from the Minion Master:


As I said last week, nothing too special for Minions #50, but not too shabby either.

Note also the new picture of me in the sidebar, taken last weekend at Radcon, when I was in full-on Evil Overlord mode. Thanks to my friend, writer Rob Vagle for the photo, and Jay Lake for loan of the helmet. Note my wife Chris at left, and her bemused, long-suffering expression. She's been putting up with this for decades, folks...

We're still in both remodeling and deadline (Star Trek) hell at the moment, and I start jury duty in about a week, so no promises on what you'll get in coming weeks. But I'll come up with something. I always do.

- Steve, the horned one...

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Minions #49 - Black Thumb


Visit:
THE MINION'S LAIR OF MERCHANDISE
Looking is free - at least until we can find a way to charge for it. We're evil, darn it!

Join the Minions reminder email list or the penguin gets it!*. It's free, it's easy, and you'll never miss a Minions at Work cartoon (or if you do, it won't be our fault!)

*Actually, the penguin always gets it, usually well before we do. He's got an IQ of 210 after all...

Notes from the Minion Master:

As I type this, we're finishing up our weekend at Radcon in Pasco, Washington. We had a good time visiting with fans and friends old and new, signing a few books, and modeling our new Minions at Work tee shirts. We're on our way home in a few hours, but it's a long drive, so I'm cutting the Minions loose a little early.

If you'll check the sidebar, you'll find a few fun changes.

First, a popular features on my newsgroup over on sff.net was my periodic postings of "good names for rock bands." I freely admit cribbing this idea from the wonderful novelist, writer, and humorist Dave Barry. After he started using the concept in his columns as a running joke, I couldn't help start noticing those odd combinations of words that come up in writing, conversation, or that I overhear in public places, that simply beg to be rock bands.

Now I'm moving the feature here where more people will see it. I try to make note of them, and record them for posterity. I'll update the list now and then whenever new names drop out of the ether.

You also note that the quotes from Number One and Number 2 have been changed. I'll try to change them now and then to keep things fresh and provide you with a new source of amusement, so keep watching.

- Steve, Minion Master

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Minions #48 - Old story: Boy meets girl...



Visit:
THE MINION'S LAIR OF MERCHANDISE
Looking is free - at least until we can find a way to charge for it. We're evil, darn it!

Join the Minions reminder email list. It's free, it's easy, and you'll never miss a Minions at Work cartoon (or if you do, it won't be our fault!)

About this week's comic: Well, I almost chickened out on this one. Not only is the punch-line pretty edgy, but of the three previewers I showed it to, two thought it was very funny, and the third thought my Minion was a guy, throwing a whole unintended spin on things. Not that I might not go there if that was the point of a good joke, but it wasn't...

I put it aside to consider pulling it or doing a reshoot. I also ran it past my homies on the "Minions Reminder List," and when the was overwhelmingly positive, I just posted it with a title that I hope clarifies all -- uh -- dangling gender issues. Just to be triple-clear, this Minion 67, our new female Minion. Really.

Anyway, it seems appropriate that I held this little romance back closer to Valentine's day anyway. Hope you like it. Hope you're still speaking to me. I do value all your opinions, so if you think things are funny, not funny, offensive, edgy, too edgy, not edgy enough, let me know. This isn't a democracy by any means, but I do listen and value your opinions.

And remember, as always, this is a parody, and all celebrity action figures are impersonated. No super-heroes were harmed in the shooting of this cartoon. (Whoops, I said "shoot" again!)

Next weekend Chris and I will be at the Radcon science fiction/gaming convention in Pasco, Washington, signing books, participating in panel programming, and generally trying to seduce some new folks to join us in the Minion way. The panel for next week is all but done, so barring technical difficulties on the road it should appear Monday (or perhaps even a little earlier).

One thing that does have me concerned, is that Blogger's little housekeeping robots flagged my other two blogs, Multiplex of the Mind (devoted to writing and other serious stuff) and One-Sixth (my hobby blog mainly aimed at fellow collectors of 1/6th action figures, rather than the general public) as "spam blogs." They locked the blogs so that I couldn't add new posts.

This shouldn't be a major point of concern. Somehow something about my blogs was tagged by the robots for the "no-fly" list. But supposedly all I needed to do was email them (done) and a real human would drop by to verify my non-blog status and allow me to post again. But this could take four business days. It hasn't happened here, but I can't say for sure that it won't. If we did get flagged, in theory we shouldn't be off-line more than the afore-mentioned four working days.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Minions #47 - Back to the Future

(Stay tuned following our usual reminders for some additional important information about today's cartoon.)



Announcing (for those who didn't catch it already) our new URL! You'll now find your weekly Minions fix at www.MinionsAtWork.com! The old addresses will continue to be forwarded, but the new address is easier to remember so you can more easily check Minions at Work on the go, or pass it to your friends.

Visit:
THE MINION'S LAIR OF MERCHANDISE
Looking is free - at least until we can find a way to charge for it. We're evil, darn it!

Join the Minions reminder email list. It's free, it's easy, and you'll never miss a Minions at Work cartoon (or if you do, it won't be our fault!)

About this week's comic:

Have a feeling of deja vu? Don't be alarmed. It's a common feeling for time-travelers.

Actually, this is a fill-in comic, as the one I'd had planned to post this week was held back for further scrutiny. Yeah, I knew I was pushing the "bad-taste" meter on this one, but one person I showed it to interpreted it in an unexpected way that was not intended, and which took it into way more controversial territory. So I have to figure out if I should just release it, scrap it, or put it out with a disclaimer to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea. I'm leaning towards the latter (and that's probably what I'll do), but I wanted at least a few more days to mull it over, and maybe run it past another pair of eyes or two. So I pulled this one out of the drawer instead.

Speaking of Time Travel
No, you did not miss Minions at Work #46. I realized after posting last week's cartoon (#45) that I'd screwed up the numbering. There were two posts previously made as #42 (I was probably confused by the "bonus" posting of #43) so I'm skipping a number to bring things back into order.

So, you did not miss #46. There is no #46! Or rather, #45 was #46. Confused? That's part of our plan! We're evil, darn it!

- Steve, Master of Evil plans, if not numbers.