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Monday, May 25, 2009

Minions #167 - Drawing a Blank


WARNING! CLICKING ON IMAGES MAY MAKE THEM EXPLODE!

Stand by, following the usual photocopied flyer for a fun-filled-fax from your Minion Master!

Your interminable wait is important to us. To serve you better, a supervisor may drop the representative assigned to serve you into a lava-pit just before they can answer your call. It's just one more way of saying, "we care, just not about you."

HELP BAIL-OUT THE FORCES OF EVIL! SUPPORT "MINIONS AT WORK" BY BUYING STUFF YOU WERE GOING TO BUY ANYWAY!
We're now Amazon.com affiliates, which means that if you click on the Amazon link in our sidebar and make purchases from Amazon, a tiny little sliver of what you spend goes to support these fine (maybe even near-mint!) cartoons!

Or visit our Amazon Lair Gift Shop for Minions-recommended merchandise featuring villainy from across pop-culture!

Minions at work is inadequately supported during this financial crisis by your purchases from our web stores and our advertisers. Feed the economy and help us bleed green just a little more slowly by purchasing tee-shirts, buttons, calendars, hats, undies (we kid not!), and other fine Minions at Work items at one of the following stores.

While waiting for your impending doom, pick up a Minions at Work tee-shirt or other great souvenir of your visit to the Lair:
THE MINION'S LAIR OF MERCHANDISE
"Satisfaction guaranteed or we'll make make you buy something else!"

and

NUMBER TWO'S HOUSE OF NAUGHTY
(For very small values of naughty.)

Or just click on our "Donate" button and send us cash to support our future evil activities! We like cash! Small, unmarked, Paypal payments only, please!

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!) Or become one of our followers. See the follower box in our Mighty Sidebar!


Greetings, Interchangeable Duplicates!

Here we are again, a little late this week because of the holidays, and a theory I have. I get the impression that many people are visiting Minions at Work from (surprise!) work. When I post (or at least announce) the new cartoon before the work week starts, it seems like I get less feedback.

My theory is, it the announcement doesn't come in while you're at work (and wishing you weren't) it gets lost in your backlog, and you just don't notice. Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

I'm working to get "Minions at Work" noticed. In the beginning, I didn't promote much on the theory that, this being just a weekly, single-panel cartoon, it wouldn't make sense to promote until I had something of a backlog of new material for new visitors to look at.

Well, that snuck up on me at some point. I guess 167 (and a few more) cartoons does constitute a "backlog." So we're on Facebook now (if you're there, please join our "Minions At Work" group and suggest it to your friends). I hate the idea of Twitter, but I may have to give it a try at some point.

I'm also looking for other ways to build our audience. One idea I've had is looking for a more popular partner site, maybe a sci-fi news or movie site, and offer to provide them a "Best of Minions at Work" cartoon each week from our inventory in exchange for a link back here. I've got a few ideas, but I haven't approached anybody yet. If you've got any ideas, suggestions, connections, or run a site yourself, let me know.

See you next week.

- Your Collated and Stapled Minion Master, Steve






Sunday, May 17, 2009

Minions #166 - Numbers Game


WARNING! CLICKING ON IMAGES MAY MAKE THEM EXPLODE!

Stand by, following the usual mercantile malfunctions for a quick overhaul from your Minion Master!

Your interminable wait is important to us. To serve you better, a supervisor may drop the representative assigned to serve you into a water-filled rat-pit just before they can answer your call. It's just one more way of saying, "we care. Oh, hell yeah, we care."

HELP BAIL-OUT THE FORCES OF EVIL! SUPPORT "MINIONS AT WORK" BY BUYING STUFF YOU WERE GOING TO BUY ANYWAY!
We're now Amazon.com affiliates, which means that if you click on the Amazon link in our sidebar and make purchases from Amazon, a tiny little sliver of what you spend goes to support these fine (maybe even near-mint!) cartoons!

Or visit our Amazon Lair Gift Shop for Minions-recommended merchandise featuring villainy from across pop-culture!

Minions at work is inadequately supported during this financial crisis by your purchases from our web stores and our advertisers. Feed the economy and help us bleed green just a little more slowly by purchasing tee-shirts, buttons, calendars, hats, undies (we kid not!), and other fine Minions at Work items at one of the following stores.

While waiting for your impending doom, pick up a Minions at Work tee-shirt or other great souvenir of your visit to the Lair:
THE MINION'S LAIR OF MERCHANDISE
"Satisfaction guaranteed or we'll make make you buy something else!"

and

NUMBER TWO'S HOUSE OF NAUGHTY
(For very small values of naughty.)

Or just click on our "Donate" button and send us cash to support our future evil activities! We like cash! Small, unmarked, Paypal payments only, please!

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!) Or become one of our followers. See the follower box in our Mighty Sidebar!


Greetings, Accident Victims!

Don't you hate it when you show up for work and get immediately crushed by a rampaging giant robot?

That's never happened to you?

SEE! YOUR JOB COULD BE WORSE! We've brightened your day already! Yay, us!

Speaking of "lets all just be friends, remember that I just set up a new "Minions at Work" group on Facebook! If you're on Facebook, be sure to join up and invite all your friends too! I'll be posting notices of new cartoons there, and there's a discussion area where you can talk among yourselves for a change. If we get enough suckers -- uh -- people there, I might even start some contests and stuff.

Just search for "Minions at Work," given that the group is called (amazingly enough) "Minions at Work."


- Your Master of Unpopular Mechanics, Steve






Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Minions #165 - No Relation



TO FULLY DEPLOY COMEDY, CLICK ON IMAGES FOR FULL-SIZED VERSION!

Stand by, following the usual garage sales for a scheduled lube-job from your Minion Master!

Your interminable wait is important to us. To serve you better, a supervisor may drop the representative assigned to serve you into a water-filled rat-pit just before they can answer your call. It's just one more way of saying, "we care. Oh, hell yeah, we care."

KEEP AMERICA STRONG! SUPPORT "MINIONS AT WORK" BY BUYING STUFF YOU WERE GOING TO BUY ANYWAY!
We're now Amazon.com affiliates, which means that if you click on the Amazon link in our sidebar and make purchases from Amazon, a tiny little sliver of what you spend goes to support these fine (maybe even near-mint!) cartoons!

Or visit our Amazon Lair Gift Shop for Minions-recommended merchandise featuring villainy from across pop-culture!

Minions at work is inadequately supported during this financial crisis by your purchases from our web stores and our advertisers. Feed the economy and help us bleed green just a little more slowly by purchasing tee-shirts, buttons, calendars, hats, undies (we kid not!), and other fine Minions at Work items at one of the following stores.

While waiting for your impending doom, pick up a Minions at Work tee-shirt or other great souvenir of your visit to the Lair:
THE MINION'S LAIR OF MERCHANDISE
"Satisfaction guaranteed or we'll make make you buy something else!"

and

NUMBER TWO'S HOUSE OF NAUGHTY
(For very small values of naughty.)

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!) Or become one of our followers. See the follower box in our Mighty Sidebar!


Greetings, Strap Hangers!

Okay, I'm late again. The studio is much more in order, but I haven't had time to make much more use of our new studio facility, so it's back to the inventory this week. (For a full run-down on the upgrades here at Minions Studios, with pictures, see this post.)

Also, notice to your right that I've added a PayPal "Donate" button. So if you want to support "Minions at Work" and keep them coming, you can now directly throw a little (or a lot, I suggest a lot, if you want a suggestion) coin our way. I mean, why waste it on NPR or curing Puppy Cancer when you can waste it on us. We're a whole lot less whiny about it, and we won't send you a danged water-bottle that brands you as a bleeding-heart liberal and weak, defenseless target for the likes of -- well -- us. We're evil, darn it!

So if you'd like to bypass that whole "Shop on Amazon buy our tee-shirts" middle-man thing and just give us money, go for it. We appreciate it. Also, we know where you live.

Getting to this week's cartoon. Hey, is it wrong that when the words "If they can put a man on the moon..." emerge from the lips of anyone in my presence, I have the insane and irresistible urge to slap them silly? You bet it's wrong! This is the lair, and we're evil, darn it!

But really, it's justified evil. I mean, we can't go to the moon. Haven't been able to for over 35 years now. Hopefully, that will change soon (I hope so, as otherwise how can we hijack NASA's moon rockets to build our Evil Space Lair?)

But also, the things they're talking about are pretty much never related. It's like saying, "just because I can transplant the head of a man onto the body of an ape, why can't I make everyone get along?" I mean, obviously, anybody can transplant the head of a -- blah -- blah -- blah, because it's just science! A little mad, yeah, but just science. But making everybody get along, that's hard, because, well, at least three quarters of them are annoying morons who say things like, "if we can put a man on the moon..." and then I just gonna have clock their asses! End of world peace.

Speaking of "lets all just be friends, remember that I just set up a new "Minions at Work" group on Facebook! If you're on Facebook, be sure to join up and invite all your friends too! I'll be posting notices of new cartoons there, and there's a discussion area where you can talk among yourselves for a change. If we get enough suckers -- uh -- people there, I might even start some contests and stuff.

Just search for "Minions at Work," given that the group is called (amazingly enough) "Minions at Work."


- Your Master of Slapping People Silly, Steve

Monday, May 04, 2009

Minions #164 - One Small Problem



TO FULLY DEPLOY COMEDY, CLICK ON IMAGES FOR FULL-SIZED VERSION!

Stand by, following the usual garage sales for a scheduled lube-job from your Minion Master!

Your execution is important to us. To serve you better, your execution may be observed by a supervisor, who will step in to kick you if the corpse is still twitching.

KEEP AMERICA STRONG! SUPPORT "MINIONS AT WORK" BY BUYING STUFF YOU WERE GOING TO BUY ANYWAY!
We're now Amazon.com affiliates, which means that if you click on the Amazon link in our sidebar and make purchases from Amazon, a tiny little sliver of what you spend goes to support these fine (maybe even near-mint!) cartoons!

Or visit our Amazon Lair Gift Shop for Minions-recommended merchandise featuring villainy from across pop-culture!

Minions at work is inadequately supported during this financial crisis by your purchases from our web stores and our advertisers. Feed the economy and help us bleed green just a little more slowly by purchasing tee-shirts, buttons, calendars, hats, undies (we kid not!), and other fine Minions at Work items at one of the following stores.

While waiting for your impending doom, pick up a Minions at Work tee-shirt or other great souvenir of your visit to the Lair:
THE MINION'S LAIR OF MERCHANDISE
"Satisfaction guaranteed or we'll make make you buy something else!"

and

NUMBER TWO'S HOUSE OF NAUGHTY
(For very small values of naughty.)

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!) Or become one of our followers. See the follower box in our Mighty Sidebar!


Greetings, Exhaust Ports!

Lots to talk about this week, so hang with me here...

I'm running dangerously close to late this week, but I just got the new, larger, bigger, better, "Minions Stage" up and running, and wanted to do a new cartoon shot in the new space. (For a full run-down on the upgrades here at Minions Studios, with pictures, see the previous post.)

Also, I was busy setting up a new "Minions at Work" group on Facebook! If you're on Facebook, be sure to join up and invite all your friends. I'll be posting notices of new cartoons there, and there's a discussion area where you can talk among yourselves for a change. Just search for "Minions at Work," given that the group is called (amazingly enough) "Minions at Work."

International Shipping from the Lair of Merchandise

We had a question in our comment section last week asking if items from the "Lair of Merchandise" can be shipped internationally. Indeed they can!

Keep in mind that the Lair of Merchandise (and "Number Two's House of Naughty" as well) is operated in conjunction with Cafe Press, who handles all the payments, shipping, etc., and set all the policies. Here are the details on international shipping, rates, etc.

The questioner also asked about price conversion. Far as I know (and again, Cafe Press handles this), your credit card will be charged in U.S. dollars, and your bank or card company will do the conversion at the time of charge at the current rate of exchange. Meaning you may have to do a little research to figure out what the approximate charges in your local currency will be, and it may vary slightly from what you figured because exchange rates change constantly.

The good news is, from what I can see, the international economy shipping rates look pretty reasonable. We surly appreciate our fans from around the world. We love to hear from you, and we hope you'll wear your Minion colors (black and white, mainly) proudly!

As for the Lair Gift Shop, that's an Amazon U.S. Affiliate store, and it doesn't appear that you can order there outside the U.S. Other international Amazon sites such as Amazon UK or Amazon DK may offer some of the same items, or not, but you'll have to find them yourself, and far as I know, clicking through our links won't generate any cash for us. But we sure appreciate the thought.

Anyway, I've got to hurry if I'm going to get this out by midnight. See you back here at the improved Minions Studios next week!

- Your Studio Minion Mogul, Steve

Sunday, May 03, 2009

A look at the new Minions at Work "Soundstage"

For quite some time, I've been frustrated with the limitations of my original Minions at Work "stage," where most of our photo-cartoons are shot.


If I've been doing my job right, the world of the Minions seems pretty big, but in fact, almost everything takes place on an area of bench-top only a little more than two feet square.

Not only was it small, but it was inflexible because of that red locker on the left side. It was handy to lean second wall against, but it limited my lighting and setup options considerably.

As I'm doing some major moving around in my office anyway, I decided it was time to fix things. First, the locker had to go. That gave me the entire bench-top, maybe half-again as much room as I'd had before.



But that didn't seem like enough. After some deliberation, I decided to cut up some strand-board I had on-hand and create a new, larger, top for the bench. Here's my first experimental shots on the new "stage."

It's four feet wide and 32" inches deep. That doesn't sound very big, but it's well over twice as big as I had before, and given that there's "run off" on both sides, it's a lot more flexible.

As you can see from the shot, it even let me bring in full-sized vehicles (besides the relatively tiny Minionmobile!) and still have room for set and figures around it.



Along with some new light fixtures I've added lately, I'll have a lot more flexibility with the lighting too, which is good, since the bigger stage will also need a lot more light to make use of it all.

I'm also building a new overhead "grid" system that will give me more places to mount lights and to hang props and backdrops. You can see it roughed in here, though the dimensions are subject to change. (I may also just leave it modular, so I can adjust the size for different sets.) I'm also going to need new provisions to hang cloth backdrops on the wall behind, as many of my sets are going to end up being taller as well as wider.



One other issue is that many of my backdrops are single-panels like the silver one you see here. It isn't wide enough to cover the the background. So I'll have to make new panels to match my old ones.

Work, work, work. A Minion Master's day is never done. But it's worth it, if it allows me do to more complex and varied set-ups in months to come. I hope you enjoy the results.