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Friday, December 24, 2010

Have Yourself a Very Minion Christmas!

Click Cartoon for Bigger Presents!




Greetings, Unwanted Toys!


Given the fact that most people are going to be too busy to check in here anyway, I'm giving you this little Christmas card in lieu of an actual cartoon this week.  We'll be back after the holidays with all-new (well, mostly new) Minion action!  Our best wishes here for a safe and happy holiday, and great things for the coming new year!

                                   - Steve (and Chris, and gang)
Support starving Minions in Lair-land! Your donations support Minions at Work!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Minions #252 - You Better Watch the ____ Out!

Read our Holiday Message following the cartoon for a FREE GIFT to you!
Click to open-fire with Holiday Bigness!


Greetings, Regifted Followers and Future Returns!


Hey, happy holidays to all of your out there from us at the Lair!


We've got a couple of announcements to make:


First, I've just updated the site to a new "mobile aware" template, which those of you reading from a phone, pad, or other mobile device should get a cleaner, easier to navigate site.  Things should remain the same for our computer-users.  Please let us know how it's working for you.


And like I said, FREE GIFT!  Just pop on over to the Tsunami Ridge Publishing site to read a free holiday short-short-story, "A Holiday Explained," written by your Minion Master!  I think you'll find it every bit as warped and silly as your regular Minion entertainment, if not more so!  Find the story by clicking HERE.


And come on back here next week for the LAST MINIONS AT WORK OF THE YEAR!  (And you thought it would never end...)


                                                      - Your Merry Minion Master, Steve
Support starving Minions in Lair-land! Your donations support Minions at Work!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Minions #251 - Not Nice

Click Cartoon for Bigger Presents!
Greetings, Unwrapped Packages!

Sometimes you just ask yourself, "is this cartoon in bad taste?" And around here, the answer is, usually, "yes."

But sometimes, you ask yourself, is this cartoon is really bad taste?  That's what happened this week.  I mean, this idea has been floating around for a while, and given the Christmas theme, it was pretty much now or never.  But is joking about terrorism a good thing?

Well, to some extent, the entire concept of "Minions at Work" is based on terrorism.  It riffs on the tropes of media super-villians in comics, movies, cartoons, and TV, especially during the formative era when I was growing up mumble-mumble years ago.  And while we didn't have such a generic label for their activities, what were those guys (and gals) really, but terrorists?  Captain Nemo sinking American warships in the name of world peace?  Terrorist.  Goldfinger trying to nuke Ft. Knox?  Terrorist.  Doctor Doom blasting the Fantastic Four's skyscraper headquarters out of Manhattan and straight into space? (Yes, this happened, in the classic Fantastic Four, first series, #6!) Terrorism.

So what is Doctor Coldblood's long-delayed plan to inject greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and bring about global warming (besides misguided, redundant, and just too late) but terrorism?  Baron Badseed's plan to unleash flesh-eating plants on the world?  Terrorism?  Cap'n Rehab's scheme to operate a phony celebrity rehab clinic in a submarine so the paparazzi can't watch his "patients" partying like it's 1999?  That's...  Okay, that's just kind of brilliant.  But that's not my point.

There's plenty of real terrorism in the world these days.  According to news reports, a terrorism suspect was arrested recently after detonating a test bomb right here in my little town (a town so small that I should have HEARD any bomb that went off inside it, which makes me suspicious of either news reports, or the size of his bomb).  Just a few days ago there was a bombing attack in Stockholm, Sweden.  A fellow writer who I know casually passed through ground zero of the attack only minutes before the explosions went off.  Only chance saved his life.   Nobody is safe from terrorism.

But statistically, anyway, none of us is much in danger of it either.  Far more people are killed or harmed every year by car accidents, common diseases, and routine criminal violence, dangers that most of us face without blinking an eye.  While it's stupid not to take precautions, its also stupid to live our lives in fear, and the best cure for fear I know is laughter.  If we spent more time laughing at people who try to blow up their underwear, rather than trembling and taking naked pictures of one another in airports (naked pictures that apparently can't detect exploding underwear because they're, you know, naked!) our enemies might not have quite as much luck recruiting willing suicide bombers.  Because these people think they have nothing to lose, and they're wrong.  We can still take away their dignity.  We're not laughing with you, underwear guy, we're laughing at you.

So where are we with this week's cartoon?  We rarely brush so close to real terrorism, as opposed to the cartoonish kind, but we're not making a joke about bombs going off here.  We're laughing at them not going off, not even being made.  We're laughing at plots foiled.  We're laughing at a scenario so absurd I've got to laugh a little at anyone who would take offense. (Moslem extremists writing to a non-existent icon associated with a Christian holiday to ask for nuclear materials, and the order is intercepted by Minions of Evil who are doing seasonal temp work for a Santa of dubious morals?  Yeah, that could totally happen!)

So join me, in this holiday season, in laughing into the face of danger.  Pucker your lips, stick out your tongue, and give a big razzberry in the direction of people who would do the world pointless harm.  It won't help, but it might just make you feel better.

At least until you're killed in a car accident.

Seriously, wishing all my Minions readers peace, and failing that, safety in the year to come.

See you next week (I hope):


                                    - Minion Master Steve




Support starving Minions in Lair-land! Your donations support Minions at Work!

Monday, December 06, 2010

Minions #250 - Put a Lid on It

Click to Make Mountain out of Molehill

Greetings, Hazy Clouds!


Maybe you've noticed, or maybe you haven't, I've dropped the stock "support the site" boilerplate crap after each cartoon.  Let's face it, I'm not rich yet, so it's obviously not working.  I'm leaving our little "tip jar" donate button down there because, now and then it does work!

I know I keep saying we're going to get organized here at the lair, but this time we're really going to get organized here at the lair!  I've broken down and rented a storage unit so I can haul many of the props, vehicles, and figures I use to make my cartoons off and have space to sort them, eliminate duplicates, find stuff I lost about three years ago, and generally get a better handle on all the stuff I have.

In a perfect world, I'd have something like the "wall of labeled boxes" you see in the background on Mythbusters, but short of building myself a new building, I don't have anywhere with room of that kind of shelving.  But I do hope to approximate it as closely as I can; a box for everything, and everything in its box.

Yeah, like that's going to happen!

See you guys next week!

                                                                  - Minion Master Steve

Support starving Minions in Lair-land! Your donations support Minions at Work!