Minion #278 - By Your Leave

Click, then leave before seeing if cartoon gets any bigger...

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Greetings, Booby Traps!


Hey, check out my latest ebook release, an all-new short story, first in a new Steampunk Cowboy series called "Tales of the Clockwork Cowboy."  This first one is called "The Unwinding of Liberty Brass," and concerns the origins of our wandering metal hero.  The second story in the series will be in an upcoming DAW Books
anthology called "Western Weird," and there are more to come.

You can buy (or sample) the Amazon Kindle edition using the link at left.  It's also available on Nook and in other ebook formats through Smashwords.  Coming soon to Apple, Sony, Kobo and other major ebook outlets!

Here's the blurb:

J. Steven York's Clockwork Cowboy stories aren't just 'weird Westerns.' They're quite touching, too. Yes, Liberty Brass is a metal man with a busted 'governor.' But he's got as much heart as any other hero you'll find riding the range." 
-- Steve Hockensmith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Dawn of the Dreadfuls, and the Holmes on the Range mystery series

Throughout the west tales are told of a legendary Clockwork Cowboy, a restless mechanical wanderer who rode a clockwork horse, and whose bullets never missed. Some called him traitor, or monster, or murderer, but some called him hero. Some said he never stood by idle when the strong preyed upon the weak, and no bad men, mechanical or flesh, were safe while he wandered the plains.

But every story has a beginning...

Some say the Clockwork Cowboy was actually a Confederate Artilleryman called Liberty Brass. But for Liberty Brass, the trail seems ready to end almost before it begins. In a half-destroyed barn near the Gettysburg battlefield, on a dark, rainy night, two clockwork men, both damaged in war, meet. In the hours that follow, a terrible secret is revealed, a fateful judgment is made, and only one can survive to see the morning sun...  

Be sure to check it out!

- Your Steampunk Minion Master, Steve

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Minions #277 - Name Dropper

Click on Cartoon for Bottomless Bigness (Sounds dirty!)

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Greetings, Hail Stones and Gall Stones!


A big week here at the lair as Mrs. Minion Master turned in her latest mystery, "Murder Wears a Tee-Shirt" to her publisher, Berkley Prime Crime.  This is the first of a new series set in a haunted beach gift shop (featuring a foul-mouthed parrot that sometimes channels the ghost of the owner's dead grandfather).  Just in case you thought I was the only one in the house who came up with strange stuff.

This next series will be coming out under the name "Christy Fifield," even though her previous lady-plumber mysteries came out under the name "Christy Evans."  What gives?  Well, A, we like to be mysterious here around the lair, and B, Christy Fifield is actually closer to being a real name for her than Christy Evans, and C, we're EVIL here, and sometimes we just do things because we can!

Actually, it's publishing stuff.  Complicated to explain.  Difficult to understand.  And ultimately boring.  Just believe me when I tell you, it's for the better...  Anyway, look for announcements on the upcoming new series as it appears in print and ebook.  We're excited and looking forward to it.

Okay, now I'm going to post a link to something I wrote.  Why?  Because it's my damned web-comic, and I'm EVIL, and I'm doing it because I can!  Just try to stop me!  MuhHAha!

Okay, and now I'm going to post a link to a pet watering dish!  Why?  Because it's evil for reasons you will never understand.

Also, it's damned random, and I hate being too predictable! (Except on Mondays, when I ALWAYS post these silly cartoons.  We, most Mondays, anyway.

Except when I don't.  Or I forget.  Or there's a technical screw-up.

Or when I'm on vacation.

Or...

CAT-DISH!

HA!

Lulled you into a false sense of security, then pulled the old Cat-dish blitz!  And you totally fell for it!

Until next week, be sure to follow Minion No. 1 on Twitter!

See you then!

CAT-DISH!

Fake-out!

See you next time.

                                              - Minion Master CAT-DISH (fake!) Steve!

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Minions #276 - Punch Drunk

Click on Cartoon for a Double Shot!

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Greetings, Bar Flies and other Pests!


Look, I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, you're missing out if you're not following Minion No. 1 on Twitter!  (Check our sidebar for a sample.) Go do it, right now!

Also, it looks like our Facebook group survives, but in the new form it doesn't allow me to message all members (for our weekly reminder) so I'm not sure how useful it will be.  We'll hang on an see what happens though.  But for now, Twitter is still your best way to keep up with new cartoons (and doings down at the lair).

Busy summer, so see you here next week!

                                             - Minion Master, Steve

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Minions #275 - Spooky Lighting

Click on cartoon for more darkness!

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Greetings, Dark Knights and Dim knaves!


Back on schedule!  Sorry we were late last week!

Hey, if you aren't already, get your regular updates from the lair and Minion reminders direction from Minion No. 1 by following his Twitter feed!  Not on Twitter?  It's free, easy, and fun, and it's full of cool people to follow and interesting and fun information, as opposed to the noisy three-ring-circus that Facebook has turned into!

Hey remember, when you click through our Amazon links and ads and buy something, even if it isn't one of the items we link, we get a little piece of the action that helps support our evil activities here at the lair.  So think about us next time you plan to do a little on-line shopping!

Remember, it's like highway robbery, except you aren't the one getting robbed!

See you guys back here at the Lair, same time next week!

- Minion Master Steve

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Minions #274 - Bird Bombed

Click Egg for Explosive Extra Bigness!

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Greetings, Egg-suckers!

Whoops!  Due to a technical glitch (that went unnoticed because of the holiday on Monday, "Minion Monday" has somehow turned into "Minion Thursday!"  We'll try to be back on schedule next week!

          - Tardy Minion Master Steve

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Minions #273 - Over-careful (and our new Twitter feed!)

Click cartoon to feed mice for rapid growth!

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Greetings, Feeder Mice!


Great news, everybody!  We've added a new way for you keep up with (and enjoy) Minions at Work!  Minion No. 1 now has his own Twitter feeds, were you'll get live updates from the lair, links about evil and mad-science of all kinds, and of course announcements of the latest Minions at Work cartoons!  You can find the feed at:
www.Twitter.com/MinionNo1
or if you're already on Twitter, just add @MinionNo1 to your follow list!

The bad news is that the Evil Overlords at Facebook are "improving" the group function we've been using for reminders there in a way that will pretty much destroy it for us.  Maybe we'll come up with an alternative, but if you're using Facebook for your reminders, I'd suggest you either use the Twitter feed above, or join our email list on Yahoo.

                                    - Minion (but not Facebook) Master Steve

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Minions #272 - Off Office Space

Click for Bigger Office

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Greetings, Cubical Chipmunks!


Yes, we're cutting it close this week, BUT IT'S STILL TECHNICALLY MONDAY!

And hey, speaking of offices, check out of a couple of my favorite office comedies at the links below.  "Office Space" is a live-action cult classic from those "South Park" guys that you've probably heard of (or seen), but I'll bet you've never heard of the obscure-but-similar Haiku Tunnel!  It's about a wanna-be writer working as a temp who goes slowly insane when offered a full-time position at the company where's he's working.  The build-up is a little slow, but the pay-off is a classic (and pretty good real-world advice for dealing with deadlines, too)!  They'd make a great double-feature!  Check them out!

See you next Technical Monday!

    - Master Minion Procrastinator, Steve

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Minions #271 - Bad for Your Health

Click your Bic for Bigger Cartoon!

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Greetings, Second-hand Smokers!


The lair was invaded this week by a homeless gray and white cat that just demanded to be adopted.  So we did.  We are not entirely sure how rescuing a homeless, underfed cat is evil, but we're sure that, given a few weeks, we can come up with something.

We're working on it.

Really.

Meanwhile, we named him "Thor Dude."  That's pretty evil all by itself.

Evil.  Really.

We're working on it.

See you guys here next week!

- Minion Master (and cat-herder) Steve

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Minion #270 - Freestylin'

Click on this cartoon for bigger bundle!

Greetings, Pickers, and Grinners!


Speaking of long-lost items with a price on their head, checked the news this week?

Yes, it's one more small step towards a world where ALL super-villains are again just harmless fictional buffoons.

See you guys next week!

- Minion Master, Steve

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Minions #269 - Lost and Found

Click cartoon for even more bottomlessness!

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! Or join our "Minions at Work" group on Facebook. And yes, I'm finally on Twitter. Follow me. I'm JSteveYork there (clicking on the previous link will take you straight to my profile page.) Eventually I'm getting No. 1 his own account for Minions-related-business, but one thing at a time. Still: We're everywhere! We're everywhere!

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Greetings, Dusty Bones!


Not much to report this week.  Just a reminder that you can find a whole selection of ebooks by Your Minion Master and Mrs. Minion Master available through Tsunami Ridge Publishing.  They're available on all you favorite ebook outlets, including Amazon, Nook, Apple, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords and more!  Check them out today!
   

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Minions #268 - Just Dew It!

Click Cartoon to Pop the Top on Bigness!

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Greetings, Bald Spots!

Hey, you know what would make evil EVEN BETTER?  You could support Minions at Work by buying one of the fine products from

Doctor Head-in-a-jar's Nogginarium!

You can purchase a variety of custom-printed tee-shirts, buttons, mugs (our personal favorite), and other items.  Or, if this isn't your jar-of-tea, try one of our other fine Minions at Work stores:
Minions at Work's Lair of Merchandise
or
Number Two's House of Naughty

You can buy yourself (or give a gift of) something cool, and a bit of your purchase goes to support our efforts towards evil here at the lair.  Or you can just bypass the middleman and drop something in our tip jar through the donate button below.  We'd appreciate it.  That is, we'd appreciate it if we weren't EVIL!  Muh-hahahahah!
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Minion #267 - A Paradox is Not a Pair

Go back in time and click on cartoon so it will already be big!

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Greetings, Quantum Uncertainties!


Still without our main camera, so I've literally been going back in time to whip up some cartoon inventory.  So, forgive me if a couple of pictures in upcoming weeks look familiar....

Look, I'm CHEATING, okay!  It's EVIL!  EVIL is what we DO around here!  You got a problem with that, you're reading the wrong danged web comic!

Anyway, I've got enough comics to last for a few weeks here, which will let me focus on getting the camera fixed.  Of course, as always, your money makes everything go smoother.  Either I can use it to get the camera fixed if the warranty doesn't cover it, or I can just roll around in it to pass the time while waiting for it to come back from the shop!

So click the DONATE button below and give me your retirement fund.  Go on!  You know you want to!  The way things are going, what are the odds you're gonna live that long anyway?

                              = Your Minion Money-master, Steve

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Minions #266 - General Disobedience (and a message on our "State of Emergency"

We COMMAND you to click on cartoon!

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Greetings, Blind Being Led By the Blind!


Emergency!  We're running slightly late this week because we have a mild state of emergency here at the lair.  We're down a camera.

This weekend Mrs. Minion Master, a.k.a. mystery-writer Christy Evans, had a signing at a local bookstore, and I took along my fairly new Canon Powershot SX-120IS to get some pictures.  The camera worked fine, and I returned to my car, put the camera in a case, put that on a car seat, and drove the 3 or so miles home.  When I got there I took it out, turned it on, and discovered the LCD was cracked.

How this happened, I haven't a clue.  The camera didn't get dropped, wasn't mishandled, and didn't even get bumped as far as I know (though it could have gotten bumped while in my coat pocket, it was pretty well padded in there, and if so, it wasn't hard enough for me to notice).  The cracks radiate out from the center bottom of the screen, and are only on the inner glass.  The outer glass, and the case under it, are completely unmarked.

The camera is still under warranty, but I have the feeling they're going to claim is isn't from a factory defect and I'm stuck.  We'll see.  I still have to call Canon and see what they say.  I've found a place on the web that quotes a flat price to replace the display for $70.  Since it's a fairly new camera that still sells for about $200, that sucks, but is worth it.

But either way, I'm down a camera for a while, probably at least a couple weeks with shipping and all.  And naturally this happens when I don't have any new cartoons in inventory.  What you're seeing this week is literally the dregs.

I've got my old Canon camera I could use as backup, but it's much lower resolution, and is going to be difficult to use with my current lighting set up (I don't use as much light as I used to, since the new camera doesn't need it).  And I hate to put a lot of work on setups that I'd probably want to recreate and shoot with the newer camera when it's available.  I even have some goofy ideas of using my phone camera for a couple of special cartoons (possibly shot "on location", and there's always the old trick of raiding my inventory looking for shots I can use (or reuse) with new gags.

Possibly you'll get a bit of all of that before my camera is repaired, so bear with me during this time of emergency.

Or, somebody (or somebodies) could just front me $200 for a new camera while I get this one fixed up as a more functional backup.  Yeah, I like that idea!  Get right on it.  Click the donate button down there and take care of it for me, would you?

- Your Camera Challenged Minion Master, Steve

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Minions #265 - See You Later Alligator!

Click Cartoon for Bigger Problems!

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! Or join our "Minions at Work" group on Facebook. And yes, I'm on Twitter. Follow me. I'm JSteveYork there (clicking on the previous link will take you straight to my profile page.) We're everywhere! We're everywhere!

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Greetings, Glow Plugs!


Well, here we are, flying close patrols along the borders of bad taste!  If you feel at all bad about laughing, you make a donation to the Red Cross to support relief efforts in Japan.  Or (with most U.S. carriers) you can text REDCROSS to 90999 on your cell phone to have a $10 donation sent (it will appear on your phone bill).  You'll note we've removed our own donation button for the time being...

- Minion Master Steve

Minion #264 - Road-side Stand

Click cartoon for deluxe package!

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Greetings, Ditch Diggers!


First up this week let me put in a plug for Mrs. Minion Master, who has a book signing of her new mystery novel "Drip Dead" coming up Saturday, April 2nd, 6334 S. Hwy 101, #9 (Streetcar Village) center at North by Northwest Books, in Lincoln City, OR.  I realize that most of you won't be able to make that, but if you or someone you know would like a signed copy, this would be an excellent opportunity.  Just call the store at 541-994-6809, or email owner Sheldon MacArthur to make arrangements to have your book signed (and if you wish, personalized, great for gifts!) and shipped directly to you.

If you can make it, the're having a big sale to celebrate their new, larger location, and Your Minion Master will be looming in a dark corner somewhere!

                                                                                 See you guys next week,
                                                                                 - Minion Master Steve

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Minions #263-Watching the Perimeter

Click Cartoon to Uncover Bigness!

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Greetings, Minions Buffs!


It's been a tiring week here at the lair, as we were under the threat of a tsunami warning and missed a lot of sleep.  I half-considered just taking the week off, but in these trying times, the world needs its humor.  Unfortunately, all I've got is this Minions cartoon, but I give what I can!

You could give too.  Not to us this time, but to help out Japan.  Frankly, we're disappointed that we couldn't think up an evil plan 1/1000th as bad as what's happening to them now.  They desperately need your help to build them up so that we can knock them down later with a giant dinosaur made of cheese. (We call it Mozilla. Original, huh?)  Anyway, Japan isn't any fun at all right now, and they need your help.

You can donate to the relief effort through the Red Cross,  or even easier, you can donate $10 by texting REDCROSS to 90999 on your phone!  Do it now!  WE COMMAND YOU!

                                                    - Minion Master Steve

Minions #262 - But I wouldn't eat it anyway...

Click Cartoon for Bigger Tech!

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Greetings, Duds and Disappointing Bangs!


Don't forget that the coupon for free Smashwords ebook, on our Feb. 21st post is still good through March 21st!  If you missed it, go back and grab it today!

Just a reminder too that we love hearing from you guys.  Comments, suggestions, words of encouragement, death-threats, we love it all!  So drop us a comment after the post and let us know what's on your mind!

- Minion Master Steve

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Minions #261 - Bad Crowd

Click Cartoon for Double-shot!

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Greetings, Bar-flies!


Hey, if you missed it, we gave out a coupon-code last week for a FREE ebook-download from SmashWords.com.  Check last week's post for details.  The coupon is still good for another couple weeks I think.

We're running a bit late this week, as Dell computer is apparently in league with the forces of Good.  Not Good for the customers, mind you, just "Good" as in "against us."  I actually shot this cartoon last week, but it was stuck on my SD card as I discovered this weekend that the built-in card-reader on my Dell Inspiron (we won't say exactly what emotions it was intended to inspire) mysteriously stopped working for about the zillionth time.  Rebooting didn't even help this time and installing new drivers didn't help either.

This shouldn't be a problem as, though the expensive built-in reader fails on regular basis. my cheap USB card reader always works.  Except, I haven't used it in quite a while, and couldn't find it.  I finally hard to break down and buy ANOTHER cheap card reader in order to transfer my pictures.  Sigh.

Anyway, here at last is the new cartoon.

See you next time,

                                                                     - Steve

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