Minions at Work: A Photocomic

One of the more useful props I’ve ever made is this little cargo dolly. It started life as a fashion doll grocery cart. I stripped off the basket, (leaving the handy little basket on the upright handle, which usually has a clipboard stored in it), repainted it, replaced the cartoonish wheels with some taken from a little die-cast construction vehicle, and added a rubber grip to the handle to make it easier for the Minions to hold onto it.

Often it’s just seen as a background piece, with a Minion pushing around some unidentified packages, or some sort of mysterious lair gizmo. But often, as in this case, it’s used to deliver gags. The “cryogenic storage dewar” here is actually a metal milk can intended, I think, as part of a salt and pepper set. The fog rising off of it isn’t photo-edited in. It’s just some ordinary cotton wool taken a regular cotton ball I had in my bathroom. The warning label, however IS photo-edited in, as are many one-time labels and signs in my cartoons.

By the way, I live for the little details. Number 2 is wearing his “winter uniform,” the vest with fur collar, to go poking around in the liquid nitrogen.