Ground Control to MINIon #1969… I always liked playing around with spacesuit designs, especially the 1950’s B-movie variety.  If I remember correctly, this started out as a “just for fun” design, figuring that someone might like it.  I picked 1969 since that was when David Bowie released “Space Oddity” and a few guys flew out to the moon and set foot upon our closest celestial neighbor.  I picked the bright colors from Robert Heinlein’s “Destination Moon”  in which each astronaut wore a different color so they could be recognized in space.  Hey!  It won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects in 1950, so no complaints about the cheesy dialogue. As for the actual MINIon #1969- that’s another one who I missed due to leaving the party early.  I’m hoping some event this year, or MTTS 2016 will change all that.  

Sometimes I just doodle things, and sometimes a MINIon really does capture their MINIon’s likeness.  I met MINIon 1963 at the opening party in San Francisco and frankly is was pretty easy to doodle a MINIon in a beret instead of a fez. Being an old MINI owner having motored since 2005 and gone on some portion of every MTTS, I discovered it was easier to meet new people since there weren’t that many people.  As the events have grown, many people drive with their friends (people they know from home). I, on the other hand, prefer to travel with my friends – who are people from all over the place and kind of avoid the people I can drive with every weekend.  That’s how the MINIons started and that core group has grown and grown, with its own splinter groups that join for a few miles, and move on.  We gather at breakfast and at our destination, I kind of wish there were more destinations so I could get to know everyone better.

Good Grief- as a cartoonist where do I start with this one?  As a kid I was raised on Charles Schulz.  I remember seeing an interview on TV growing up and saw how his characters could just pour from his pencil- that became my goal to be able to draw that fast… If you’ve seen me draw- I’m still too slow. One of the highlights of MINI Takes The States 2014 was a visit to the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.  I was amazed and in awe of everything I saw and what a great person Schulz was.

OK, I’m a comic book guy… while working on designs I figured for a Coast to Coast trip I needed Cap to be the sentinel of liberty that he is.  As you may have seen some MINIons do not wear fezzes but I really liked hiding the MINIon logo in the costume.  No this is not that horrible pocket universe where the “A” was replaced with an eagle, nor is it the horrible alternate reality where all the Marvel heroes are actually apes. When you aren’t active on Facebook, it’s hard to get on board with stuff like badges. Especially when all the planning happens online.  So MINIon #1945 was one of the extra MINIon badges given out to a MINIon who missed the boat, or was frozen in ice, until MINI Takes The States.  I think everyone realized that Being an American Icon, did come with an abundant knowledge of trivia.

One of the most unique MINI owners I know is MINIon #1942.  His Clubman is known around the country due to his vagabond ways.  I wish I could tell you more about him, but I can neither confirm nor deny that his story is still classified and my requests under the Freedom of Information Act are still pending.

“It’s alive! It’s alive!” Sadly, this poor MINIon hasn’t gotten much love.  This MINIon was called “sickly” and was originally MINIon #1313 (the Munsters lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane).  The MINIon # was altered to 1931 (the year Boris Karloff’s film was made.)  Maybe if I added a daisy with a few missing petals he would seem more appealing.

 I really have nothing to say about MINIon #1923.

Those people who know me, know how I really like Science Fiction, it has been my preferred way to escape the real world since I was a kid.  I remember watching old serials with Buster Crabbe, and the classic B-movies of the 50’s.  I watch Star Trek, even have scars from watching a Labor Day Weekend Marathon having moved a TV outside so I could get some sun (2nd degree sunburn). Then came Star Wars… Like most kids in the late 70’s that shaped my life, until George Lucas ruined it for me.  I had my view of the world, I had nostalgia for Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi.  Then George Lucas decided to “thrill us again” with the prequels- shedding light on how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader… those films don’t exist for me, after waiting in line for the first showings of each film I decided that I liked what I saw as a kid.  I know some people liked those films, and I’m fine with that.  I’m entitled to my opinion, just as they are entitled to theirs.  I had walked away from Star Wars and had embraced the Roddenberry side of the Force.  So when I was asked to create a “Padawan Jedi” MINIon I had to smile and bite my tongue. 🙂

While working on some ideas for some new recruits, some people were joking (because that’s what we do) about what kind of MINIon a particular person should get, and the idea of the Invisible Man came up.  I remember watching the original film version as a child and the scene in which “Griffin” unwraps his bandages amazed me. Now I know about chromakey and have actually had students play an invisible man part, or put themselves in different places as “on the scene reporters” chromakeying out the background. H.G. Wells published “The Invisible Man” in 1897, hence MINIon #1897.

So a steampunk MINIon… Victorian dress, with a jet pack and a cup of tea (Earl Grey, Hot).  I’ve always drawn MINIons with jet packs… something about the flying monkey thing from The Wizard of Oz. I’ve played around with this is various forms including some artwork for the Circle City Aerodrome in 2014 including a drawing of “Sir Cecil Ookington-Smythe” and another of Cecil’s Aerial Monkey Squadron after taking down a large robot.  I think this design actually started in 2013 as a MINIon of MINIons on the Mack – the world record attempt to cross the Mackinac Bridge (which will happen again August 1st). Considering that Jules Verne published Around the World in 80 Days in 1873 it seemed logical to give this to the gentlemen from Germany who were driving a MINI around the world and ended up as a part of MTTS 2014.  This was actually given to them on the “Loneliest Road in America” which, at least for when we were their, wasn’t that lonely.