Minimum Security is a comic strip written and illustrated by Stephanie McMillan. It often appears in alternative newspapers. The strip follows a main human character, Kranti, and her animal friends as they discuss their politics and take strong (some might say drastic) measures to ensure that the world is a safer place.
Currently, it is hosted by Andrews McMeel Universal on its gocomics.com Web site.
This comic strip provides examples of:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Lampshaded in one strip by Nikko as he annoys Kranti.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: One of the focal points of the strip.
- Art Shift: The strip eventually gets colorized and has a slightly more realistic tone to it.
- Author Avatar: Kranti, although the author has apparently
admitted that she would not be able to survive if she lived in the wild. - Author Tract: It's basically the author's rants in the form of a cute animal strip.
- Bears Are Bad News: Omnicorp execs begin hanging out with a polar bear in order to improve their public image. He starts eating them.
- Bigger on the Inside: Bunnista the rabbit has a warren that looks like a cavernous bomb shelter.
- Capitalism Is Bad: Really bad. And so is technology and humanity in general.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Basically anyone working for the government or a business. Particularly the Omnicorp company. One of the executives gets upset when people don't recognize how evil he is.
- Carnivore Confusion: Lampshaded. Bunnista has a pet dog (see Furry Confusion down below) who he introduces to his mother. When the dog mentions that he eats meat, the rabbit's mother gasps and exclaims, "But we're meat!".
- Crapsack World: Everyone is evil, stupid, and weak... except for the main character, of course.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Kranti attacks a man with a Cartoon Bug-Sprayer because he was spraying his garden for bees. This apparently kills him.
- Empathic Environment: In the Sept. 21st, 2007 strip, Nikko advises the other characters to be more positive while Kranti is more negative about the current global situation. His side of the panel has a sun while Kranti's side of the panel has a big black raincloud.
- Evil, Inc.: Every corporation.
- Furry Confusion: Lampshaded when we learn that Bunnista has a pet dog. Nikko's boyfriend brings up the implication of slavery. The dog explains that he's more like a roommate.
- In another strip, the main characters wonder what fish think. The fish talk to each other, also wondering what humans think. This is odd since every other animal (birds, frogs, raccoons, etc.) can speak to the characters just fine.
- Humans Are Bastards: Animals (and the main character) are the only pure souls.
- Hypocritical Humor: Not intended by the author, but she seems to think that having no electricity (due to her friends blowing up the plant) is a good thing. This is despite the fact that her comic is run on a website. [1]
- Insane Troll Logic: Many of the strips are filled with this, specially the more famous ones.
- I Reject Your Reality: The priest and the raccoon. [2]
- Just Before the End: The story takes place in modern times but many strips explain that the economy (and Capitalism in general) will collapse any day now, we have all been poisoned in many different ways, the ecosystem is on the verge of breaking down to the point that all species of animals and plants will be dead soon, global warming and other natural disasters will destroy the Earth in the next few years, and the government is just one step away from locking everyone into gulags For the Evulz. In short, we're all screwed and we can't do a thing about it.
- Logical Fallacies: Kranti thinks that it would be "so simple" for all the people to quit their jobs and start living off the land. [3]
- MegaCorp: Omnicorp. It's powerful enough to melt the polar ice caps with no consequences... For the Evulz, of course.
- Nature Hero: Kranti talks to animals, sleeps outside, and for a while, refuses to wear clothes aside from a bundle of leaves.
- New Media Are Evil: When the power goes out, the heroes take the time to ridicule video games and the Internet. It should be mentioned once again that you can read these comics online.
- Obviously Evil: Non-environmentalists are drawn ugly. Once the strip goes to color, their skin is depicted green, blue, and other unnatural colors.
- Religion of Evil: Basically any spiritual belief, but mostly Christianity.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Bunnista and Victoria declare a revolution and gleefully state that it will be bloody. Despite the nature of the strip, we're usually shown Bloodless Carnage, however.
- Science Is Bad: Power plants, scientists and technology in general are considered bad. This is one of the reasons why the main character sleeps outside and encourages people to not buy medicine, but use natural resources instead.
- Strawman Political: You either agree with Kranti or you're an idiotic right-wing fascist.
- On top of that, the way the main characters usually act, one might think that it was being written by someone who wanted to strawman environmentalists. These are the heroes, folks.
- Talking Animal: A one-eyed rabbit named Bunnista and a guinea pig named Victoria. Birds, frogs, and other background animals talk every now and then.
- The War on Straw: The author has declared a war on... almost everyone.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: We get the inversion of this. Nikko and some of his friends are environmentalists but they don't believe in taking extreme measures, so they're often seen as misguided.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Or better yet, what happened to the raccoon? He shows up early on but disappears after a few months.
- What The Hell, Hero?: Nikko and his friends often complain that Bunnista might be going too far when he blows things up. Their criticism is laughed off, usually.
- Working-Class People Are Morons: The average joe is depicted as shallow and Too Dumb to Live.
