Mint Sauce (cartoon strip)
Encyclopedia
Mint Sauce is a fictional character in a cartoon strip of the same name, created and drawn by Jo Burt, and published in the monthly magazine Mountain Biking UK
.
Mishun H. Sugworth, better known to friends and foe alike as 'Mint Sauce', is a mountain biking
sheep with a philosophical, often poetic outlook, who enjoys biking jaunts through the British countryside with his fellow animal cyclists. Indeed, in many strips it is the countryside which plays the leading role, often reducing the "leading" characters to mere counterpoint to the main theme. Burt's portrayal of landscape is heavily centred on an imagined England, incorporating elements of many southern English areas - principally the Sussex
/Wessex
Downs
, Mendip
and Chiltern Hills
, although forays are sometimes made into more northerly ranges. Reading the cartoons one can't help but feel that, for Mint, revelling in the countryside is at least as important as riding the bike.
Other characters featuring in the strip include Cattlegrid Coleman the Cow, Harrison the Rabbit, Oonagh Herwick (Mint's girlfriend), Summer, Chipko Andolan and Death. Minor character appearances are made by a number of hills (The Mendip Brothers, a Cheviot etc.), elves (who alter trails to fox riders), various squadrons of fighting aircraft (the best known of which is the Love Squadron) and even the occasional human, who generally have negative roles.
The Mint Sauce strip first appeared in Bicycle Action in March 1988 and moved to MBUK
about eighteen months later. Drawn in black and white half-page format it later became larger and moved to full colour as his popularity increased. As well as the cartoon strip there have been Mint Sauce calendars, t-shirts, stickers, posters, key-fobs and cycling jerseys, though Jo Burt's busy workload means that delivery times for these can be protracted.
MBUK
Mountain Biking UK is a British mountain biking magazine. It is published by Future Publishing and is currently the UK's best-selling mountain bike magazine, with a circulation of 45,000 and an estimated readership of over 120,000. MBUK was established in 1988 by Tym Manley who remained editor at...
.
Mishun H. Sugworth, better known to friends and foe alike as 'Mint Sauce', is a mountain biking
Mountain biking
Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain.Mountain biking can...
sheep with a philosophical, often poetic outlook, who enjoys biking jaunts through the British countryside with his fellow animal cyclists. Indeed, in many strips it is the countryside which plays the leading role, often reducing the "leading" characters to mere counterpoint to the main theme. Burt's portrayal of landscape is heavily centred on an imagined England, incorporating elements of many southern English areas - principally the Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
/Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
Downs
Downland
A downland is an area of open chalk hills. This term is especially used to describe the chalk countryside in southern England. Areas of downland are often referred to as Downs....
, Mendip
Mendip Hills
The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running east to west between Weston-super-Mare and Frome, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Avon Valley to the north...
and Chiltern Hills
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
, although forays are sometimes made into more northerly ranges. Reading the cartoons one can't help but feel that, for Mint, revelling in the countryside is at least as important as riding the bike.
Other characters featuring in the strip include Cattlegrid Coleman the Cow, Harrison the Rabbit, Oonagh Herwick (Mint's girlfriend), Summer, Chipko Andolan and Death. Minor character appearances are made by a number of hills (The Mendip Brothers, a Cheviot etc.), elves (who alter trails to fox riders), various squadrons of fighting aircraft (the best known of which is the Love Squadron) and even the occasional human, who generally have negative roles.
The Mint Sauce strip first appeared in Bicycle Action in March 1988 and moved to MBUK
MBUK
Mountain Biking UK is a British mountain biking magazine. It is published by Future Publishing and is currently the UK's best-selling mountain bike magazine, with a circulation of 45,000 and an estimated readership of over 120,000. MBUK was established in 1988 by Tym Manley who remained editor at...
about eighteen months later. Drawn in black and white half-page format it later became larger and moved to full colour as his popularity increased. As well as the cartoon strip there have been Mint Sauce calendars, t-shirts, stickers, posters, key-fobs and cycling jerseys, though Jo Burt's busy workload means that delivery times for these can be protracted.