Mind Mgmt - Matt Kindt

Last May I bought and read the first issue of Mind Mgmt by Matt Kindt and was tempted to reread it immediately. I resisted, knowing that I’d have to wait 30 days for the next installment, then 30 more, etc. I tried to put it out of my mind (no pun intended). When I learned that the first story arc was planned to run for six issues, I bought each issue for the next five months, refusing to read them until Mind Mgmt #6 was securely in my hands. 

I recently read all six issues back to back. If I hadn’t, the suspense would’ve been excruciating. Now you don’t have to wait. Well, actually you do: Dark Horse will release a hardcover edition of Mind Mgmt on April 16, collecting issues #1-6. But it’ll be worth the wait. Here’s why:

Mind Mgmt begins with a simple scene: a man and a woman, drawn and painted in watercolors, stand on a balcony, calmly looking at each other. In the pages that follow, we see violence, murder, anarchy, arson, and more murder. None of it makes any sense.

Cut to Meru, a young woman who has written a fairly successful true crime book, now looking for inspiration for her next project. (Most of her inspiration comes from mail stamped with words like “Past Due” and “Final Notice.”) She sees a news story on TV about the two-year anniversary of “Amnesia Flight 815,” a plane full of passengers safely arriving at an airport, yet none of them have any memory of who they are or what they were doing before the plane landed. Only one passenger was unaffected: a seven-year-old boy. Why was he unaffected? Was he responsible? Oh, and then there’s this: one of the passengers on the flight manifest has disappeared.

Meru has found her next project.

Or so she thinks. After coaxing her editor to green-light the project, Meru begins an investigative journey to find out what happened on Amnesia Flight 815. But she soon discovers the story is filled with layers, and the layers have layers. It doesn’t take long before she’s being chased by assassins through a labyrinth of mysterious darkness. 

And you can’t put it down. And I won’t tell you any more about it.  

So pick up the collected hardcover edition in April. On the other hand, maybe you’ll want to buy Mind Mgmt in single issues. Each issue contains a separate, yet integral black and white story printed on the inside covers. (UPDATE: Kindt has stated that these inside cover stories will not be included in the collected editions.) Also Kindt has printed a Mind Mgmt Field Guide in the margins of nearly every page, statements that shed light on what’s happening in the comic itself. Plus each issue’s back cover holds further clues.   

Kindt has said that he has a three-year plan for the series, producing six issues at a time. It’s gonna be an interesting three years... 

(More on Kindt's thoughts on the series here, but know that the article includes some minor spoilers.)