Mind MGMT #5

by Matt Kindt

I really do love this title, and for a variety of reasons.  One of the most striking, and inconsequential, is that this is a comic that actually smells like a comic.  The book is printed on a nice newsprint stock, and it brought back a lot of Proustian memories when I opened it.

The comic itself is excellent.  Kindt has slowly been building up the layers of complexity in this series, which involves a young woman's investigations into the strange world of Mind MGMT, an organization which has so far remained very shadowy, but that we know it is involved in influencing and controlling world events.

Henry Lyme, the central character of the comic (despite his only having really shown up in the last issue), continues to narrate his life story to Meru in this issue.  Previously, we saw how Henry was Mind MGMT's most powerful agent.  At this point in his story, he basically loses his shit, as he begins to question how pervasive his influence has become on the world around him.  Wherever he goes, people give him things for free, and he even questions his own wife and child's love for him, which he suspects is the product of his own abilities, with disastrous results.

Towards the end of the issue, Henry reveals his connection to Meru, which I did not see coming.  That's the thing I like most about this comic; by creating such a unique series, Kindt has made this book hard to predict, something that is rare in comics these days.  Coupled with Kindt's fantastic art, sharp dialogue, and interesting backmatter, this title is terrific.