A new issue of “MIND MGMT”, another hunt for codes and Easter eggs in a new edition of Minding MIND MGMT. Because each issue of Matt Kindt’s monthly series is overflowing with hidden clues and interwoven narratives, a standard review just doesn’t cut it. This column will provide in-depth analysis and help you navigate the overlapping plots.
The Cover
This month’s cover spotlights Spain, aka the Right Hand Men. Maybe. For some raisin, they have mustaches and soul patches, although they didn’t have them in the present or flashback scenes in the story proper. The x-ray view reveals their spines are fused, giving a bit of an explanation into how these Siamese twins function. They appear to be joined back-to-back, sharing everything below the scapula. Their body has two arms, but they’re both right hands – hence their code name.
The main story
The story Duncan tells Lyme as they walk to Jim’s seems like some innocent world building on a first read, but is actually much more than that. Like the “Tales of the Black Freighter” in “Watchmen,” this story about a dog named Duncan is a more overt example of the main themes that have permeated the series so far. More succinctly, the original MIND MGMT chewed up agents and then spit them out into the world broken and alone, sometimes without even understanding why they feel empty. That’s what Meru was like at the start of issue one. It’s what was happening to Lyme when Zanzibar was destroyed. Duncan’s life was so bland he essentially murdered a man just to temporarily hook up with the widow who was left behind. The whole Homemaker arc was caused by Meghan being abandoned by not one, but TWO agencies. Dusty and the surviving Perrier twin seem to be exceptions to this, but Duncan’s point is well made. Especially since they’re on the way to meet Jim, a homeless man who was deformed by MIND MGMT for no clear reason.
This brief exchange highlights why MIND MGMT needed to be disbanded, but at the same time explains (in part) why the Eraser is having such an easy time recruiting former agents – she’s giving them a chance to belong again.
Moving on, if you look close at the sign next to Jim’s door on page two, you can just make out that his last name is “Grand.” Once he starts telling his story, all the panels become tall and thin, just like he is.
Notice Links was one of the other homeless people recruited with Jim in the group shot on page four. The treatment by the MIND MGMT researchers in this issue shed a different light on the drug addiction forced on Links in the Second Floor story that introduced him.
The leg braces Jim starts wearing on page five are to keep his legs from buckling under his weight. They were previously shown on the giant man Duncan fought in issue eleven, and were employed in “3 Story” before that. This issue doesn’t confirm any link between “MIND MGMT” and “3 Story,” but it doesn’t dispel a link either.
In the third panel of page six, where the hairy person is dying, look at the word balloon. Notice how in every other example in the series, the tails are only as long as they need to be, and they go directly to the speaker with just a slight curve. Here, the tail meanders and even has a twist put into it. It’s subtle, but effectively conveys the state of the speaker.
The scenery for page seven matches the castle-like appearance of the scene from issue 11 mentioned earlier, with the other giant man. Since he’s not shown here, it seems likely the experiments continued after Duncan helped the current batch escape to the circus.
The double splash page showing the circus troupe has an element to it that’s unusual for “MIND MGMT”: All the characters have names. Considering characters with much larger roles were never given names, this might be an indication the circus group will be more important later. It’s also worth noting Guinevere’s similarity to the Snake Woman in Kindt’s first published book, “Pistol Whip,” which also featured some circus freaks.
Continued belowPage ten, with the 24 panel grid, seems to be a mishmash of images at first. Upon further examination, it actually tells its own story in a mixed up way. In order to understand it, you first have to notice the color coding. There are three threads to the story, one in grayish panels, one in brownish, and one in reddish. The brownish ones show Jim and Chip’s friendship. The grayish panels show some kind of triangle between Evasion, Chip, and Guinevere. The reddish ones follow a budding romance between Jim and Angel, ending in Angels’ death.
This requires a lot of reading between the lines, but here’s what I think is happening. Guinevere, as far as we can see, is the only freak being marketed as “real,” and we see later that she’s a fake. Evasion is clearly a jerk, since we see him grabbing Guinevere by the arm in a way that scares her. Chip comes to her and does … something… with his arm. Dislocates it, maybe? Whatever, it’s a trick that amuses her. The first logic jump to make is how Guinevere and Evasion feel in the sixth gray panel. I see it one of two ways. First, she looks bitter because Chip’s demonstration made her feel like the only fake in the group. Evasion, who does really care for her, wants to help. Second, Chip’s kindness made her angry at Evasion for how he treats her. In this scenario, Evasion is hurt and wants to get back at Chip.
The brownish panels follow Chip and Jim, and the most important scene in them is where Chip teaches Jim to tap dance. That comes up again in the reddish panels, where Jim uses this skill to impress Angel. This group ends when the rope breaks on Angels trapeze and she falls to her death. Here’s where the second logic jump comes in: how did the rope break? Maybe it was just bad luck, but that’s not much of a story. But, you do have a jerk who makes a living by being good with ropes, particularly escaping from ropes which look to be firmly tied. This same jerk also looks like he’s up to no good in the last gray panel. This same jerk has also been exposed to the “Hands on Circus” fliers which we know prompt people to violence. The obvious conclusion is that Evasion killed Angel.
Why? I can think of three reasons, and you can pick whichever one you like. (Or you can make up your own. That’s what the comment section’s for.) If you liked scenario one above (Guinevere is bitter about being the only fake), then Evasion did it to prove Angel couldn’t really fly. That’s a very brutal way to say “No, she’s fake, too.” but Hands on Circus, right? Or, if you liked the idea that Guinevere was falling for Chip, then perhaps Evasion had heard Angel was impressed by someone’s tap dancing skills and failed to realize it was Jim, not Chip, who was wooing her. In that case, Evasion killed Angel to get at Chip, and Jim was caught in the crossfire.
The third reason requires a bit more imagination, and makes the whole thing considerably darker. Imagine Chip liked Jim as more than just a friend. He tap dances for the big guy as a way to show interest. But instead of getting it, the stupid giant uses that same skill to impress some floozy girl. Meanwhile, Evasion is having trouble with his lady, so he works out a deal with Chip. The visit Chip pays Guinevere is much less friendly in this case. (The fourth gray panel, where his enormous arm is shown in contrast with her whole body does look intimidating.) She’s upset, crying to Evasion and the two get back together. The last gray panel is Chip feeling unease about what he did, and Evasion saying “okay, buddy. You helped me, now I’ll help you.” Bye bye, Angel.
Moving on to page eleven, Jim mentions a rumor of the Right Hand Men being deaf, and that a whisper from them could kill you. This is almost certainly false, considering the evidence. Unless they just really enjoy wet work, why would they knife so many people if they could just speak and get the same effect? And why would their little room in Jim’s bar have an intercom system if they can’t hear it? On the other hand, perhaps this rumor is related to the silent issue we’re getting next month…
Continued belowWe see on page thirteen that a woman who was targeted to receive a circus flier was murdered. This may have been accomplished in a way similar to the murder in the Ad Man memo where a combination of images caused a man to have a brain hemorrhage. In this case, the combo caused someone to act out in murder. This is more likely than the less specific ad man work that caused general unrest in issue 7.
On page sixteen, where Guinevere is revealed to be a fake, she calls Jim and Chip “disgusting,” but is this for the murder they just committed, or because of their disfigurements?
The Russian Zero agent who attacks Jim and Chip in the street may be the Bear (seen in #0, #5 and #15). This was set in the seventies (per the solicitation), so he would still be alive and active. It could just be a generic Zero agent, though, since they all have that same cranial scar.
On page eighteen, Lyme looks directly at the enigma box the Magician set up last issue. Too bad he’s blind. Meanwhile, Duncan doesn’t see it because Jim has him distracted. Whatever else the enigma box is capable of, it must be able to block Duncan’s abilities. Otherwise, he would have been reading the minds of the the Eraser’s agents inside the building.
On page twenty, we get the reveal that Chip is still alive and running a bar in Hong Kong. While it’s unlikely, you have to wonder if his arm’s still out there, trying to find and kill him. Jim mentioned that it seemed to have a mind of it’s own, and maybe the MIND MGMT researchers made it durable enough to survive dismemberment. But nah, probably not.
At the same time, you have to wonder what kind of coincidence is at work that both Lyme and Meru’s groups met up with these guys and were told pretty much the same story at the same time, despite being on separate continents.
The main story ends with Perrier tapping away at her Royal typewriter (the same taps as PK Verve in issue 16). We see a couple pages of her writing, and it’s mostly a match to what we just read, with a few key differences. The bottom page includes the text from page two, but Duncan’s lines about unintended consequences include some extra uncertainty (“About…I don’t know.)
The top page covers the events from page 20, and has bigger changes. The description of Spain is completely off. The room has almost no detail, certainly not any creepy curtains, candles, or coffee. There is a light on the wall, but it doesn’t look lit. Chip’s dialogue here also includes more about the old dogs, echoing Duncan from earlier. It also describes Perrier as typing with her eyes shut, but we saw her blindfolded. I suspect this was the dialogue originally intended for the issue before it was changed for space and pacing purposes.
Then the pages go into foreshadowing mode. It hints that Dusty and Lyme are about to die. Since Perrier’s rushing off to help Lyme and Duncan (they’re in Berlin together), she’ll probably be able to change his fate. It doesn’t look good for Dusty though…
Perrier’s autowriting
Instead of a field guide this month, some pages include excerpts from Perrier’s writing. The line on page two describes the furniture as oddly proportioned, but the sheet on page twenty two lists it as “large.” It then skips to page twenty one, where Perrier expresses doubt about her own abilities.
Mind Memo
The safe house under the microscope this month is in New Orleans, and continues the method of narrating the location’s history while filling in the blanks in Bill and Meru’s travels. This particular safe house dates to the 1950s, and is one of the oldest in the US. This is in line with the Second Floor in issue 0, which was also focused on Flux Safe Houses. The PK Verve book “Beast with 1000 Faces” makes yet another appearance in the hands of the desk manager. The panel with Lee Harvey Oswald is the third reference to the JFK assassination in “MIND MGMT,” making it more clear the agency had a hand in it, if not behind the whole thing.
The Second Floor
Aside from the actual content, the most interesting aspect to Bryan Payne’s story is its similarity to Meru’s. Not that she’s a murderer framing others, but that she also solved crimes from arm chair status. She put in more effort than just reading newspapers, but she still solved a crime that was in no way related to her.
The Back Cover
After a month of waiting, we finally get to see Professor Agement’s poster full size. At this size, there’s no doubt the figure is the Eraser, and when put with last month’s image we see her and a horde of scarred demons watching as a city burns. Is this Zanzibar? A hint that perhaps Lyme isn’t as guilty as he and we have believed? Just how much of the events of the series has the Eraser been manipulating, and how long has she been doing it?
And that’s all this month
If you spotted something I missed, or if you had a different interpretation of events, please share your thoughts in the comments!
Previously, on Minding MIND MGMT…
Issues: #0 #1 #3 #4 #5 #6 DHP #19 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 DHP #31
#18 #19
Interviews: Matt Kindt Brendan Wright Matt Kindt (2)
Annotations: Volume one
