Ritten RUview: Mind MGMT, Volume 1: The Manager
- Written by GHERU on Tuesday, April 30 2013 and posted in Reviews
It’s just not fair to other comics that something this good is allowed to exist.
Source: none
There is a story collected in Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s Welcome To The Monkey House, Harrison Bergeron, which presents a dystopian vision of a future where the American drive for equality is taken to a disturbing conclusion. Everyone must be equal, in every way, meaning no one can be prettier, smarter, more athletic, generally better at anything than the average person. People with natural gifts are purposefully hindered by the government (the narrator constantly has his thoughts interrupted because he is too smart, and ballerinas wear weights on their ankles)to bring them down to the public’s level. I wonder what horror Vonnegut could have dreamed up for Matt Kindt after reading Mind MGMT.
Enough praise has been heaped upon Mind MGMT since it debuted that anything I write would be redundant and get lost in the flotsam of the internet, so I will be brief: BUY THIS BOOK!
Matt Kindt’s writing style seems to be based on the theory that his readers are not idiots, that they can put things together without hand holding and there is no need to beat us over the head with “the point.” His respect and appreciation for his readers is obvious throughout the book as he guides us through the mystery of “Who Is Henry Lyme?” Much like the main character in this volume, Meru, it is up to the reader to follow the breadcrumbs left for us, Kindt’s faith in our intelligence negates the need to spell it all out; he knows we’ll get there.
The art of Matt Kindt is stunningly incomplete; every image, every panel, every page leaves just enough out that the reader’s mind is forced to fill it in. The imagery of Mind MGMT causes the reader to, subconsciously, feel as if someone has altered, managed, their minds. Reading Mind MGMT is a sensory experience that goes beyond the concept of “funny book.”
Mind MGMT Volume 1: The Manager collects the stories from issues 0-6 of the monthly book, but not any of the extras. Kindt is on record as saying he wants the single issues to be special – much like Brubaker and Phillips do with Criminal, and Kirkman does with The Walking Dead – and I respect that. This might be the first book in over five years where I allow myself to switch formats, meaning go from collection to single issues, because if there is more awesomeness available from this book , RU WANTS IT NOW!
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About the Author - GHERU
RU, or as he’s known in the writers’ room: the cute one, is relatively unappreciated in his time. RU’s YouTube show, RUviews is watched by literally multiple people every month and his Outhouse articles have helped line many a bird cage. Before you send RU a message, he knows that there are misspelled words in this article, and probably in this bio he was asked to write. RU wants everyone to know that after 25+ years of collecting he still loves comic books and can’t believe how seriously fanboys take them. RU lives in Akron Ohio (unfortunately) with WIFE, ‘lilRuRu, and the @DogGodThor. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, & even Google+ (if anyone still uses that).
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