The world is on fire. That’s nothing new, but doesn’t it feel so. Much. Worse? That’s rhetorical. It’s worse. They’re out to get us. They’re not even being sneaky about it anymore. They’re bald with it. Bold. With no shame. Is it paranoia if they really are out to get you?
Thank the gods for comic creator Matt Kindt. His mind-bending, experimental, infinitely re-readable work on his book Mind Mgmt has long been a balm for folks who feel like so many of us. Fiction (but is it fiction?) like Kindt’s series brings a sense of relief from a world gone mad, while giving us an acknowledging the craziness of *gestures vaguely everywhere*.
And thank the gods for a revival of that series. The governmental agency known as Mind Management is back in Mind Mgmt: New & Improved, debuting in June from Oni Press. In Mind Mgmt: New & Improved, we find out that some agents survived the catastrophe that nearly decimated the organization. Now working underground and still using their strange abilities and powers in the continuing psychic war across the globe.
We spoke with Matt Kindt recently about this newest series, the investigators we follow in the book, and whether or not readers can trust what we learned in the original Mind Mgmt series.
FreakSugar: Before we get into the new series, for readers unfamiliar to the world of Mind Mgmt?
Matt Kindt: Mind Management is a benevolent organization that works behind the scenes to make the world a better place. This series will detail the amazing lengths they go to, to secure the calm and easy lives we enjoy today. There was an older MIND MGMT series which was really just a pack of wild lies and misrepresentations so I encourage you to ignore anything you may have read or heard before. It all starts here.
FS: Where do we find the world of Mind Mgmt at the beginning of New & Improved?
MK: Right where we are now. Everything is super cool. Nothing to see. This series isn’t really “fiction” in the traditional sense. It’s more like non-fiction in a non-traditional sense if you know what I mean. Our heroes Delphi and Swon are investigating a series of murders perpetrated by a person who is either the most skilled killer in all of history or the luckiest person alive…avoiding modern surveillance – killing with what seems like absolutely randomness but able to target this randomness to specific Mind Management agents.
FS: What can you tell us about investigators Delphi and Swan?
MK: I can tell you that their names rhyme. Gemini Delphi and Jon Swan. And in a way that pretty much says it all, you know?
FS: This appears to be geared toward new and old fans. What considerations do you keep in mind when beginning a new story and series like that?
MK: I feel sorry for the old fans. I can only imagine the lengthy series of lies and misinformation they have been subjected to. This new series is the best place to start. Forget about all that old stuff. Continuity can be a tyrant and this series refuses to be ruled by rules. There is a new “character” in this series called “The Eraser” who is there to help everyone forget about all that old stuff. Let’s go forward…onward to new adventures and romance and spies with mind powers that are really only there to help you be your best self.
FS: Mind Mgmt: New & Improved is being published under the Flux House banner. What can you tell us about Flux House? Do you have a mission for the imprint?
There are a series of secret missions which I’m not at liberty to talk about but the public-facing mission is to create and publish comic books and graphic novels that can ONLY be what they are. They’re not pitches for movies and TV or subliminal screeds about hidden information. They’re just fun, weird, comics that try to show off what this medium is capable of. Art and story in its purest form.
FS: What’s been the most fun part of working on this new Mind Mgmt iteration?
MK: Getting to finally tell the truth about what it’s all about. It feels great to expose the fraud that was all that came before and start fresh. I’m excited to be capitalizing on everyone’s new-found optimism and naiveté in an entertaining way, you know? We’ve got blind bags to awaken dormant gambling addiction issues in kids so that they can be exposed as early as possible and then be dealt with. There are variant covers aplenty to sort of give everyone an ephemeral goal to “collect them all” as a way of filling that comic-book-sized-hole in a reader’s life. I feel like Mind Management is finally doing all of the good it was always capable of but has fallen short of in the past. If this endeavor was any more altruistic I think we could be a non-profit, to be honest.
FS: You’ve worked in the Mind Mgmt universe for some time now. What keeps things fresh for you?
MK: I’m just a conduit. Mind Management flows through me and directly to you. I try to stay out of it, to be honest. I wake up and treat it like a job. Type words. Draw pages. Letter pages. Paint pages. I do everything on this book so there is no danger of diluting its message with difficult co-creators, pretentious editors, and profit-motivated publishers. Making this series into a big warm blanket to wrap the world in is what keeps it rewarding every day. I think really dumbing down the narrative and making it an accessible “procedural murder mystery” has given the entire brand an added value it was missing. The murder mystery will eventually be solved. Everything that MIND MGMT is will be explicitly explained and you’ll turn the final page on the last issue of the series years from now and breathe a sigh of relieved exasperation.
FS: The world out there is scary. And, really, we Americans are kind of myopic. It’s always been scary; we just tend to pay attention when it’s about us. Not a condemnation (entirely), but just an observation. That said, with the state of the world as it is, does that ever factor in to your Mind Mgmt stories?
MK: Absolutely not. Art should be a reflection of society and that’s what MIND MGMT is going to be. Like that great reflection you get after a hot shower and you step out and look in the mirror and it’s all foggy and your body looks super mysterious and then you wipe some of the fog off the mirror and you see a mysterious stranger right behind you – looking over your shoulder. Now, you could panic. There’s a stranger behind you in the bathroom and you’re naked. Or you can be grateful for the company. You’ve been lonely for a while. And this person has seen you in all your glory. No secrets.
FS: Can you tease what we can expect to see in this new series?
MK: There’s a character who can kill you a thousand different ways, just with their body. There’s a character that can control your mind with uniquely designed scent vials. There’s a Swedish death cult that lives to die in battle. There’s the luckiest person on earth who constantly fails upward to greater success. And there’s “The Eraser” who can help you forget the most embarrassing moment in your life. You know the one. That time you had those bad street-burritos and then pooped your pants on the first date with that person you thought was “the one.”
FS: If you had a final pitch for Mind Mgmt: New & Improved, what would it be?
MK: Support the arts. Help me almost afford health care when I turn “retirement age,” and enjoy a comic designed to make you feel better about everything while simultaneously entertaining you and presenting you with some “brain ticklers” that are just hard enough to figure that they make you feel accomplished when you finally figure them out. Be a part of something bigger than any of us. Get in on the ground floor…and avoid the FOMO. It’s such a horrible feeling. Be the person that gets seen reading MIND MGMT. Be the person that others think of as one of “those MIND MGMT readers.” You know the type…because now you’ll be exchanging furtive looks with others just like you. The type that reads both MIND MGMT and FreakSugar! Interviews until the very end. If you did get this far – call me: 912-646-3646.
Mind Mgmt: New & Improved #1 goes on sale Wednesday, June 24, 2026, from Oni Press. Final order cutoff is Monday, April 27, 2026.
From the official description of issue #1:
NEW AGENTS. NEW MISSION. NEW BEGINNING. From New York Times best-selling cartoonist and multiple Eisner Award nominee Matt Kindt (BRZRKR, Dept. H), the defining statement on psychic espionage returns with an all-new, entirely self-contained entry point into the genre-bending, Eisner Award–nominated series that Entertainment Weekly calls “one of the most experimental and fascinating books in mainstream comics.” Ten years ago, the extra-governmental agency known as Mind Management exploded in a barrage of bullets and brain matter. Those that survived have gone underground—forging new lives with unremarkable identities and falsified pasts to obfuscate the strange abilities that once made them highly prized assets in the global war for psychic control. Now, two investigators—Detective Delphi and Detective Swon—have found themselves at the center of an unexpected puzzle. Here: A man poisoned in a coffee shop with a sophisticated neurotoxin. There: A supposed suicide victim run over by a train . . . with his arms found in a trash can five miles from the tracks. Their connection: Someone is killing former Mind Management agents in improbable and arcane ways . . . Seemingly impossible crimes committed by a faceless killer capable of evading even the most pervasive digital surveillance. What secret are they killing to protect? Who will be next? Has Mind Management returned? Did it ever go away? You are paranoid . . . but are you paranoid enough?