Mind Control Comics Forum

(http://cnt1.dvvent.com/dvv/open/mcc/sji/promos/sji-i492.jpg)

As teaser thumbnails go, that's pretty successful.

Is it ominous that the New Hampshire state motto is "Live free or die", given that the former looks to be off the table?

losing His sex toys for money
lady to the man club?

Wait, that new guy is Sawyer?  That's him?  I...it's been awhile since we've seen his office, but now I'm trying to recall if we've actually seen him before.  I know we've seen Hans quite a bit and we've heard Sawyer speak.  But...really?  That's really Sawyer?  Wow.  I am surprised.  Good surprise, but a big surprise.  And if we saw him in volume 2 when Jacqui schedules her performance or when Caitlyn tripped over the subliminals in the club, I can't believe I forgot that completely.

I think it's more likely to be the other strip club owner.  He's already acquired some Pink Clouds from Vik and it's strongly implied he's used it on his dancers.  Buying more women from Vik wouldn't be much of a stretch.

The Van Winkle's guy.  Aah.  I know we haven't seen him before.  He has been mentioned with considerable condescension, though.  I think the farthest we got before was his office door when some of his disgruntled employees were backstage.

A man talk about pink cloud at SJI-411
and lady one by one go to the office and get spay with the pink cloud sji-464
Vic car is at the lab parking lot sji -492

add on - maybe Yves (or Q box) is buy 3-lady

The previous episode appeared to suggest Vik had parked up in the vicinity of Princess Pink.

The guy in 411 looks so much like Sawyer that if it's not him it must be his brother. So until we're told otherwise, I'm assuming that if Van Winkle's is an entirely separate concern, Vik must have sold Pink Clouds to both Sawyer and the boss of Van Winkle's. Historically, it was Yves and Sawyer selling Q's incarnation of Pink Clouds.

I'm still not convinced that Vik acted alone in the plan involving Alex and Katie ("Weirdos" - 199) and I don't understand what the plan was. But there's definitely a connection between Vik and Julian, right?

It would be odd if Sawyer were to buy Katie from Vik, since Vik picked her up at Sawyer's. But it would be odd too for anyone to buy women from Vik if they were also buying Pink Clouds from him. A good rule of thumb is: don't trust a man who's selling women; he'd probably sell you his own sister.

There is no new guy visible in this page.

we now who car is in SJI-219

They're both men with square faces and short brown hair.  I think the style in #411 is a bit different from what we see on Sawyer in #103.  For me, the narrative flow from #411 to #464 to #491/492 is coherent enough that I'm assuming it's Van Winkle in all cases.

In a well-designed narrative the author sets up events before they happen, and you don't have setups without payoffs.  #464 shows us a strip club, Van Winkle's, with the very strong implication that the owner is using some form of newly-acquired mind control on the girls.  #411 shows us a strip club owner, unnamed, who just acquired a chemical form of mind control.  And #491/492 shows us Vik, the current dealer of that chemical form of mind control, concluding a business deal with an unnamed man who is apparently buying attractive mind-controlled women.  If #411 is not Van Winkle then we have no setup for #464.  And if #491/492 is not about the same man as #411 then Vik has a new business partner appearing out of thin air.  Either one would be poor narrative design.  But if the man in #411 is Van Winkle then the narrative thread holds together.

Thanks for the reference points! ;D  I'd never have found them on my own.  So, yeah. Sawyer's haircut, hair color, and the shape of his head in #103, are similar to the same attributes for the guy in #411.  However, the guy in 411 seems to be running both a club, and some sort of experimental facility (or that last panel is of the hospital where the "rescued" or detained have fled treatment. I can't see Sawyer doing his own grunt work, or using that ensemble as casual gear.  So, this would seem to be the Van Winkle's guy.  Now, Sawyer and the Van Winkle's guy could be related.  That could explain the passing similarity in their looks and reveal another layer to the competition in exotic dance business in Kearsage.  Very interesting. ;)

They both have green eyes too.

The trouble with 411 showing us a strip club owner, unnamed, is that we've already seen a strip club owner who bears more than a passing resemblance to him. Put panel 3 of 209 alongside panel 3 of 411: if we're supposed to think they're two different people then one of them should have had an eye patch, or something. As for style, the guy in 411 appears to be wearing a naff shirt, something Sawyer could presumably achieve by stripping off his naff outer layers. Which he may very well do in his back office, which we've never seen, and which may look very much like the one in 411.

Plus, as I say, we know Sawyer has been involved with Pink Clouds before. So the conversation in 411 ("This is still on their radar") makes sense, given that that was still a fairly fresh revelation. I made it clear at the time that I took the guy in 411 to be Sawyer (because he looks like Sawyer) and got no clarification. Which is why I assumed in 464 that Van Winkle's is connected to Sawyer's - because I'd suggest the guy in 411 is talking to someone with a shared business interest.

For what it's worth, I don't think the invisible guy here is Sawyer, and I'm not saying it's not the boss of Van Winkle's. But 491 gave us the impression that this transaction is taking place in the vicinity of Princess Pink. And we haven't had an establishing scene to tell us there's anyone based there but Yves.

The plan with Alex and Katie makes no sense with Vik acting for his own ends. Vik wanted Amy. And he got Amy by walking up to her and spraying her with Pink Clouds. If he needed to test the stuff he could have done that on anyone; he didn't have to steal a Princess Pink van and do all the rest of that. For all we know, he'd already proved it worked on Laura in the lab.

And there is a connection between Vik and Julian that is yet to be explained. (More scenes for which we've had no set up.)

There'd be some point in Van Winkle's wanting to get hold of Katie. But I don't get the sense from 411 that that guy commissioned Vik to get her; he wouldn't need to test Pink Clouds in that case. And from a logical narrative point of view, as I say, you wouldn't buy women from someone selling you Pink Clouds. You just wouldn't. Anyone agreeing to take the women on would only do so to reduce the price he's paying for the drug.


EDIT: I thought I'd said this but I didn't:-

We're not shown the character Vik's dealing with. We've only seen the guy from 411 once (apparently). And if we were to list the things we think we know about him, one of the very few would be that he was interested in buying Pink Clouds from Vik. So, where's the suspense? Why not show us his face here? Whoever he is, he's the obvious candidate. But on the other hand, page 500 is approaching and maybe some revelations are too.