The Customer is Always Wrong by Mimi Pond

Her journey comes to a crescendo in the final third, as the decade ends and Margaret’s life takes a new direction. One of the key plots from Pond’s newest work is the Margaret’s attempts to launch her career as a cartoonist and save enough money to move to the Big Apple.

Of course, that speaks more about corporate greed at this point.” There isn’t anymore, but people still manage to fall into that hole, now more than ever. Unfortunately, there was a great deal of naiveté about heroin and cocaine at that point. It’s tragic and horrible and completely avoidable – if you have any self-esteem and common sense. Some of them came out and did well and then wound up getting sucked back into it. Some of them finally came out of it, some of them never did. Not everyone in The Customer is Always Wrong escapes the potential pitfalls of causal drug use however: “So many people I knew disappeared down rabbit holes of addiction for years and years. Coke and booze are routes of escape in cities all over the world, and while the media may try to convince us otherwise, not every rolled-up banknote or raucous drinking session ends in debilitating addiction, sometimes it just equals a good time. One of Pond’s strengths is exploring the futility and self-destructive nature of drug abuse without preaching or being sanctimonious. I was lucky enough to catch up with Mimi about her recent release, who described her writing process: “It took a long time to sift through all the characters and all the most significant real-life episodes to try to mold them into a plausible narrative. The juxtaposition of gritty subject matter against Pond’s dreamy illustration style softens the edges of her darker subplots, making the clearly dangerous world of inner city Oakland seem like an adventure you’d risk taking. The opposite is true, with casual drug use, addiction, violence, and even death prevalent throughout. While reading The Customer is Always Wrong for the first time, you’d be forgiven for anticipating a lighthearted affair depicted in her grey washed, minimal panels. Set in the late ’70s, Pond’s most significant work to date broaches heavyweight issues with a deft touch, exploring the doubts and questions that stalk adulthood, like how to deal with loss, how to make something of yourself, and how to create a better world for the people you care about.Īs a writer during the golden era of The Simpsons and a cartoonist for National Lampoon for decades, it’s fitting that Mimi Pond’s artwork portrays a sense of levity and accessibility. The narrative is chiefly concerned with Margaret’s attempts to escape the drudgery and despair of her surroundings without being dragged down by the erratic, drug-addled lives of her friends and colleagues. The Customer is Always Wrong, Mimi Pond’s sequel to the critically lauded Over Easy, is a semi-autobiographical account of Margaret – an inspiring comic book artist and waitress at the Imperial diner, Oakland.

The Customer is Always Wrong by Mimi Pond