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"What a mad world it is when death can be so much more appealing than life."
The Malevolent is the story of Manson and Lily, two souls trapped in a city where morals have decayed and malevolence reigns. It's a world of violence and death where one man tries to make a difference, to save the life and soul of a young and dangerous girl who has a destiny locked in redemption.20 years before our story begins, the city called Truth recieved a visitor by the name of Terrence Donovan who upon arrival took control of the criminal underworld and rose to power, eventually taking full siege over the city and unleashing a plague of ultra-violence. Manson is our hero; possibly the only decent person left in Truth. Forced to fight and kill daily in order to survive, it weighs heavily on the young man who was raised by a preacher. Religion is dead yet for him, the inner battle to remain righteous has left him broken. His only reason for going on is Lily, the 18-year old vixen who's been corrupted by the streets. He has vowed to protect her to no end, even if she doesn't want his help. When we meet the two, we find them at a breaking point in their relationship--Manson's preaching is pushing her further away and it will take tragedy to pull them back together. A vicious street gang is out for Manson's blood while a depraved serial killer is murdering young women on the streets of Truth. Soon the two will be forced into confronting Truth's demons and their own.Thus begins an epic tale of good vs. evil where heroes can become villians and villians, heroes. It is a story about loss, faith, death, revenge, choices, destiny and hope. Is mankind doomed to destory itself, or can we change? What kind of world would it be when right and wrong no longer exists? What kind of world will it be when our conscience escapes us? The answer is...The Malevolent.
In 1996, Nathan Thomas Milliner was 20 years old and working at a local grocery store. He had been making his own comic books for about 7 years; mostly superhero stuff influenced by the comic book boom of the early 1990s. But Nate's work was never really mainstream or kid friendly--it was always just a little darker, grittier and much more realistic than your average Superman comic. People died, people were crippled and people spoke and treated each other like real people. Perhaps his interest in film, particularly horror films made his creations a little rougher. Nate's film obsession grew when he entered college in 1994 and he took a liking to violent films which had been revived by the arrival of young filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Luc Besson and Robert Rodriguez. But what was really on his mind was what he was seeing outside of the movie theaters. The world had become an ugly place and the films he enjoyed were just a reflection of what the world was going through at the time. Through history, the arts tend to always reflect what is going on in the world at the time. Nate was like most young men, full of anger and totally disgusted with what he saw outside of his window and he began to fear what future lied ahead of us all. It seemed that mankind was heading towards a major shift; moving into an age of depravity and excess that would bring forth it's own destruction. He wanted to capture what he was feeling inside in one of his comics. But first, it would take a little influence...
In 1994, Nate saw Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" and it changed his life forever, at least as a movie fanatic and especially as a creative force. The film opened him up to a whole new world of violent crime films that quickly became his obession. Films like Taxi Driver, Leon The Professional, The Killer, Mean Streets and Pulp Fiction were making him want to explore the genre himself but he didn't know if there was much of a demand for an independent, black and white comic book about crime and pulp fiction. But in 1996 he found his green light in the form of the first graphic novel in Frank Miller's "Sin City" series. Sin City blew him away and he immediately started taking his love for film and coupled it with his anger towards the world and the genesis for The Malevolent was kickstarted.
Nate made a list of all the things he wanted to incorporate into his new book; stuff like gangsters, hitmen, samurai swords, ninja, John Woo action sequences, serial killers and horror tales. Other films that inspired him in writing those first Malevolent stories were "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Seven", "Escape from New York", "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Crow." The influences were endless, all the way down to his childhood love for Star Wars--the space opera played a part in it's development. Perhaps the biggest influence was the rock band Garbage. The goth pop band had instantly become Milliner's favorite band in the Summer of 1996 and he found his muse in lead singer Shirley Manson who became the template for his character, Lily. Nate saw Manson as this small, sexy angel with the eyes of a killer and for him, that was perfect for a comic book character. The style he would use to draw the comic was influenced by film noir. He wanted the images to look like real screenshots from a movie so a photo realistic style was adopted over the traditional comic bookish cartoon approach. Like the filmmaker who changed Nate's creative directions, Quentin Tarantino, Nate poured his love of all things pop culture into the book. The dynamic of awesome entertainment elements coupled with a very personal and dramatic sense of social commentary made for an enthralling form of storytelling that has surprised every one who has ever read the books. 
Between 1996 and 1999, Nate developed The Malevolent while working for a comic book company called Pensake Comics. The story and characters went through many changes over the years and the only scripts Nate managed to write were short 8-page ashcan scripts. But by 1999, Nate had the first full issue of The Malevolent all ready for print but he had no idea how to make it happen. He visited a local printer and gave up when he realized how expensive it would be. Two years later he was asked to join a webcomic group in town called Feral Comix. The Malevolent made it's actual debut on Feral Comix official website back in 2001. It wasn't until November of 2003 that The Malevolent made it into print. The first 8 pages of Chapter One were published in the anthology "Feral Comix Presents #1". The printing was very expensive and it took a whole year for the next issue to be released. Nate had been sitting on the first 24 pages of the book for 5 years and had only published the first 16 pages. It was obvious that at this pace, he'd never finish the 30 chapter saga he had penned. Thankfully in early 2006, Feral discovered comixpress.com which was affordable and he began finishing the first 4 chapters of The Malevolent to publish in a graphic novel. Between 2006-2008, Nate released three graphic novels, wrapping up the first 10 chapters and the first act of the trilogy. Feral Comix disbanded in 2006 and Nate carried the company on for three more years but in 2010 he formed his own publishing company, Rebel Rouser Comics, LLC. The first book set from the company is "The Malevolent Volume 1" a collected tome of the first three graphic novels. Below is a gallery of the books that The Malevolent has appeared in. Click the thumbnails to see larger images.
The first ten chapters of the 30 chapter saga have been printed and Nate is currently working on the next installment, Book 4: The Leone War. Nate has also hinted at a possible "prequel" to the series once the 9 books are completed. When we meet Manson and Lily in Chapter One they have been living in Truth for 16 years. We may see what the two were like when they were only children.
