Review:
Killer Like Frank Miller: The Ministry #1

The Ministry is a fictional Guantanamo Bay of the dark arts, a Chernobyl of the occult: a research laboratory on Crowley Island. It's 24 pages of eerie black and white violence-story. As the cover of the comic suggests, blood frayed newsprint atop shapes lost in zombie gas steam. Creator Lara Phillips writes and draws the tale of "the final stop for every failed special forces operative -- every adrenaline junkie, every combat burn out case, every strung out sadist who'd opened fire on unarmed kids instead of the enemy."

David Hanson, the last-chance newcomer, suffers nightmares, fore-shadowing his proximity to his psychic torture within the institution. In the first issue, his arrival is chronicled and the guided introduction is by interned boy soldier Chris Thorne. Before we view the institution, our "pilot" is cracked, bombed, torpedoed and the parachutes smashed with lots of big sticks and stones. Artist Philips weilds her characters with an emotivity like Outcastes author Tony McGee, with portraits similar to the expressionism of Steve Dillon. There may be comparisons made with Garth Ennis too. Pages have little dialogue and 2-3 large panels, guided out before heavy blacks are applied, shimmering up dimension and stylised angles. The Frank Miller comparisons continue to appear: strong page design, a narrative of violence. Philips even imbues Hanson with a muscular figure and unfortunate indulgence in melodrama. It's no Miller knock off although the portraits are complemented with a steady balance of simple shapes and technical buildings and scene creation. This is evident from the opening with it's black-toned bay-scape and lit photo manga. There are glimpses of photocopier toner moments at balance with digital illustration. 

Rachel Oliver at 'Fanboy Review' criticised the cover art as plain. I quite disagree. However it does hint at a content of technology that's largely absent from most of the issue. This is a pity. Where they show up, gas masks, labs and cannisters present imaginative gothic tech-horror. The extreme violence of the piece is sure to annoy any Daily Mail journalist but it is handled with an aesthetic flair that I think would appeal to Miller and his fanbase. It's certainly imbued with enough of a sense of realism that as a fan of lesser-violence narratives, I am won over. Future issues will tell how much more this is than a fantasy fight-fest and I feel hopeful.