An Interview With ‘Marian Heretic’ Writer Tini Howard

Marian may be a heretic, but that doesn’t mean the Church of the Holy Father won’t use her to do their violent bidding. The question is whether Marian will continue to be their pawn or consider a counteroffer in writer Tini Howard and artist Joe Jaro‘s new series Marian Heretic. For more on how this comic came together, check out this interview with Howard below:

Rachel Bellwoar: While a lot of your recent work has been for DC and before that Marvel (#BringBackDeath’sHead), you’ve also written other creator-owned series like Assassinistas and The Skeptics. Marian Heretic is your first creator-owned series at Boom!. Why did you feel Boom! was the right fit for this story?

Tini Howard: I’d spent years talking to Jon Moisan about doing a creator-owned book with him at Boom!. When I decided to step back into that world, I wanted to be uncompromising and craft the book that I’d want to see on the shelf. Jon wanted to see what I could bring to the table, and I felt like he was someone who would encourage me to do my best, and he did.

Bellwoar: As a fan of nunsploitation films like The Devils and Alucarda, where did your interest in the genre start and how long have you been toying around with the idea for Marian Heretic?

Howard: I was raised Catholic and attended CCD, went through all of the sacraments, so there’s never been a time where I wasn’t curious about portrayals of nuns, especially ones that felt very exciting or different from the nuns I knew. My grandmother and grandfather both had nuns in their families, my great-great aunt Anna was a Carmelite who would send treats and letters home from the convent. From an early age, I loved the idea of that lifestyle, there was a fascinating mystery to the idea of living with girls and reading all day and tending gardens. Sounded pretty cool. Marian Heretic is a fusion of those things — the titillation of nunsploitation combined with a genuine lifelong reverence toward the mysterious allure of convents.

Marian Heretic itself started from a sketchbook doodle circa 2022. While reading about early Christian theology I came across the term “Marian heresy,” got fascinated by how it sounded like a name, and wrote it down. From there, it just took time and effort, like all things do.

Bellwoar: It’s easy to focus on Marian’s habit but there’s a lot more to her warrior nun ensemble. How was it working with Joe Jaro to cement her look and is there a detail you’re especially proud of?

Howard: It was less “working with Joe” and more “Joe basically nailed it in one shot after reading the brief and opting to sketch her, and I’ve been trying to do his design justice ever since.”

Bellwoar: Rather than a sword, Marian’s weapon of choice is her staff (it’s through her staff, and not a necklace, that we get the cross iconography, too). How did you come up with that decision?

Howard: Oh, love this question. So Marian’s weapon — and we see this in the first issue — is more than just a weapon, it’s a monstrance, and it functions that way in the story: I won’t spoil how. Monstrances are occasionally carried aloft in parades, as a means of displaying them high above a crowd. I saw that visual and thought ‘well that would make a cool looking cleric staff’ and also ‘it would suck to get hit with that,’ and combined that with the more spiritual, esoteric elements to get what we see in issue one.

Bellwoar: Witches have been portrayed in many different ways across mass media. Given that Marian sees the witches as her antagonists (at least to begin with), did that inspire the choice to have them appear more cronelike and “ugly” at first, as she’s going to be rather ruthless towards them?

Howard: Oh for sure — and you’ll see more of that, too. Without getting too far into it — you’re absolutely on the money, thematically, to notice that. Great reading!

Bellwoar: Naturally there are a lot of Biblical references, like the name of the park where the witches are congregating. Is that knowledge something you came into this series already possessing or was there a lot of research involved?

Howard: I would say being raised Catholic, it was a big fascination of mine, but I wasn’t always encouraged to ask questions. When I could ask questions, the sources for my answers were, shall we say … biased. When I grew from a curious child into a curious adult, I was able to approach some of these topics that had always fascinated me in a new way. Marian Heretic just gives me an excuse to dive back into some of that juicy theology I love.

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Tini!

Marian Heretic #1 goes on sale October 8th from Boom! Studios.