This week, Oni Press will release Hey, Mary!, a beautifully written and drawn OGN (original graphic novel) about reconciling your queer identity and your faith. Written by Andrew Wheeler with art by Rye Hickman, the book isn’t just a labor of love… It’s also highly personal to the two creators, who both see themselves in the main character of Mark.
“It’s funny,” Wheeler told Comic Book Club over email, “it’s not an autobiographical work, but Mark is absolutely a part of me, and so is Luka, and so is Father Teo, and so is Jojo. These might be my Inside Outs! The book is so informed by my life that I worried we would never find an artist who could put themselves into the work — and then Rye came on board and brought so much authenticity to the characters that the fear evaporated, because this story is as true to them as it is to me.”
In the book, while Mark struggles with the idea that he might be gay, he has visions of various saints — and demons — throughout history, giving a quite literal representation of the angel/devil on your shoulder dichotomy. And despite the subject matter, Hey, Mary! is never preachy… It presents different options and perspectives for Mark, from rejecting his sexuality, to rejecting the church, to — spoilers here — finding a happy medium where he can figure out how these can potentially work together.
The book is funny, romantic, creative, and will bring you both happy and sad tears. To find out more about how the novel came together, read on.
Comic Book Club: This book is obviously very personal, which we’ll get to in a second, but it’s also extremely in-depth about the history of Catholicism… How much research was involved in this, from both the writing and art perspective?
Andrew Wheeler: A lifetime of research! Hey Mary is the story of Mark, a teenager trying to reconcile his Catholic faith with his queer identity, and the perspectives he encounters are the perspectives I’ve been collecting across a lifetime. A lot of reading went into making sure I was being fair in my representations, but this is a story I’ve been preparing to tell since I was around Mark’s age!
Rye Hickman: Art history courses were some of my favorites, when I was in school, so a lot of aspects of Catholic iconography were already familiar subjects for me. My local university offered an enrichment course on Catholic saints and their symbolism while I was working on the book, which was kismet. There’s some easter eggs in there, thanks to that course, that hopefully hagiography nerds will notice.
Easy is the wrong word, but it seems easier to have a book about leaving the Catholic church once you realize you’re queer, versus reconciling your faith with other parts of your identity. How did you make sure to straddle that line throughout the book (which I think you did quite well)?
Wheeler: Cutting yourself off from a church that doesn’t respect you is an act of self-preservation for so many queer people, and it’s a very wise and necessary choice that is represented in this book! At the same time, faith is integral to a lot of queer people’s lives, and I don’t think we should ever completely cede our place in spaces we helped create. The Church is one of those spaces. I think that idea was a guiding light in writing this book.
You of course have your own experiences here — how much of yourself can you put in it without turning into autobio? How much can you take out before it becomes too generic?
Wheeler: It’s funny; it’s not an autobiographical work, but Mark is absolutely a part of me, and so is Luka, and so is Father Teo, and so is Jojo. These might be my Inside Outs! The book is so informed by my life that I worried we would never find an artist who could put themselves into the work — and then Rye came on board and brought so much authenticity to the characters that the fear evaporated, because this story is as true to them as it is to me.
Hickman: One of the things a comic artist does is, essentially, act all the parts on stage. And make the stage. Etc. I didn’t grow up in the Catholic church, but my experiences growing up in the evangelical church were so strikingly similar to Mark’s that embodying him felt like dusting off the cobwebs from my own teenage self- which ended up being surprisingly cathartic, and I’m so grateful to Andrew for that. For me, the cross-church connection was comforting, rather than generic. The story is so much more universal than our carefully researched Catholic specifics might imply!
I love the conceit of talking directly to saints and historical figures… Why was that important? And Rye, I realize this is sort of a joke in the book at times, but how much did you use visual references from paintings, versus creating whole cloth?
Wheeler: Queer people have always existed, which means we’ve been erased from our own history. Giving voice to these saints and historical figures felt like a small step towards addressing that! And really, you can’t talk about Catholicism without talking about its impact on art, culture, and history.
Hickman: I had a fantastic time depicting all of the saints, but I think the ones at the extreme ends of the ‘depicted’ spectrum were my favorites. Joan of Arc, for example, has been depicted thousands of times- and those images tell a story about the culture’s ideas about gender, piety, youth, warfare, and so on. I added my own voice to an existing conversation. Then there’s saints like Sergius and Bacchus, who got the fancy encaustic treatment in the 7th century, and then nothing for centuries after that. So I had a lot more free rein there to start my own conversation.
There’s a really lovely scene in the middle here between Mark and his priest about how the church itself isn’t having an easy time grappling with these concerns. With graphic novels taking a few years (at least) to make… How are we doing today?
Wheeler: You know, I was gambling on the Catholic Church not moving faster than the world of publishing, and it turns out that was a safe enough bet! By the standard of Popes, Pope Francis is very progressive, but by the standards of everyone else, he’s still a Pope. I think we’re still moving forward, but reactionary regression is basically a hallmark of progress.
Why Mary? I think you get around to it in the book, but what was important about using her as the title character here?
Wheeler: One of the wild things about Catholicism is that it’s a branch of Christianity that venerates god in feminine form. Purists can quibble, but the veneration of Mary is one of the key points of distinction between the Catholic Church and other branches of Christianity. There’s something deeply gay about diva worship, and her name is Mary, and she’s literally mother. It was irresistible.
Hickman: What I adore about the way Mary shows up in the book is that she changes to suit the environment she’s in, be it the proud mama in church or the disenfranchised teenage pregnancy. It’s a reflection of all the issues Mark is exploring, really! The story changes significantly based on who is telling it and what their agenda is, and Mary is an exemplar of that concept.
What advice would you give to anyone grappling with their own faith/sexuality? There are the experiences Mark goes through in the book, of course, but where do you start when you’re having these sorts of conflicting feelings?
Wheeler: You are not broken. You are not wrong. You are not alone. You deserve love and you will have love. Even if you struggle to feel those things, I want you to remember that they are still true.
Hickman: What I love about Mark’s journey is that he reaches out to others – when you’re in pain it can be easy to isolate yourself, but connecting and learning and asking for support is the only way out. To paraphrase our Saint Sebastian, you are normal and you are not alone.
Hey, Mary! is in stores everywhere on April 15, 2025 from Oni Press.
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