Consensual Possession & The DSTLRY Red Label: Q&A with The Missionary's Ryan Stegman & Jason Howard

Get a FREE 12 page digital preview of THE MISSIONARY #1 Regular Edition here! Pre-order THE MISSIONARY #1 at your local comic shop by 8/19! Or come back to dstrly.co on 9/25 and get a full digital copy of either the Regular or expanded Red Label Edition... or both!

By Ernie Estrella 

When the devoutly religious Bryce Hunter witnesses his wife’s transgressions with an elder from his church, he hits an all-time low. In this moment of weakness, the demon entity Uvydus takes the opportunity to possess Bryce and Bryce offers no resistance. Bryce wants to indulge in a crash course of sin, but Uvydus is trying to change his own spots, too. Is this a possession made in heaven or hell? Either way, their union has caught the attention of a legendary exorcist and a horde of demons that have escaped the gates of Hell.

In THE MISSIONARY, Ryan Stegman (Venom, Superior Spider-Man, X-Men) and Jason Howard (Batman, Trees, Big Girls) have cooked up a demented, devilish action-horror comic for DSTLRY that is sure to raise as many eyebrows as hairs on your neck. They’ve pulled seats at the bar to talk about The Missionary and it getting the Red Label treatment, a new polybagged edition of the first issue that indulges even more in unfiltered, uncensored content. 

The Missionary #1 is available for preorder at your local comic book store through August 19th, and will hit shelves on September 25th. 

Bryce Hunter looks like a sad, hard-luck schlub. The poor guy even lost his job. What did he do exactly to deserve to be on the wrong end of this act of betrayal?

Jason Howard: He did nothing! Poor guy! Well, maybe Bryce is a bit of a pushover, and as the series progresses he will have to decide if he's comfortable in his life as is, or if he wants to do the work to change, even if that change means partnering with a demon!

Ryan Stegman: Yeah. Bryce certainly doesn't do anything to deserve this. Other than not sticking up for himself. But hey, LIFE HAPPENS!

Uvydus must want something out of him though, there must be something that benefits it in targeting him. Is that something that is apparent right away or is that one of the early mysteries of the series?

Stegman: This is a great question, and one that I can't answer without giving away large plot points from later. So yeah, a mystery, one might say.  

Howard: Uvydus tells Bryce what he wants, and claims to be looking for redemption. But can you really trust a demon? Bryce is in a bad spot at the beginning of the series, so maybe he's not the best judge of character, but I think one of the great things that Ryan is doing as a writer on this book is finding the core of this relationship. I think maybe everyone has moments in their life where they feel like Bryce, downtrodden and taken advantage of. In those times, who wouldn’t want a handy demon around to put people in their place?

So you can’t tell us anything else about Uvydus and his motivations, because he may have picked the wrong body to cling onto, or… maybe not?

Stegman: [Laughs]. AGAIN. Great question but there's only so much I can say. There is definitely a lot more to Uvydus than meets the eye. He's a demon from Hell for a reason.  

Ryan, you worked on a character before that featured a protagonist that is wrestling with another entity for the control of his body. Was The Missionary some wicked stepchild that came to you after working on Venom? Did you want to take that character down some depraved directions but just couldn't?  

Stegman: This seems to be something I'm obsessed with. I'm a big believer that the writer doesn't always know their motivations, things just kind of happen. I didn't WRITE Venom, but I related strongly to the two voices in the head. I also did a book at Image that I co-wrote called The Schlub that had a similar theme going on. I can't say exactly where it comes from or why it fascinates me, but I'll talk to my psych about it. 

As for depraved directions in Venom, I swore off ever talking about anything depraved with him again when I jokingly tweeted something about him and the symbiote being sexual and it went viral and the editor of the book told me he STILL receives mail about that specific tweet to this day! 

Is this purely an Earth-bound book or will The Missionary travel to different planes of existence? If it does go to different places where the imagination can run wild, Jason, how much fun was that for you to build those worlds from scratch? 

Stegman: You will definitely see different planes of existence. Anything I can do to make Jason's job more challenging.  

Howard: The design part of a new series is always fun! With this book a lot of it was playing with the idea and look of demons, trying to find something that felt unique but still will immediately read as a demon, and of course would be fun to draw over and over! 

Skottie Young can be a tough get for a variant. What was it like seeing him turn in one of his "baby" covers for The Missionary?

Howard: Ryan and I can be very intimidating, he had no choice but to say yes! Obviously Skottie is one of the premier cover artists, he doesn’t just draw an image, he brings fun ideas and a unique take that make them stand out. His Missionary cover is another great example of this, it’s most likely the best thing he's ever drawn and he should probably stop now because why even try to top it? Everyone should buy 10 copies of Skottie’s (maybe) last ever cover!

Stegman: Yeah, Jason and I have been friends with Skottie for a long time. We certainly played that card when asking him to do a cover. And we did some threatening. In the end, Skottie made the best decision for his safety and I respect that. 

After reading the first five pages, the thought of a Red Label NSFW version of the book has me thinking it's going to be pretty outrageous. In laying out the story, did you feel like you had room to go further and just saved that for the Red Label draft, or is the process to go balls to the wall and then see what it is you can pull back and save?

Stegman: I wrote it as completely bonkers as possible and then was told where I had to scale some things back, but we could then put it in the Red Label edition. So it all worked out. However, I will say, we did push it even TOO FAR at one point for the Red Label edition. So, congrats to Jason and me for being too depraved, for the depraved version of the book.  

To that end, what's the difference in the reading experience between the Red Label Edition and the regular newsstand edition? Will they get a significant additional story as well, or will it be something like a Rated R movie and an NC-17 version?

Howard: More like the second option. The actual story content is the same, but we just take the restrictions off on the execution, expand some scenes and embrace the more extreme moments! 

Stegman: Yep, what Jason said. 

Have you given any thought to how many polybags you're going to have to sign in future conventions?

Howard: Not until now!!!

Stegman: I hope it's billions.  

In your own personal scales, Jason, has Ryan asked you to draw anything that made you go, what? And Ryan, have you asked Jason to draw something and he just went over the top with it?

Stegman: I definitely worried about what I was making Jason do. Jason is about as well-adjusted of a person that I know. So I winced a bit when sending him some of this stuff. But to Jason's credit, the art always came back exceeding my own expectations so I think that Jason maybe has his own little demon that he keeps tucked away in the dark recesses of his brain.  

Howard: Ryan sent me the first five pages I think to see if it would scare me off! But here I am! Honestly part of the fun of comics is finding cool ways to show story events that either heighten them or make them more subtle. In this book we definitely skew towards heightening them! 

The Missionary feels like a book where we are going to see Bryce and Uvydus bang heads together. It feels like these two are on a long journey. Is this a story that goes beyond the DSTLRY standard of three issues?

Stegman: The current plan is for the three issues, which is essentially almost seven issues of a regular series due to the 48-page DSTLRY format. But I know how this story ends, and I know exactly where I'd go from here. So if it's popular and DSTLRY/the fans want more we will do a second volume. I'll do this book for as long as people buy it. Because there are so many directions it could go.  

In any good book that looks to ruffle some feathers and poke the bear that's religion, there are always characters and stories that have heart. Where will readers be surprised to find that here in The Missionary?

Stegman: Religion is very much a backdrop for this book. The story is about Bryce and Uvydus and their journey. That's what interests me, the characters and how they evolve and grow. Will some people get mad about the religious content? Maybe. But it's not there just to be edgy. It is a catalyst for Bryce and Uvydus to be brought together.  

Howard: The heart was the thing that made me want to do this book. All the surface events are fun but the core of the story is Bryce; he is dealing with real issues and while the details are extreme, his struggle is real and relatable. Bringing it all to life is a lot of fun for me. Hopefully readers will connect with Bryce, as his journey is what the book really is about (and also violent demons!).

The Missionary will be available to pre-order in both a regular edition and a polybagged Red Label Edition. Final Order Cutoff (FOC) is August 19. Both the print and digital editions will be available on September 25.