Valiant’s new Faith ongoing series debuts on the first day of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International, and to celebrate the occasion, Valiant is offering a convention-exclusive variant cover of Faith #1 benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. An homage to the cover of George Michael’s 1987 album Faith, the variant is the first Valiant work by Ronald Wimberly, an Eisner Award nominee this year for this web comic, “Lighten Up.” Wimberly imbues Faith Herbert with a surplus of attitude and style as she prepares to take flight in her first ongoing series.
The A.V. Club has an exclusive lettered preview of this month’s Faith #1, and these pages reveal how Faith’s life is becoming increasingly complicated now that her boss knows about her secret identity. Working for a media company is already a challenge, but it becomes even harder when juggling a secret superhero identity that your boss wants to put in the public eye. Writer Jody Houser continues to find fun twists on the well-worn conceit of a superhero working in the world of journalism.
These pages also showcase the book’s visual upgrade courtesy of artist Pere Perez, who has a more dynamic, expressive aesthetic than Francis Portela, the artist on the Faith miniseries. The shift in artist has inspired colorist Andrew Dalhouse to try something different with his rendering technique, using flatter blocks of color that give the art an animation cel quality. Dalhouse’s new style is a great fit for Perez’s linework, and the visuals for Faith’s everyday life are getting closer and closer to the quality of Marguerite Sauvage’s striking fantasy sequences. For more on Faith, check out this Comics Panel review of the Faith miniseries, and readers that want to learn more about Valiant’s breakout hero can pick up the new Faith #1 when it hits stands on July 20.