Written by Jody Houser with art by M.J. Kim, Faith: Dreamside collects the ongoing adventures of Faith Herbert, aka Zephyr, Valiant Comics’ breakout fangirl-turned-plus-sized superheroine, whose love for pop culture is surpassed only by her optimism. Faith: Dreamside will be published in March.
The book collection of the four-issue miniseries builds off of Houser’s critically acclaimed 2016 Faith series and the stories that followed, picking up after a major change in the character’s status quo.
In Dreamside, Faith joins forces with Doctor Mirage—a paranormal expert who can also talk to the ghosts of the dead—to save a fellow superhero, Animalia, from a malevolent spiritual force (it includes ghosts and monsters) that dragged her soul onto a different ethereal plane. The duo journey into a form of the afterlife to save her; it's a strange and mysterious realm vividly brought to life by artist M.J. Kim. Together, Faith and Doctor Mirage must confront figurative and literal ghosts from their pasts.
There seems to be a lot of hype around Faith, and for many readers, she may be their introduction to the interconnected Valiant Universe. How do you decide the amount of backstory and explanation that you provide for newcomers?
Houser: Every issue is someone's first, as the saying goes, so you have to learn to balance introducing the characters and the world to new readers while making it seem natural to continuing readers.
Faith is a fan, so she’s read and watched enough genre fiction to have a deep understanding of superhero tropes. How prepared (or unprepared) does this make her for the challenges she faces as a superhero?
Houser: I think Faith's love of pop culture informed her mortality when she became a hero, more than preparing her for specific challenges.
How did you go about choosing the artist? M.J.’s prior artwork has a surreal, dreamlike quality. Did her visual style influence the story’s paranormal universe setting?
Houser: I think it was more a case of MJ being the right choice of artist for the story that both Valiant and I wanted to tell. I especially love her creepy pages!
MJ Kim: It's a flattering question, but I think I was invited to join the project because of my art style. Jody Houser's script was already set in a paranormal universe when I was given it to read and I was pretty excited to design Belu, the snake monster, and draw the ghosts. Later, Jody told me that she loves to incorporate various subjects into her script so the artist doesn’t get bored and I am certainly grateful for that since I had a blast drawing the Dreamside series.
What did you work on before Faith: Dreamside?
MJ Kim: I got asked to do interior work for the Faith’s Winter Wonderland Special one-shot. I was pretty new to the American comic industry overall so I had to do my share of research before jumping into the series. It was extremely encouraging to see different female hero archetypes with more realistic representations of body image being supported by a bigger publishing company like Valiant.
What was the process of developing the feel and the inhabitants of the Dreamside realm?
MJ Kim: The basic structure of the overall atmosphere was already there in Jody's writing. However, I had the liberty to experiment on small details in the panels, such as types of vegetation and putting overly enthusiastic faces on them. When Faith first steps into the Dreamside, Jody mentioned Lisa Frank [a popular and whimsical designer for kids] as a reference. I thought it was so amusing because my art style is the polar opposite of Lisa Frank’s work. I think it's a collaborative effort of the writer and artist to finalize the visuals.
How does it feel to work on a positively portrayed plus-size hero? Do you think that Faith’s continued popularity will lead to a greater variety of body types in superhero comics?
Houser: Hopefully the book helps show that there is an audience for all kinds of characters in superhero comics.
MJ Kim: The portrayal of female bodies in media is something I questioned for a very long time. I am extremely glad that the change in perception is happening more rapidly through body positivity movements and generational change. It's exciting to participate in this change through my drawing and I’m happy that Faith makes people talk about the subject [of positive plus-size body images]. I think it's only a matter of time for the audiences to perceive diverse female body types in the media as a norm, and Faith will be a monumental landmark in the comic industry.
