Warning: The following preview of Faithless II contains explicit sexual content.

The devil’s in the details, as they say. Of course, this idea changes somewhat when the devil himself is one of your lovers. That would mean that the devil’s is actually in you. This is just one of angles Maria Llovet and Brian Azzarello play with in Faithless, where the more sophisticated pleasures of life become things that can easily rob you of your soul.

The critically acclaimed comic is moving into its second act with Faithless II, where things appear to become more complicated now that our main character, Faith, has had a taste of pure black magic.

Faithless
BOOM Studios

The first arc of the series deals in initiation. Faith, a keen believer in magic, gets lured into a world of excesses and high social visibility via Poppy (AKA The Devil’s daughter), a woman of power that seduces Faith and reveals to her the dark mechanisms that keep the worlds of arts and fashion turning. Then comes Louis (AKA The Devil), another source of seduction that’s responsible for forcing the Faith/Poppy relationship into an erotic love triangle with various agendas vying for control.

Faithless II sees Faith’s power growing, perhaps a bit too quickly. A possible power struggle within the triangle could be looming and it all might depend on how willing Faith is to discover the innermost secrets of the story’s own brand of black magic.

Llovet and Azzarello have crafted a very unique kind of erotica with Faithless. It’s a mix of body horror and classic Satanic cinema tropes that communicate extremely well with each other, thanks in large part to Maria Llovet’s art.

Llovet’s approach to erotica relies heavily on the phantasmagorical with special attention paid to body language, something Llovet is a master of. Her art is very particular and has evolved with each passing issue (extending even to her latest book, Loud). Locations have a sense of movement to them that reminds of magical realism while characters are illustrated as walking mystery boxes hiding dangerous secrets just beneath the skin.

Azzarello’s script allows the art to breath and to do a lot of the talking. The story carries a balanced but fearless demeanor as it indulges in sex as a storytelling mechanism that shows no signs of leaving any stone unturned. Everything is explorable. On this promise alone, Faithless II looks ready to live up the expectations set by the first arc in all things sex, magic, and the devil.

BOOM Studios provided The Beat with an exclusive look at the first issue of Faithless II. The book is slated for release on April 22, 2020 on comic shops and BOOM’s webstore. The preview follows below.

Faithless II #1

Art: Maria Llovet
Script: Brian Azzarello
Variant cover: Kris Anka
Erotic variant: Tula Lotay

Faithless II Faithless II Kris Anka Maria Llovet Faithless II Faithless II Brian Azzarello