By Steven T. Seagle, Becky Cloonan (Illustrator), Vertigo, November 2006

Collecting the first four issues of the Vertigo monthly series in a 112-page trade paperback with a Steven T. Seagle interview and sketch material from Becky Cloonan! Adam Chamberlain is a 20-year-old youth minister, a best-selling author, and most important, the head of a rabid national virginity movement. But practicing virgin or not, Adam is about to lose it when his girlfriend is killed. 

From The Publishers Weekly: Sex and spirituality wrestle in the first story line of this intriguing new comic. The eponymous Adam Chamberlain is a youth evangelist who believes God wants him to remain pure until his fiancée, Cassandra, returns from Peace Corps service. When he hears that Cassie has been raped and murdered in Africa, he sets aside his belief in forgiveness and seeks vengeance, accompanied by his worldlier stepsister and a mercenary they pick up in Pretoria.

Besides encountering cultural differences that conflict with his neat American version of Christianity, Adam also begins seeing visions of a cheerfully topless Cassie who gently questions his biblical interpretations. Many people Adam encounters want to watch him get violent—and laid—because that would justify their own shaky principles. That probably includes most readers, but so far Seagle has kept the character naïve but smart, likable and even admirable in his efforts to stay pure, whatever that means. Indie artist Cloonan's work is raw enough to fit the ugly experiences Adam must assimilate, though all her people wear the same grimace and too much mascara. Adam's development may wind up closer to Tezuka's Ode to Kirihito than Ennis's Preacher; right now, though, all possibilities are open, and that's part of the story's attraction.

Asiaing Links:

The book Official Web Page

Download Issue #1 (Pdf, 8.3MB, 27Pages)

Book Reviews on Comicpants.com:

Some of the best stories, whether in comics, TV, film, books or some other medium, are damned hard to describe. American Virgin is like that. It’s the story of a teenage celebrity at the head of a national virginity movement and what happens when everything he’s believed in is thrown into chaos. But it’s about much more than an act of violence robbing Adam Chamberlain of his perceived destiny. Seagle’s story covers themes of faith, family, violence, cultural differences, anger, vengeance and of course sex. The artwork by Becky Cloonan (with inks by Jim Rugg on some issues) has a look that is both  energetic and gritty, capturing the youth of the protagonist alongside the very adult realities he finds himself in.

American Virgin is a comic that I enjoyed in single issues, but it reads even stronger in collected format. Where the issue-by-issue story left me breathless with cliffhangers, wondering where the story would go, when the first arc is viewed all together, the potential of the book comes even more into focus. Beyond what Cassie’s death does to Adam and the shockwaves that will ripple through the rest of the family, there’s the question of Cyndi’s past, not to mention the true story of Cassie’s life in Africa, hinted at in the final, frantic phone call she exchanges with Adam in the first issue. It’s clear in reading this story that this is about much more than the quest for vengeance which has driven the first eight issues of the book so far.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of American Virgin is its lead character, a deeply Christian teenager named Adam Chamberlain. Rather than being a figurehead for the positive or negative aspects of faith, Adam is a character first and foremost, a dedicated and gentle soul with a strong will and plenty of charisma. His faith and expression of it is heartfelt and much less judgmental than much of what passes for Christianity in the modern political arena, and he’s both a believable representative of faith and a believable character. Adam holds himself to a higher standard, but he doesn’t always meet those standards, and it’s interesting to see him struggling with his faith when its challenged by events both large (what happens to Cassie) and small (a forced bachelor party). Read More.

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