American Virgin, Volume 1: Head

American Virgin #1

by Steven T. Seagle, Becky Cloonan

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.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Young Adult, Comix

112 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

Steven T. Seagle is an American writer who works in the comic book, television, film, live theater, video game, and animation industries.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steven T. Seagle's very dark and very funny, dark comedy about young evangelical superstar Adam's fight to stay on the spiritual and holy path after some awful experiences. Some how Seagle manages to blend terrorism, religion, love and a world tour into a pretty good book! 7 out of 12.

2013 read

[Marissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Annoying premise, annoying characters, mediocre writing and drawing. I guess it's aimed at a younger age group than me, but it's not much of an excuse for how obnoxious it is.

[Melissa Chung · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel was so weird I don't know how to rate it. I'm giving it 2.5 stars because for some reason I needed to find out what happens at the end, but.... I just don't get it.

Adam is a 21 year old Christian virgin. He preaches to the young to save themselves until marriage. He makes them take an oath and he signs the members Pledge Card whenever he has an audience. Adam's mother and step father are evangelists, pretty much milking their charismatic son. Enjoying the cash flow that he brings in. They do not understand that Adam is 100% faithful to the cause and he will remain a virgin until Cassie his girlfriend and him get married.

One day Cassie is murdered while working for the Peace Corp in Africa. Adam feels it's necessary to travel to the village that she was last seen at, and bring her body back home. Also, while he is there he wants to seek revenge for Cassie.

With that kind of plot it's straight forward. But I'm not really into religious fiction. This graphic novel also has a bit of magical realism in it as well. This makes the graphic novel even stranger.

Like I said I'm completely confused and puzzled over this graphic novel. I would read the other volumes just to find out what happens to Adam, but I wouldn't buy them. If I can find them at the library or online for free I'll look into reading the other graphic novels in this series.

[Joanna Taylor Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

So absurd and the main character was insufferable. Finished BC it was so short.

[Kay ☾ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't even know what to tag this honestly. I read the first issue almost a decade ago and when I saw this at the discount bin at the comic shop I had to get it, mostly out of mild curiosity to see where it might go. Just like with most of the comics I buy, this ended up sitting on my shelf for years, just collecting dust, until I decided to pick it back up. And wow… it was a mess. The gritty artwork was actually pretty cool and my compliments stop there.

[Victoria Haf · Rating 1 out of 5]

Entre hoy y ayer leí los 23 comics de este título y estoy indecisa si darle dos estrellas porque estuvo lo suficientemente interesante para hacerme leerlo todo pero es que el final fue pésimo y el tema de la historia es llegar virgen al matrimonio y cuestionamientos cristianos que me sorprenden que sigan siendo preguntas reales (si dios quiere a los gays y transexuales, es pecado tener pensamientos de lujuria…)me parece bien que toque estos temas pero para mi es un poco pointless.

[Samuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unbelievable story. Terrible unredeemable characters. Trite and mean spirited towards religion and humanity. The only thing this graphic novel does well is its ability to make me hate all the characters in it. Some nice art though.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been sexy, sophisticated and exciting but is more often cliched and shallow.

[Jonathan Briggs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Youth minister Adam Chamberlain, founder of the "national virginity movement," thinks God speaks to him. Slinging trite platitudes in midair from the saddle of his BMX bike, Adam effortlessly converts the sinfully slutty. He's not selling Jesus so much as abstinence. Even though God has fixed up Adam with a totally hot girlfriend, he's going to keep it in his relaxed-fit jeans. Adam's going to wait for sex until Cassie returns from her noble Peace Corps work in Africa and they're married. And he wants the rest of the world to sign a pledge to wait along with him. Then Cassie is abducted by terrorists and beheaded. Adam, stunned and horny, his faith shaken, can't believe God allowed terrorists to wreck his wedding plans. He hops a flight to Africa to hunt down his girl's killers and recover her head. (He just wants some head. Ha, get it? Yes, that's what passes for wit in this book.) No doubt in later volumes detailing Adam's spiritual quest, he'll discover that sex is natural and fun or some other stunning revelation. Author Steven Seagle obviously watches far too much boob tube (Awwright, pun intended, I suppose). Nothing in his writing is grounded in any kind of credible, relatable reality. He bases every story element on the crappiest of garbage media. He gets his idea of Christianity from the worst excesses of televangelism mixed with Oprahfied touchy-feelies. He gets his idea of youth culture from Empty Vee. He gets his idea of an action sequence from the endlessly recycled tropes of Jerry Bruckheimer and his ilk (Try smashing a car window out with your elbow and tell me which breaks first. Oh and hey, it's our old friend the callous TV reporter who gets punched in the nose!) Seagle's storytelling partner, Becky Cloonan, gets her idea of art from Paul Pope. Her extremely unappealing work is lawsuit-level derivative. The covers by the masterful Frank Quitely (who wisely abandoned ship after three issues) serve only to emphasize the deficiencies within. His illustrations are all that elevates the book from a zero-star rating. Everything about "Virgin" screams of trying way too hard to be hip and cutting-edge, right down to the author photo with deebag chinnychinchin beard. In terms the childishly prurient-minded Seagle might appreciate: This blows.

[OmniBen · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review)
Man, Vertigo titles used to be synonymous with quality, boundary pushing mature content. But the only thing this pushes is my patience. I remember seeing this book advertised in the old Vertigo singles. The titled piqued my interest, although I knew nothing about it going in. It's lucky I didn't, because the premise for this book is god awful, pun definitely intended. If you are going to base your novel on a teen-evangelist who goes around preaching abstinence and religion, then Jesus H Christ are you going to have to work hard to make me give the teensiest of shits about them. It will come as no surprise to learn that this character was as uninteresting and insufferable as any that has ever graced a comic book. No, I'm not joking. Nothing that transpires across these 100 or so pages made me think about this twat, other than wanting to crucify him myself, just to make him shut his hole. No character in this book has any depth, and the premise, dialogue and plot are straight from a pre-pubescent, delinquent boys writing class. I'm lead to believe this is meant to be a dark comedy, although it is neither funny, nor particularly dark. It is contrived, puerile nonsense, and I want it to exorcise is memory from my mind as quickly as possible.
Some people have mentioned in their reviews that they like the art. Subjectivity aside, this is pretty shit, to be honest. Had the pencils been strong, I could see why this book may have bene published in the first place, but nothing about this book rises above the level of amateur. How this got a 20+ issue run on such a distinct label as Vertigo is completely beyond me. The only reason this isn't a 1 star review, is whilst its absolute garbage, at least its not woke garbage. Don't waste your time. 1.5/5

OmniBen.

[Fox Conlon · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a ride-or-die Becky Cloonan fan, I've been aware of this book for a long time. I saw her post about it on her now defunct DeviantArt page... I'd come across it in the library from time to time... For some reason I never picked it up.

I haven't (to my recollection) read any of Seagle's work, but the writing here is hit or miss. The pacing feels very rushed and the dialogue is rather clunky at times. The story has a good premise, but its execution isn't the best. The way it points out the absurdities of purity culture are extremely on the nose and left me rolling my eyes frequently. It could have benefited from more issues to flesh out the characters and themes and to pace out the story arc so it didn't feel like it was happening in fast-forward.

If it weren't for Cloonan's artwork, I might put it down, but I want to see it through and see if it picks up. Sometimes stories take some time to hit their stride, so I'll give it a shot.

[Vikas · Rating 4 out of 5]

We start the comic as our hero is giving a seminar on the virtue of being virgin till you get married to the one you love. And then he hear that his girlfriend has been murdered in Africa where she was doing volunteering work. And the roller coaster ride begins.

I have always loved comics, and I hope that I will always love them. Even though I grew up reading local Indian comics like Raj Comics or Diamond Comics or even Manoj Comics, now's the time to catch up on the international and classic comics and Graphic novels. I am on my quest to read as many comics as I can. I Love comics to bit, may comics never leave my side. I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and then just Keep on Reading.

[Nati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo tomé por curiosa que soy, religión y sexo es uno de los chistes que más me atraen, no podía dejar pasar la oportunidad. Pero lo que empezó por curiosidad terminó enganchandome de lo lindo. Sabía que aaalgo había con Cassie, desde el principio, el llamado y después de lo ocurrido, algo me olía, ahora quiero saber con exactitud qué. Adam, libérate de esas cosas, la vida es una y nacimos bajo el libre albedrío, decide por ti mismo y abraza la libertad.

[Schwarzer_Elch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Se centraron tanto en hacerla “divertida” que no lograron eso ni nada más. El personaje principal es insufrible y su ética bastante cuestionable. Esto último podría resultar interesante si se abordara desde la crítica, pero no llega a ese nivel, se queda tan solo en la observación superficial para hacer reír. La historia es absurda y eso no es necesariamente malo, pero no se trata de un relato sólido en absoluto. Lo terminé porque en fin, pero dudo mucho que lea las siguientes partes.

[Halik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this one was a bit meh. Aims to explore themes of religion and sexuality, with a smattering of geopolitics thrown in but fails on many levels due to a rather uninformed and juvenile approach.

[Matti]

This was a really bad comic. The writing was average at best, there was nothing intriguing about any of the characters. The protagonist was utterly unlikable and had no depth to his character. Boring and bad.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off quite good, shows some promise, but then kinda... ach, it was okay I guess. Totally not what I expected. Which is good, because I was a bit embaressed picking it up off the library shelf. (In the children's section no less...)

[Lissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been interested in reading this comic for years, even before I was really into comics, mainly because I come from a similar fundamentalist background. I remember the "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and "Wait for Me" movements that were popular when I was a young woman, which are echoed here.

And so far, the series is interesting. It's not groundbreaking and it's not exceptionally deep, but the story kept me turning the pages.

Adam Chamberlain, a young man who is a virgin and believes that everything is black-and-white (as, sadly, many fundamentalist seem to do), thinks that everything is pretty much perfect with his life, until he learns that his fiancee has been butchered in Africa, where she was doing work for the Peace Corps. And as he travels to Africa to avenge her death, along with his sister (who has "looser morals," shall we say, than Adam), he discovers that his closed view of the world is, well, immature. The story isn't just about sex; it's about growing up and realizing that your own culture and your own religion isn't the only way out there, and that maybe you're wrong.

The art is okay, although I'm not a huge fan of it.

[47Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story barely begins at this point. The main character intends to discover the truth behind the brutal murder of his fiancee, even though his faith in God and his Western views will be challenged by the South African way of life. If only the artwork helped to make this story more enjoyable. Still, might as well see where this leads.

Adam is a virgin and proud of it. His mother intends to promote his pledge to remain pure to the whole country, to make him into a simbol for the new generation to follow. There are many temptations, mostly from his own cousins, but the biggest hit comes from finding out that his girlfriend was killed while working for the peace corps in South Africa. Even though Adam's mother opposes it, he and his sister Cyndi go to Mozambique to recover Cassandra's body and find the truth behind her death.

Adam and Cyndi convince a local named Mel who is likely a mercenary to take them to where Cassie's body is kept. Adam soon discovers that Cassie was raped before being beheaded. Mel tracks down the man responsible for Cassie's death. More questions arise after he reveals that Cassie was raped by a white man first.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. I hope that future trades are a meatier, as my biggest complaint was that this first book left far too much unresolved, but I did enjoy everything else.

Cloonan's art is terrific and expressive (better when she inks herself, but Jim Rugg does a fine job), and Seagle's scripts really bring the characters to life. It's easy to caricature somebody like Adam (or even Cyndi), and Seagle doesn't do that at all. Adam's sympathetic, emotional, complex and believable. Very strong work. (Mamie could use a little depth though.)

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steven Seagle's religious/profane dramedy "American Virgin" treads a very fine line of genre: on one hand it's a seriocomic exploration of the line between faith and repression, belief and bigotry, but on the other it's a gritty hard-boiled revenge tale. The balance isn't always right in this first volume, which sometimes takes itself too seriously and sometimes doesn't take itself quite seriously enough. But the bones of a great, compelling, weird series are here to be sure.

[Sarna na Kiju · Rating 2 out of 5]

How can you immidiately go to Africa without months of vaccines and preparations for it? Ok, whatever, lol.
I really liked the artstyle. It had its hiccups, but I liked it.
I also see what they were trying to do with the story, but... With a cover like this? With a plot such as this?? Im curious what happens next, but not enough to buy next volume.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This came out in 2006 and I doubt anyone will rush to publish a 20th anniversary edition next year but what this series captures is a really specific time and type of Christian from the 90's and early 2000's and while the covers in this series lean towards titillation everybody gets a pretty fair shake.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five for art, three for story. Would love for the story to be a four. Religion in the comic sphere should be a perfect fit.

[Gustavo Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

é bem divertido, deveria ser serie na netflix

[Luis · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not poorly written, and definitely not poorly drawn. It's just not very good. Lackluster plot ultimately.

[Saint No Stopping Us · Rating 2 out of 5]

Adam Chamberlain is a virgin who preaches abstinence. He has promised himself to Cassie but when she is murdered in Africa he must travel there to find her killers.

[Krishnakumar Mohanasundaram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jolly good drama... Narrative is fast paces...

[Boy Dyl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just pick up the trade paperback. I got the first 4 for cheap to see if it’s worth it. First one is extremely corny, but has the potential to make up for it in later issues.

[Mafalda Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

What drawn me into these comics was the cover of the first issue. I've seen it a few years ago - somewhere - and it stuck in my mind.
Recently I've stumble on it again and I was curious enough to actually start reading it.

In this first volume are reunited the 1-4 issues.
The comic mainly focus on the character Adam Chamberlain, young adult Christian preacher promoting sexual abstinence until marriage. Adam is proud of his virginity and his engagement to his girlfriend Cassie, currently on a peace corps mission in Africa (near the border with Mozambique); he believes she was chosen by God to be his wife.
Adam can't wait for his girlfriend to come back from Africa, but for some reason not explained in the book, Cassie is murdered and beheaded by terrorists.I know the main focus on the book isn't about the situation in Africa, but I wish to understand why Cassie was there, and also the reason of the conflicts.
Adam, against his parents wishes, flee with his stepsister Cyndi to South Africa where he tries to find answers for Cassie's death.
Along that path they met a mercenary named Mel, who claims he can help him to find answers Adam wants and need.

I've really enjoyed reading this comics. Not just the covers are stunning, as the artwork inside. The story keep me going, there's a lot of conflicts between the characters believes and actions. There is a lot of hypocrisy in most of the characters, but to me that only make them feel more real. At the first sight things are presented to you in some way, but as you read along you found out there is more. For example the main character Adam Chamberlain is a virgin who preaches to other young people about sexual abstinence. You might think that people around him would actually think about it in the same way. But that's not so simple. His family, his dysfunction family is completely sex obsessed. From his teen brother, to his bully stepbrothers and his stepsister. His mother and stepfather in the other hand are more worried about Adam's talks in public than his feelings about his girlfriend died. They are more worried about him as a public figure, than about him as a person. Nasty couple.
My biggest issue with the whole series is the fact that the Chamberlain's are rich or at the least very wealthy, to the point that Adam's catches de air-plane in a heart beat to get to Africa. Everything seems so effort less, oh I want to got there, and I go. I know it's fiction, but it's still bothers me.