American Virgin Vol. 1: Head - Softcover

Seagle, Steven T.; Cloonan, Becky

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1401210651 ISBN 13: 9781401210656

Publisher: Vertigo, 2006

Synopsis

Used. Very Good conditions. May have soft reading marks and name of the previous owner.

About this title

From 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. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Young evangelical minister Adam Chamberlain tours the country, enlisting teens in his abstinence movement and promoting his best-selling book, Save Yourself to Save Yourself. But his moral certainty begins crumbling when girlfriend Cassie, a Peace Corps worker in Africa, is violently murdered by terrorists. The horrific act sets off a spiritual crisis, since God had told Adam that Cassie was the only woman he would ever be with. Adam, accompanied by his black-sheep sister, Cyndi, flies to Africa to retrieve Cassie's body and launches a search for the murderer that further broadens the boundaries of Adam's limited worldview. American Virgin is an unusual offering for a mainstream-comics publisher. Its real-world setting, strong sociopolitical viewpoint, sexual content, and lack of genre elements make it read like an indie-comics title. Writer Seagle has tested the mainstream in such comics as It's a Bird (2004) and Sandman Mystery Theatre, however, and artist Becky Cloonan has worked on indie successes Demo (2005) and East Coast Rising (2006). Their collaboration should appeal on both sides of the mainstream-indie divide. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Vertigo
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1401210651
• ISBN 13: 9781401210656
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112