Adam is a 21-year-old youth minister in Miami preaching the importance of abstinence until marriage to packed crowds. He already has the girl he’s waiting to discover the mystery of sex with; Cassandra is currently working in the Peace Corps in Africa. Adam also looks to be on the road to bigger and better things through his preaching. The only thing that seems even slightly askew is when his cousins try to throw him a bachelor party against his wishes. Then he finds out on the news that Cassandra was beheaded by the terrorist organization Batu Balan.

What follows in the first three issues thus far is Adam’s journey from Miami Beach to Mozambique. Although the series does shed some light on certain Christian hypocrisies, it’s mainly a story about discovering who you are and what that means. What does it mean to lose the person with whom you were destined for eternity? In addition to this, the title explores parallels between the manhood rituals of Africa and the standards of manhood in America.

Cloonan draws every line to evoke an emotion and to tell a story. This series is hers as much as it is Seagle’s.

American Virgin is the kind of story that made Vertigo a great publisher of grown-up comic fiction in the first place. Issue No. 4 comes out June 14.