Synopsis: A young woman, who doesn’t speak a word of English, shows up in Father Arthur’s church seeking refuge. Father Arthur takes her under his wing, but things soon take a turn for the worse when her pursuers show up on his doorstep. It’s not long before the padre, concerned for his kidnapped protegée’s well-being, calls on his friend Jerome Bloche. Together, they seek out the mysterious Aina and her captors, but they soon realize that not only are they up against a rather intimidating security guard, but some difficult moral questions.

Review: We have to get the rare bit of serious business out of the way up top with this one. Jerome K. Jerome Bloche is a long running series of French detective comics by Alain Dodier. The first volume came out in 1985 and there are over two dozen volumes. Europe Comics published three volumes in English but they were the then most current volumes and labeled as volumes 1-3. So, volume 1 in English, Aina, is really volume 25 in the series. There is no indication of this within the book itself or on the publisher’s website. A review of Aina over at Pipeline comics brought this to my attention. While it doesn’t affect the story too much it’s such a big numbering discrepancy that it seems worth mentioning.

Does this numbering discrepancy matter? Obviously I can’t say with certainty but I think over all it does not but, there may be smaller moments stripped of context. For example, my understanding is that early in the series (which I haven’t read as they are in French) Jerome is taking a correspondence course to become a PI then he eventually completes the course and becomes a licensed detective. This history lends greater weight to a moment in Aina where he shows his PI license and it gets an entire panel. It’s a small moment to be sure that doesn’t affect the story but I can’t help but wonder if some history or contextual or connective tissue is being stripped away.

Aina opens with a car driving down a rainy street. A young woman jumps out and runs away. The driver is ordered to go after her. He chases her through a local grocery store. The owner gets his wife to call the neighbor for help. The neighbor, Jerome K Jerome Bloche, hops on his bicycle and gets over there as quickly as possible, riding right past the heavy not even realizing. I really like this loose, fluid introduction to the story and Monsieur Hulot like introduction to the character.

When we first see Jerome answer the call the panel shows a picture of Humphry Bogart on the wall over his shoulder. The image is aspirational as Jerome himself doesn’t quite cut as sharp a figure in his rumpled raincoat.

Who is this girl? What is her story? What can Jerome and his neighborhood cohorts do to help her. Aina is a very grounded story. Structurally, it’s the kind of story where the detective is a couple steps behind until the end when a lot of information and context is provided that resolves the mystery. But that’s ok because not every case has to intersect with the halls of power and expose something massive. Sometimes just helping a girl get safe is the case.

(I don’t know if Jerome’s name is meant to reference English writer and humorist Jerome K Jerome, writer of Three Men is a Boat and other titles)

I’m curious to see what other volumes are like.

Rating: positive/recommended

Availability: digital only (Europe Comics is digital only in English translation). Kindle|digital library services like Hoopla or Comics Plus.