Venus H. is an exclusive Paris-based call-girl service, catering to highly placed officials and wealthy businessmen. This series’ originality stems from the fact that the writer offers us not one, but many, heroines — a new one in each volume.

To kick things off, meet Anja. This young woman is the keystone in a diabolical plot to blackmail Jacques Audry, an incorruptible judge. But, in the course of seducing the handsome judge, Anja has fallen victim to an emotion that she was never supposed to feel: love. With this series, Jean Dufaux takes on a subject that’s truly challenging for the bande dessinée: talking about love.

Thanks to a gripping plot, and to cleverly written dialogue, peppered with the names of well-known painters, singers and writers, Dufaux rises marvellously to the challenge. Renaud’s drawings — here, for the first time, created directly in color — are astonishingly effective. The artist brings us right into the velvety atmosphere of Parisian cafés, and the ambience that reigns in the narrow streets and grand boulevards. Paris has never looked so tempting.