Baston 5 #[nn]

The fifth volume in the French *Baston* series, "La Ballade des Baffes," arrives with a cover that perfectly captures the series' scrappy charm — a scruffy, cigarette-dangling brawler in a flat cap and red boots stands looking a little worse for wear, with a buzzing fly circling his dazed head. Published in 1983 by Jacky Goupil éditeur through S.E.D.L.I., this digest-sized album promises the kind of rough-and-tumble humor the title ("The Ballad of the Slaps") so cheerfully announces. A fun slice of early-eighties French comics for fans of comedic action and lovably battered heroes.