About Face, Beetle Bailey (Beetle Bailey, About Face) #15 (12618)

Mort Walker's long-running military comedy strip gets another Tempo Books collection with this fifteenth volume, and the cover sets the tone perfectly: Beetle and a wide-eyed Sarge are perched in a small red rowboat teetering right at the edge of a massive waterfall, completely oblivious to — or maybe just helpless about — the drop ahead. It's the kind of cheerful, doomed situation that made Camp Swampy one of the funniest fictional bases in comics, and Walker's loose, expressive linework gives both characters all the personality they need in a single glance. A fine 1976 paperback gathering of gags for anyone who enjoys their army life absurd and their sergeants perpetually exasperated.