Al Jaffee Meets His End #W8858

Al Jaffee's warped wit is on full display with this 1979 Signet collection, whose cover — drawn and inked by Jaffee himself — says everything: a cheerfully bug-eyed cartoon figure bent completely in half, grinning up at you from between his own legs, literally "meeting his end." The title promises "other twisted tales from the world of humor," and if this gloriously contorted little character is any indication, Jaffee delivers exactly that kind of gleeful, self-deprecating absurdity. A fine snapshot of one of comics' most playfully subversive humorists at full stretch — in every sense.