Mutt & Jeff #60

Mutt and Jeff's long-running comedy partnership is in full mid-air form on this 1952 DC issue, with the tall, mustachioed Mutt floating down on a parachute while urgently shouting "Jeff, Jeff! Jump!" — and the top-hatted Jeff, clinging to a smoking, flame-licked yellow biplane as it sputters apart in the sky, calmly refusing because the sign below reads "Keep Off the Grass." Cover artist Sheldon Mayer wrings every drop of absurdist humor from the duo's contrasting personalities, setting up the kind of deadpan punchline that made Bud Fisher's characters enduringly funny. At ten cents, issue #60 delivers the cheerful, beautifully drawn slapstick that fans of the strip had come to love.