Drunk Stone Brilliant Dead by Rick Meyerowitz.
I have the complete run of National Lampoon on CD-Rom, and have carried scraps of certain favored pieces—“Toward a Larger English Language,” Politenessman comics–around for decades. Meyerowitz’s record of the magazine’s heyday is one of those rare volumes that transcends a “Greatest Hits” format and becomes greater than the sum of its parts. It doesn’t behave the way the magazine did—as a grab bag of shocks and pranks which someone mirrored its insane and freeing times. It stands back and reappreciates some NatLamp pieces as fine, lasting works of art. Meyerowitz simply has a good sense of timelessness. He understands how rare and wonderful the National Lampoon work environment was, and cherishes it as more than yearbook nostalgia.