VAE encode/decode messing up faces

Hi, comfyui is awesome!!

I'm having a problem where any time the VAE recognizes a face, it gets distorted.
I can build a simple workflow (loadvae, vaedecode, vaeencode, previewimage) with an input image.
The output image will have a distorted face with no other distortions.
I'm not sure what to do about this. I have tried mse, ema, and anything, and they all produce the result.
Automatic1111 does not do this in img2img or inpainting, so I assume its something going on in comfy.
Windows10, latest comfy (downloaded 16MAY2023, idk where to find version number in comfy), impact and was nodes installed.
Any suggestions appreciated. Maybe there is a way to use a null VAE?

Have a great day!
-Aaron