World of Charles Addams

Whenever I waited in a doctor's office during the span of Charles Addams' career, I hoped one of his cartoons would be in the New Yorker magazine I would pick up. They incorporated humor into the creepy, the spooky, the macabre, and the just plain evil in the wittiest of ways: Addams matched the sophistication of the other cartoonists, but he was distinctive because of his dark humor. Some of the cartoons had victimless creepy humor, like the ones suggesting the existence of mice with human organization skills. But we humans, for better or worse, can be led to laugh at evil toward victims prior to the disastrous consequences, as with Addams cartoons (unfortunately, some can laugh after the consequences too). Addams' perhaps most famous cartoon had the creepy Addams family on the roof of their haunted house getting set to pour boiling oil onto Christmas carolers at their doorstep. But the cartoon that most epitomized what Addams' humor was all about had Uncle Fester displaying a wicked smile while staring at a movie screen unseen by the reader, even though all the other attendees were crying. Because readers laugh, they are agreeing with Uncle Fester rather than the viewers, just as Addams readers see humor in bland-faced husbands and wives that imagine killing each other. Keep things simple, without graphic details and explanations, and it is funny. Addams had skill as an artist, as a master of dark shadings and a punctilious drawer of details. His sketchings of humans tended to be plain, but the creepiness of the Addams Family was ingenious. The Hardcover Edition is also worth checking out for the introduction by Wilfred Sheed. Ironically, Sheed writes "Charlie's ghost ... should ... be spared the clumsy gropings of psychobiography" even as he sheds much light on the dark cartoonist, with respect to his childhood and other things.

If you're even a remotely Addams family or cartoon fan, you wouldn't have to read these reviews. Just buy it!

If you are a fan of black humor, then these cartoons are for you. This book contains many of his "Addams Family" cartoons, but there is MUCH more in there as well. A collection of classic cartoons that will have you rolling read after read!

AAAHHHHHH. Now this is an art book. Experience the dark and clever world of Charles Addams in this once-in-a-lifetime treasury of high-quality images. Finally, a masterful collection of his work. Addams' widow, Tee, should be proud of this book, which she assembled, in tribute to good ol' Charlie. God rest his soul.

Close your eyes and try to imagine what the person who came up with the Addams Family looks like. Then look at the back cover of this book and see the kindly, twinkly-eyed person who's looking back at you and wonder which part of his brain went a little bit (but wonderfully) haywire to come up with such delights as the Addams Family standing on the roof to pour hot oil over Christmas carollers below (one of the most famous Charles Addams cartoons, and with good reason). Each and every one of the several hundred cartoons in this collection is a gem, even if you have to look hard for the punch line in some of them (and if some of them are there just for the beauty of the thing), and anyone who has kept up with cartoons in the New Yorker or anywhere else will find lots of panels that will bring back a memory or two. This collection is a priceless tribute to one of the true greats of the cartooning world.