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The World of Chas Addams
A retrospective collection of the humorous, macabre artwork of Charles Addams features black-and-white drawings and full-color covers from "The New Yorker," in a selection that spans more than fifty years in Addams' career
305 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Charles Addams
57 books229 followersThe macabre humor and Gothic settings characterized many cartoons, first apparent in the New Yorker, of known American cartoonist Charles Samuel Addams.
Chas Addams best created "The Addams Family" comic characters, adapted for a variety of media. His signature style involved single panels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...
Chas Addams best created "The Addams Family" comic characters, adapted for a variety of media. His signature style involved single panels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
October 26, 2022
Remember The Addams Family? No?! Oh-kay, on to your next review, I guess! Or, maybe you want to discover some cool cartoons from a pretty long time ago--selections from SIXTY years of his work, from 1930 through 1990, when he died!--that combine two seemingly distinct categories of descriptors: Macabre, and Humorous.
This collection is a good start in checking out Addams, if you want to have an actual paper copy of his work in your hands, as I did. Besides the Addams family, which he developed from cartoons, he also brought this wry/dry humor to everything he saw. Even Hitchcock referred to him as a “defrocked ghoul.” Very funny stuff. 300 pages of fun, one of the best. I think many of the best are silent, using the image itself to make the joke.
When he was a kid he said he had a dumbwaiter in his old house. He liked to ride in the dumbwaiter and jump out and scare the living hell out of his grandmother. That kind of kid, yeah. And he never really grew up, thank god. A model for us all.
Here Bob Mankoff talks about the humorously macabre inventor of the Addams family, but even if you don’t read the whole article, you can see some of the cartoons just for fun:
http://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/bob...
Or here, if you have a Pinterest account, some folks have posted a lot of his cartoons, especially those in The New Yorker:
https://www.pinterest.com/pixiefish3/...
This collection is a good start in checking out Addams, if you want to have an actual paper copy of his work in your hands, as I did. Besides the Addams family, which he developed from cartoons, he also brought this wry/dry humor to everything he saw. Even Hitchcock referred to him as a “defrocked ghoul.” Very funny stuff. 300 pages of fun, one of the best. I think many of the best are silent, using the image itself to make the joke.
When he was a kid he said he had a dumbwaiter in his old house. He liked to ride in the dumbwaiter and jump out and scare the living hell out of his grandmother. That kind of kid, yeah. And he never really grew up, thank god. A model for us all.
Here Bob Mankoff talks about the humorously macabre inventor of the Addams family, but even if you don’t read the whole article, you can see some of the cartoons just for fun:
http://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/bob...
Or here, if you have a Pinterest account, some folks have posted a lot of his cartoons, especially those in The New Yorker:
https://www.pinterest.com/pixiefish3/...
May 4, 2019
This is almost 400 pages of a cartoon from the sunday comics section of the paper. Each page has a picture and it may have a line underneath or not. Most of these are in black and white and about half of them are the Addams family characters. It is from his career; the 1930s to the 1970s.
Charles has a very dark sense of humor and very wicked. Some of the stuff in here is about suicide and the strange thing is, it's still pretty funny if you appreciate the darker humor. I have seen a few of these from a previous collection. Most of them are new and he likes to keep themes going in multiple frames.
The Addams Family pages look like the movies and TV show took ideas right off the page. He likes the subject of headhunters and cannibals. There is one picture with a man sitting in front of his fire with a bear skin rug under his feet and behind him is a cat in his bed with a mouse skin rug in front of him. I almost missed it. Sometimes, he uses very small details to get his joke across. This book gave me some needed laughs and I really enjoyed this little entertainment. This was fun.
Charles has a very dark sense of humor and very wicked. Some of the stuff in here is about suicide and the strange thing is, it's still pretty funny if you appreciate the darker humor. I have seen a few of these from a previous collection. Most of them are new and he likes to keep themes going in multiple frames.
The Addams Family pages look like the movies and TV show took ideas right off the page. He likes the subject of headhunters and cannibals. There is one picture with a man sitting in front of his fire with a bear skin rug under his feet and behind him is a cat in his bed with a mouse skin rug in front of him. I almost missed it. Sometimes, he uses very small details to get his joke across. This book gave me some needed laughs and I really enjoyed this little entertainment. This was fun.
June 20, 2015
I requested this from my local library. (It came on the boat from Nantucket. No limericks, please. :D) I wanted to see if these cartoons still made me laugh. I used to enjoy them when my grandparents subscribed to the New Yorker. I'd sit in a big chair at their house and just go through the old copies and read the cartoons.
This was in the 1960's, btw.
So when I learned there was a compilation of them, I had to see them again. Well, I was a little disappointed because what I thought funny at ages ten, eleven, twelve, etc., I did not find so amusing today. (Though I still think Laurel and Hardy are hysterical.) Most of these cartoons, funny and macabre as they are, did not do it for me. Which made me sort of sad.
The book is a history of the cartoons Charles Addams did for the New Yorker from the 1940's all the way up to 1989. (He died in 1991.) Some are in color; most are in black and white. There are many featuring Morticia and Gomez Addams and their family: Wednesday, Pugsley, Grandmama, and of course their servant Lurch. But I was smiling or laughing at maybe one out of five. I think many are simply not aging that well, and yes, I tried to be mindful of the time periods in which they were drawn and published.
When I was done I found I was preferring Edward Gorey, who wrote stories and drew cartoons in a similar vein.
This was in the 1960's, btw.
So when I learned there was a compilation of them, I had to see them again. Well, I was a little disappointed because what I thought funny at ages ten, eleven, twelve, etc., I did not find so amusing today. (Though I still think Laurel and Hardy are hysterical.) Most of these cartoons, funny and macabre as they are, did not do it for me. Which made me sort of sad.
The book is a history of the cartoons Charles Addams did for the New Yorker from the 1940's all the way up to 1989. (He died in 1991.) Some are in color; most are in black and white. There are many featuring Morticia and Gomez Addams and their family: Wednesday, Pugsley, Grandmama, and of course their servant Lurch. But I was smiling or laughing at maybe one out of five. I think many are simply not aging that well, and yes, I tried to be mindful of the time periods in which they were drawn and published.
When I was done I found I was preferring Edward Gorey, who wrote stories and drew cartoons in a similar vein.
December 27, 2022
This is a collection of Charles Addams cartoons from the New Yorker from 1933 until 1989 when the last cartoons were published after Charles Addams death. I've read The Addams Family: An Evilution and there are less than 20 cartoons that overlap with this volume. That adds up to a lot of one panel cartoons with Charles Addams' macabre sense of humor. Subjects range from wanting your spouse dead to deserted island gags to a couple cartoons featuring an impatient minotaur. Hilarious stuff!
March 9, 2015
I love cartoons! I loved it! FUNNY and amusing.
July 29, 2015
Having gone through most of his work in the original collections I was already familiar with all of these, seeing them in a bright, modern edition with better printing and reproduction technology and the inclusion of some color plates as well made it a worthy read.
May 11, 2018
It felt so good to laugh again
June 28, 2022
I’m not very objective: I’m a HUGE Chas Addams fan.
May 24, 2010
If you don't already know who Charles Addams is, I have no interest in knowing you. At the very least, he'll be well-remembered for being the genesis of the classic '60s TV show, The Addams Family. At most, his fans will always adore his often-macabre but always delightful sense of humour as demonstrated in more than 1,000 New Yorker strips over the course of about 50 years.
This book does not even attempt to collect all his strips, but rather presents a chronological cross-section of some of his better, or at least better-remembered, strips. Included are two colour sections and a listing of publication dates in the back. The introduction and a brief opening note from his last wife Tee Addams are the only commentary provided, and don't really offer anything more than the book with just the strips would have.
I would've gladly given this book 5 stars but for two things: I wouldn't have minded any kind of legitimate introduction presenting actual information; I would have sacrificed full page (and LARGE pages, at that) copies of the strips for smaller-but-more strips.
Until I somehow manage to track down the small stack of books he published prior to this (and his death), this collection will do just fine.
This book does not even attempt to collect all his strips, but rather presents a chronological cross-section of some of his better, or at least better-remembered, strips. Included are two colour sections and a listing of publication dates in the back. The introduction and a brief opening note from his last wife Tee Addams are the only commentary provided, and don't really offer anything more than the book with just the strips would have.
I would've gladly given this book 5 stars but for two things: I wouldn't have minded any kind of legitimate introduction presenting actual information; I would have sacrificed full page (and LARGE pages, at that) copies of the strips for smaller-but-more strips.
Until I somehow manage to track down the small stack of books he published prior to this (and his death), this collection will do just fine.
December 14, 2007
I'm not sure it's fair to say I "read" this book, as there aren't very many words in it, but I sure did like looking at the pictures. Charles Addams had and incredible wit, and sometimes I have to make my brain work in order to get his jokes. I always feel even better about myself when I struggle a while to reach some understanding and then get to say A-HA!
July 11, 2017
Addams was, of course, a masterful cartoonist and artist and it is a pleasure to see his work in this format. It's interesting how some of the art has become completely iconic, some is still entirely current and some... is at best a relic and at worst plays into (hopefully) bygone stereotypes.
November 17, 2016
4.5 stars
August 28, 2025
3.5 stars.
Loved this collection. Addams had a weird, macabre sense of humor. I like that this collection is chronological and not just the Addams Family stuff. We get to see his other work. Reminds me a lot of the comic strip Non Sequitur. Or vice versa actually since Addams was first.
Loved this collection. Addams had a weird, macabre sense of humor. I like that this collection is chronological and not just the Addams Family stuff. We get to see his other work. Reminds me a lot of the comic strip Non Sequitur. Or vice versa actually since Addams was first.
January 18, 2022
I didn't totally understand some of the cartoons and there could've been more Addams family for me, but I like the work overall. Such a dark funny dude
October 12, 2022
Terrific representation of his entire career. Not dominated by Addams Family cartoons, though there are plenty of them in there. No one hid a gag in a single panel better, and no one’s payoff was as consistently good as his.
June 3, 2025
I spent a lot of time in mall bookstores as a kid and The World of Charles Addams was one of the volumes I would just sit and read over and over again, visit after visit. Glad to have finally found a copy at a book fair last year. It's as gruesomely funny as I remember.
June 20, 2009
Da-da-da dum, (click-click)... Da-da-da dum, (click-click)...
Even that is enough for you to know who I'm talking about here, a man whose single panel gag strips appeared in the New Yorker for sixty years, Charles Addams.
Strangely enough, I had only a passing familiarity with Addams' New Yorker comics before reading this book. I had no idea how far his original comics were from the campy, kinky "Addams Family" of TV and movies. In fact the characters Morticia, Uncle Fester, Addams, the kids and cousin It were just a few of the many ghoulish, off-beat characters that populated Addams' strips. At the time, they seemed like anything but regular characters, peppered as they were throughout the panels.
But the underlying essence of the humour is the same: the gruesome, the macabre, the man who gets a knife in the back and says, "No, lower... that's the spot." Half the time, you laugh and then say, that's not funny, that's sick. But you laughed. Addams' twisted sense of humour made him a celebrity nutcase of sorts, and interviewers were always probing for the evidence. And Addams was happy to confirm the myth, as Wilfred Sheed comments in his introduction to the collection:
"Visitors to his apartment soon found themselves awash in, not to say silenced by, an embalming table here and a headsman's axe there and everywhere bats and skulls and other cheery bric-a-brac that his ghoulish fans had sent in (one shuddered to imagine what kind of fans this man attracted)."
But the man himself was a disappointment to the interviewers, who discover "Charlie's manifest sanity and profound good nature" about halfway through. His characters' good-natured morbidity hit a nerve, though, as evidenced in their longevity. Perhaps their delight in the dark side of things was the antidote to the pure and sanitized world of Disney, or, as Sheed puts it, "a Hallowe'en version of Norman Rockwell." Any concept that can move from comic strip to live-action TV show to animated TV show to live-action movie, and still have the same popularity with generation after generation has something which fascinates us.
And here in this book is where it all began. Three hundred of his best cartoons and 65 full-colour covers from the New Yorker, chosen by his widow, Tee Addams. Treat yourself to this book and some fabulous good fun travelling through The World of Chas Addams, panel after panel, whistling past the graveyard and thumbing your nose at death for awhile.
Da-da-da Dum (click-click).
Even that is enough for you to know who I'm talking about here, a man whose single panel gag strips appeared in the New Yorker for sixty years, Charles Addams.
Strangely enough, I had only a passing familiarity with Addams' New Yorker comics before reading this book. I had no idea how far his original comics were from the campy, kinky "Addams Family" of TV and movies. In fact the characters Morticia, Uncle Fester, Addams, the kids and cousin It were just a few of the many ghoulish, off-beat characters that populated Addams' strips. At the time, they seemed like anything but regular characters, peppered as they were throughout the panels.
But the underlying essence of the humour is the same: the gruesome, the macabre, the man who gets a knife in the back and says, "No, lower... that's the spot." Half the time, you laugh and then say, that's not funny, that's sick. But you laughed. Addams' twisted sense of humour made him a celebrity nutcase of sorts, and interviewers were always probing for the evidence. And Addams was happy to confirm the myth, as Wilfred Sheed comments in his introduction to the collection:
"Visitors to his apartment soon found themselves awash in, not to say silenced by, an embalming table here and a headsman's axe there and everywhere bats and skulls and other cheery bric-a-brac that his ghoulish fans had sent in (one shuddered to imagine what kind of fans this man attracted)."
But the man himself was a disappointment to the interviewers, who discover "Charlie's manifest sanity and profound good nature" about halfway through. His characters' good-natured morbidity hit a nerve, though, as evidenced in their longevity. Perhaps their delight in the dark side of things was the antidote to the pure and sanitized world of Disney, or, as Sheed puts it, "a Hallowe'en version of Norman Rockwell." Any concept that can move from comic strip to live-action TV show to animated TV show to live-action movie, and still have the same popularity with generation after generation has something which fascinates us.
And here in this book is where it all began. Three hundred of his best cartoons and 65 full-colour covers from the New Yorker, chosen by his widow, Tee Addams. Treat yourself to this book and some fabulous good fun travelling through The World of Chas Addams, panel after panel, whistling past the graveyard and thumbing your nose at death for awhile.
Da-da-da Dum (click-click).
May 15, 2015
I had certainly heard of this cartoonist for a long time but never sat down with a collection. This was a wonderful one to see. Even as old as these cartoons are, a good percentage of them seem fresh and could work today. I have little doubt that the Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson picked up his style from Addams. While not exactly the same style they both look at something mundane and put a dark twist on it.
I'll break down an example: There is a stock broker advising his client that there are signs today might not be the right time to invest "There's no cause for panic, Mrs. Munson, but, frankly, there are certain indicators that cannot be ignored". A perfectly phrased caption, and I love the use of the word "indicators"(as opposed to "signs" or "clues" or "warnings"...and cut to the window where a bunch of stock brokers are ready to jump. Not only is the joke funny but Addams does a great job of creating the visual so you don't really notice the stock brokers until after you read the caption, then look at the man saying it, then look at Mrs. Munson looking worried by what she sees out the window and only THEN do you look out the window and see what she is concerned about. As well, the shot out the window is of a bunch of skyscrapers both near AND far so it gives a great sense of EVERYwhere in the city stock brokers are ready to jump. I even liked the fact some are sitting and some are standing, to give the sense that the crash hasn't happened YET but is on its way in the near future. Also note how the opening is "don't panic but..."even this is a nice touch. Obviously she should panic but it adds to the absurdity to see him trying to downplay it despite evidence to the contrary. Lesser comedians might go right for the "It's time to panic because..." I am deconstructing it to illustrate all the little things that go into making a great sight gag. We read it in 5 seconds but there is a lot of thought and comedic instinct that went into it.
While he is best known for the Addams family (the cartoons of a family that are ghoulish - so when they do something it is the opposite of us) I found those cartoons the least inventive. And it is interesting to see a few themes repeat themselves (mazes with a minotaur in them, Edgar Alan Poe playing around with alternatives to the Raven saying "Nevermore"). But as I said I was impressed how fresh and funny and inventive so many are still today.
I'll break down an example: There is a stock broker advising his client that there are signs today might not be the right time to invest "There's no cause for panic, Mrs. Munson, but, frankly, there are certain indicators that cannot be ignored". A perfectly phrased caption, and I love the use of the word "indicators"(as opposed to "signs" or "clues" or "warnings"...and cut to the window where a bunch of stock brokers are ready to jump. Not only is the joke funny but Addams does a great job of creating the visual so you don't really notice the stock brokers until after you read the caption, then look at the man saying it, then look at Mrs. Munson looking worried by what she sees out the window and only THEN do you look out the window and see what she is concerned about. As well, the shot out the window is of a bunch of skyscrapers both near AND far so it gives a great sense of EVERYwhere in the city stock brokers are ready to jump. I even liked the fact some are sitting and some are standing, to give the sense that the crash hasn't happened YET but is on its way in the near future. Also note how the opening is "don't panic but..."even this is a nice touch. Obviously she should panic but it adds to the absurdity to see him trying to downplay it despite evidence to the contrary. Lesser comedians might go right for the "It's time to panic because..." I am deconstructing it to illustrate all the little things that go into making a great sight gag. We read it in 5 seconds but there is a lot of thought and comedic instinct that went into it.
While he is best known for the Addams family (the cartoons of a family that are ghoulish - so when they do something it is the opposite of us) I found those cartoons the least inventive. And it is interesting to see a few themes repeat themselves (mazes with a minotaur in them, Edgar Alan Poe playing around with alternatives to the Raven saying "Nevermore"). But as I said I was impressed how fresh and funny and inventive so many are still today.
June 10, 2013
I had no idea that the idea of the Addams Family came from New Yorker cartoons! Did you?
Chas Addams reminds me of the guy who did The Farside Comics but ... before that cuz these are a lot older.
Plus!! They are soooo Tom and Jerry!! I can't imagine things like this being printed today. I know there would be sooo many people griping that they are too foul. But you know what? I love it!!
A fantastic look at some great old comics! Everyone should give this a try!! Especially if you love odd things, cemeteries, witches, The Addams Family, wives wanting to kill their husbands, husbands wanting to kill their wives, people screwing up committing suicide, Noah's Arc represented as a spaceship.... there's something for everyone!!
I seriously need to own this!! I'm soo thrilled that my library had this book :)
Chas Addams reminds me of the guy who did The Farside Comics but ... before that cuz these are a lot older.
Plus!! They are soooo Tom and Jerry!! I can't imagine things like this being printed today. I know there would be sooo many people griping that they are too foul. But you know what? I love it!!
A fantastic look at some great old comics! Everyone should give this a try!! Especially if you love odd things, cemeteries, witches, The Addams Family, wives wanting to kill their husbands, husbands wanting to kill their wives, people screwing up committing suicide, Noah's Arc represented as a spaceship.... there's something for everyone!!
I seriously need to own this!! I'm soo thrilled that my library had this book :)
April 12, 2011
When you think of the Addams family you think of the 60's TV show, the 90's movies, or even the new Addams Family Musical. It would never cross your mind that these great programs were based off the cartoons of Charles Addams. He was one amazing artist. Not only were his cartoons funny, detailed, and original, this color artwork was beautiful as well. He drew off real life and his depictions were spot on.
After reading his little bio at the beginning I grew to love his work even more. I didn't realize he had such a love for morbid humor. When he was little he loved hanging out in graveyards where he first saw a mausoleum and that spawned his creativity to create the Addams family home and the dark family we all grew to love.
I was very surprised to learn beyond the outstanding Addams Family cartoons he dreamed up he made other ghoulish cartoons. Men tying to kill their wife while the wife want the husband the die at the same time, witches on broom sticks, witch doctors up to no good, people trapped on islands with no help at all, just screwball images that would give you creeps but at the same time make you laugh at how true they were.
Charles Addams imagination was real and he was not sacred to show his real feelings. I wish he was still around to create these magical images. These cartoons will never grow old. Thanks Charles for your everlasting artwork. They will be praised for eternity.
After reading his little bio at the beginning I grew to love his work even more. I didn't realize he had such a love for morbid humor. When he was little he loved hanging out in graveyards where he first saw a mausoleum and that spawned his creativity to create the Addams family home and the dark family we all grew to love.
I was very surprised to learn beyond the outstanding Addams Family cartoons he dreamed up he made other ghoulish cartoons. Men tying to kill their wife while the wife want the husband the die at the same time, witches on broom sticks, witch doctors up to no good, people trapped on islands with no help at all, just screwball images that would give you creeps but at the same time make you laugh at how true they were.
Charles Addams imagination was real and he was not sacred to show his real feelings. I wish he was still around to create these magical images. These cartoons will never grow old. Thanks Charles for your everlasting artwork. They will be praised for eternity.
October 22, 2016
How does one review a book of cartoons? Can't really talk about the plot, but there are some recurring characters. Some of Charles Addams' cartoons, for those who don't already know, were used as the basis, or inspiration, for the TV series The Addams Family. And many of those characters make their appearance in these cartoons - Morticia, Gomez, Lurch, Wednesday, Puggsley, even Grandmama - although I don't believe any of them are named herein. This collection spans Addams' career, from the '30s through his death in '88 (one of the last cartoons was published in 1990). I guess I like fairly morbid humor, and many of these cartoons got a chuckle out of me, even though some of the early ones are definitely not PC (for today's world). One of the things that most impressed me was the incredible detail in some of Addams' drawings - quite a few of the cartoons don't have captions, and I occasionally had to look it over carefully to get the joke, often "hidden" in a small detail. A nice collection with good reproductions. A fun book to sit and page through for a few minutes here and there.
November 15, 2011
Charles Addams's best cartoons are slightly disturbing, especially those about death and dismemberment. This off-kilter work is very clever and very funny. This book presents what are reported to be 300 of his best cartoons, and maybe 250 of them are—or is humor too subjective to support this statement? There are a few dozen cartoons that are brilliant. Most are merely great. Maybe 20 are merely as good as the work of everyone else.
For my taste, the book in wrongly balanced with cartoons from throughout Addams's career. The problem with this approach is that NEW YORKER editor Wallace Shawn did not like Addams best work, and so there are far fewer Addams Family and other macabre panels from the Shawn years, and that is where many of the less edgy panels cluster. That is my sole complaint with this book. What is here is nearly all great, but it could have been even greater.
For my taste, the book in wrongly balanced with cartoons from throughout Addams's career. The problem with this approach is that NEW YORKER editor Wallace Shawn did not like Addams best work, and so there are far fewer Addams Family and other macabre panels from the Shawn years, and that is where many of the less edgy panels cluster. That is my sole complaint with this book. What is here is nearly all great, but it could have been even greater.
December 28, 2015
Great, more or less chronological collection of Addams cartoons, ranging from his earliest work through to the end of his career. What's remarkable about it is how quickly he found a distinctive style (though selection might be a factor in creating that impression) and how long and successfully he maintained it. His late cartoons are as vibrant, mordant, and funny as his earlier ones. The macabre and violent of course predominate--amazing how many strips are predicated on the idea that one spouse wants to murder the other one, actually--though one almost never sees the actual moment of violence but instead the moment before (a pot of boiling oil just about to be dumped on Christmas carolers) or after. Who knew mental derangement and despair could be so funny?
May 9, 2012
I picked this here book up at my local library literally the other day and have already finished it. It is a wonderful gem of a illustrated book! I am surprised I have not read/seen more work by Charles Addams. The Addams Family is undead and kicking within the pages of these books. It is delightful to see that the quirky funny bone from 1963 is much the same as the one we're equipped with in 2012.
I have always had a soft spot for underworld lit and art, spooky things in general really, and this entire book was just a treat. The humor inside was fresh and genuinely funny. It's worth a peek!
I have always had a soft spot for underworld lit and art, spooky things in general really, and this entire book was just a treat. The humor inside was fresh and genuinely funny. It's worth a peek!
Read
October 5, 2010I found this in a pile of books I'd set aside because I wanted to refer to one of the cartoons.
Anything but comprehensive. I probably have more Addams cartoons in my own private collection, including one from 1938, and the last one, printed in the New Yorker after his death. But it collects together a fair %age, and it's worthwhile to have them all in one place.
I don't recognize the name of the man who wrote the Foreword (Wilfrid Sheed), but on re-reading the preface, I find it's the source of several things I'd heard about Addams.
Anything but comprehensive. I probably have more Addams cartoons in my own private collection, including one from 1938, and the last one, printed in the New Yorker after his death. But it collects together a fair %age, and it's worthwhile to have them all in one place.
I don't recognize the name of the man who wrote the Foreword (Wilfrid Sheed), but on re-reading the preface, I find it's the source of several things I'd heard about Addams.
January 17, 2016
A much better volume of Addams' work than the previous one I read. There were more Addams strips which were fun to read. And overall, this collection was funnier. I still don't think Addams was that great of an artist, but I enjoyed seeing the parallels between his comics, the show, and the movies so much that I didn't mind. I also liked reading about him as a person in the introduction - it wasn't so much that he was a macabre man, but that it helped create the image of gothic in his work. I can appreciate his desire for an interesting image.
October 9, 2012
I never realized that Chas Addams was the Gary Larsen of his time!! I never liked The Addams Family show, probably because as a child, I had this intense hatred of shows with laugh tracks. "Don't tell ME when to LAUGH!!" These one liner cartoons are really, really funny and morbid; I love dark humor!!! Glad to have discovered this great cartoonist.
November 5, 2013
I'm not sure what book my parents owned when I was a kid (or if they own it still) but I read a lot of those from that book as a child - so some of my "odd" sense of humor may come from that particular influence. But my sense of humor has served me well, and this book brought back many fond memories.
April 23, 2008
The Mad Daddy of goth, for my money Addams is more witty than Edward Gorey and I think his images are better, too. I have it on good authority that Pugsley and Wednesday Addams killed Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt and shrunk them into voodoo dolls. I kid you not.
December 20, 2014
Darkly funny. Reminds me of The Far Side in some ways, especially when it takes me a little while to see the incongruity. Really enjoyed to see the inspiration for the Addams Family franchise, as well as particular illustrations that were referenced in the movies. Nice.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews