Addams Family the an Evilution

Excellent volume. An interesting history of the development of one of the most famous fictional families lavishly illustrated with glorious reproductions of Charles Addams's original black and white illustrations. There is a melancholy beauty in Addams's work that is haunting as well as grimly comic. There are surprises for anyone who thinks they know the family from the TV shows and/ or films. We find that Uncle Fester and Pugsley are much darker and gleefully malevolent characters than we thought; Morticia displays a tough love attitude, Gomez tests a psychiatrist's resolve and we get to see the original Thing. Each chapter focusses on a particular member of the family, and their development. Some fascinating insights include a draught for one cartoon featuring Lurch that shows Addams could feel that sometimes he had gone too far, and that Morticia's figure depended on the state of Addams's various marriages at the time of drawing. Even the house itself is shown to be a character in its own right. This is an essential time for Addams Family fans, lovers of macabre humour, and aficionados of comic artistry at its best. What we need now is a similar book that explores the non "Family" work of the great man: a housewife's quick thinking when giant asparagus erupts in her garden; the nanny taking a baby for a walk in a pram with bars on it; an afternoon party attendee by 500 years' worth of artists' muses; and shrigles. Never mind what shrigles are, just put them in a book like this one!

A nice collection of Charles Addams work with the added bonus of knocking peoples socks off when you tell them the first one was published in 1938. Because they were published in the New Yorker and new York times some of them are quite topical and required a paper chase (or at least a lot of Google searching) to figure out what the point was. Overall a very nice coffee table book.

There have been many collections of Chas Addams's cartoons over the years and for those of us brought up on the TV Addams Family, this one is particularly satisfying. It presents the illustrations on a character-by-character basis and gives some fascinating insights into differences between the cartoon character and the later incarnation. Gomez was originally more of a sleazeball than a suave swashbuckler, Lurch was blind in one eye and Thing (or THE Thing) was more of a 'Kilroy was here' peeping presence than a disembodied hand. And did you know that Cousin Itt only ever appeared twice in print? This is all the more fasinating when you learn how tightly Addams controlled the content of the programme - it was a genuinely evolving creative process rather than others messing about with his vision. A must for friends of 'The Family' everywhere!

As described and received in good time thanks.

I really liked this publication but would have liked a little more on the artist. It would also have been nice to tie in the TV series and movies. Of course, the humour of Charles Addams is still excellent and well worth celebrating with this book.

after watching the real addams family (60's) i bought this book and its just fantastic to see how Addams really intended his characters to be the illustrations are fun and if you love the characters and shows/movies you will love this book. It also includes notes by Charles Addams himself. It really gives you an indepth explanation of each character and how they became the iconic characters they are today! Such a timeless style and book, its something every addams family must have!

Excellent can not beat the old ones for comedy takes you back to your childhood rememebering when they were on tv

A great souvenier and history of the cartoon series however it tends to concentrate on individual members of the family rather than the family as a unit. It is rather expensive for what it is and there are better compilations of Addams Family cartoons.

The book have a hard cover and very good illustrations inside, as well as very curious old photos!

Wer Chas Addams mag, wird viel Freude an diesem Buchhaben.Auch die englischen Texte erklären sich durch die treffenden,phantastischen Zeichnungen fast von selbst.Man sollte allerdings für den Textteil das Englische beherrschen.

Justo lo que pedí

Fascinating archaeological dig into the origins of a loveable and wacky mainstay of American humour.

Happy to finally have a collection of the original Addams family. Nice book, I wish there were more cartoons in it!