The Addams Family: An Evilution

The Addams Family: An Evilution by Charles Addams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Addams Family: An Evilution collects over 200 cartoons featuring the Addams Family by Charles Addams.

Like most people, I was unaware that the Addams Family started life as one panel cartoons in The New Yorker in the 1920s. I picked this up on a whim and was quite entertained.

The Addams Family: An Evilution chronicles the evolution of the various members of the Addams Family from their humble beginnings until some time in the 1960s. Fun fact: They weren't known as the Addams Family until the TV show was in development. Gomez, Morticia, and their children didn't have a last name, although Granny Frump's surname implied that Gomez was Gomez Frump.

Charles Addams conveyed a lot in his one panel cartoons, leaving some things for the reader to puzzle out. The amount of detail in some of the cartoons is astonishing. I have to think some were the work of a week or more. The humor is of a very dark vein, hilarious yet somewhat disturbing at times.

That's about all I have to say. Charles Addam's family was creepy and hilarious even in its embryonic state. 4.5 out of 5 stars.


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