TheAddams Family an Evilution
1 TThehe FamilyFamily
Gomez and Pugsley are enthusiastic. Morticia is even in disposition, muted, witty, sometimes deadly. Grandma Frump is foolishly good-natured. Wednesday is her mother’s daughter. A closely knit family, the real head being Morticia—although each of the others is a definite character—except for Grandma, who is easily led. Many of the troubles they have as a family are due to Grandma’s fumbling, weak character. The house is a wreck, of course, but this is a house-proud family just the same and every trap door is in good repair. Money is no problem.
Strong family values are evident throughout Charles Addams’s depictions of the family from the dark side. They hang together; they feel secure with one another; they have rules and morals that keep the family unit intact. Sure, the logs they burn in their fireplace are carved to look like men; they moonbathe instead of sunbathe; they prefer gazing at the sweeping vista of a cemetery rather than sunlit rolling hills; they take their outings in Central Park in the dead of night. The point is, they do these things together. They might be scary, weird, creepy, and macabre, but The Addams Family is our secret envy. If only our family dinners could be so much fun!
2 3 “Well, he certainly doesn’t take after my side of the family.”
4 5 “It’s the children, darling, back from camp.”
6 “You forgot the eye of newt.”
7 The “evilution” of Charles Addams’s singularly eccentric family began long before the television and film interpretations made them icons of American popular culture. Addams first created Morticia, Lurch, and The Thing in a cartoon published in a 1938 issue of the New Yorker—though he hadn’t named them at the time, or even conceived of a family unit. (When he did name the deadly matriarch, he was inspired by the Yellow Pages listing for “Morticians.”) Other charac- ters were born and developed in a multitude of Addams’s cartoons over the next twenty-six years, before the cheerfully creepy clan debuted on ABC television in 1964 and later on the big screen, in 1991 and 1993. The Addams Family: An Evilution is the first book to trace The Addams Family history, presenting more than 200 cartoons created by Charles Addams (American, 1912–1988) throughout his prolific career; many have never been published before. Text by H. Kevin Miserocchi, director of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, offers a revealing chronology of each character’s evolution (for instance, did you know that Addams originally named Pugsley “Pubert”?), while Addams’s own incisive character descriptions, originally penned for the benefit of the television show producers, introduce each chapter. As the presence of the Family continues to permeate generation after generation, and in celebration of the Broadway musical opening in 2010, this book reminds us where these oddly lovable characters came from and, in doing so, offers a lasting tribute to one of America’s greatest humorists. A phenomenon of rare proportion, The Addams Family is the manifestation of one artist’s 224 pages, 8 x 10 inches dark but irresistible wit, expressed with an uncommonly deft hand. Smyth-sewn casebound, with jacket More than 200 cartoons (approximately 50 are published here for the first time), many in color 10 chapters explore each Addams Family character, as well as—their mansion a “house to die for” Pomegranate Communications, Inc. Box 808022, Petaluma CA 94975 Copyright © 2010 by Tee and Charles Addams 800 227 1428 / 707 782 9000 Foundation. All rights reserved. www.pomegranate.com
$39.95 US ($47.95 Canada) Pomegranate Europe Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7649-5388-0 Unit 1, Heathcote Business Centre, Hurlbutt Road Catalog No. A180 Warwick, Warwickshire CV34 6TD, UK Available March 2010 [+44] 0 1926 430111 Printed in China [email protected]