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March 29, 2024, 08:46:40 AM

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Charles Addams

Started by manticore, April 15, 2017, 11:57:41 PM

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Mr_Simnock

Very interesting cartoons, great thread, good job this wasn't put in HS art and buried under piles of whimsy shit.

Ambient Sheep

I remember an introduction to one of Don Martin's books (would have been either Don Martin Steps Out or The Adventures of Captain Klutz) in which the then-editor of Mad Magazine wrote about how, when they were recruiting new cartoonists...

...well actually I started to type it from memory, then I decided to google what I remembered instead, and bingo!

http://www.madcoversite.com/madpb-mad%27s_don_martin_steps_out.html

Quote"Nineteen years ago, a shy unassuming talented artist walked into the MAD offices with a collection of the funniest, the cleverest, the most absurd cartoons we had ever seen. When we gathered around to look them over, we literally rolled on the floor laughing. The cartoonist's name was Charles Addams.

Unfortunately, we couldn't afford Charles Addams, so we hired the next guy to walk in after him... a virtually unknown cartoonist named Don Martin.

The rest is history..."

(It now occurs to me that that tale might just be sheer comedic invention, but I do hope not.)

Skip Bittman

Quote
(It now occurs to me that that tale might just be sheer comedic invention, but I do hope not.)

Yeah, it's a joke. Addams was doing incredibly well by 1956. He'd have been doing stuff for The New Yorker for over two decades by that point plus a syndicated strip, too. Shy and unassuming, he wasn't.

I found an old hardcover of his "Dear Dead Days" collection in a used bookstore as a child. It was a pretty strange collection of Victorian oddities, freaks, newspaper snippets, and weirdness. My mother assumed it had something to do with the sitcom and bought it for me without inspecting the contents. Thanks for making my childhood a touch more morbid, Charles Addams!





Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Skip Bittman on April 17, 2017, 05:47:10 AM
Yeah, it's a joke. Addams was doing incredibly well by 1956. He'd have been doing stuff for The New Yorker for over two decades by that point plus a syndicated strip, too. Shy and unassuming, he wasn't.

1962 - 19 = 1943...

Ah... but MAD didn't start until 1952, and Al Feldstein wasn't editor until 1956.  Gotcha.

Ach, there goes another little bit of childhood folklore.  Damnit.

Steven

Got annoyed last week during the pub quiz as the quizmaster asked "What cartoon family which originally appeared in the New Yorker live at 0001 Cemetary Lane?" I obviously thought he meant the Addams family but knew they weren't originally a cartoon so didn't put that down, they were turned into a cartoon in the 90s but that's besides the point. Turns out I was right, they did appear as cartoons in the New Yorker, but as seperate characters, it wasn't until the live action TV show were they put together to become The Addams Family. Tch!







Glebe

Fantastic stuff... and, er, any tenuous excuse to post a gif of Carolyn Jones:


ASFTSN

Brilliant stuff. He must have been a huge influence on the great Gahan Wilson.


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Brundle-Fly

Addams' humour hasn't really dated at all. Excellent stuff Manticore.

I wonder who his muse is here? I like the fact her image seems so unaffected. A 21st century Goth girl sitting there today would have such a studied look.




manticore

I love the expression on the man's face.



ASFTSN

I'll only post one Gahan Wilson so as not to derail this excellent thread, just so people can see the influence - particularly of tone, but also a bit style-wise.



I've always toyed with doing some cartoons like this, not sure I'm witty enough for the actual jokes though.