Charles Addams

A long-time contributor of cartoons to The New Yorker magazine, Charles Addams (1912-1988) specialized in whimsically grotesque scenes, which was evidently something of a case of Drawing What He Knew.

One set of his reoccurring characters became the basis for the television series (and later movies, and even later Broadway musical) The Addams Family. Addams also drew such classic one-off cartoons as a skier somehow going around a tree on both sides at once; a moustachioed villain with a young damsel slung over his shoulder heading down into a subway, presumably to tie her to the tracks; and a Banana Peel lying on a busy city sidewalk, cordoned off by "caution" signs.


 * How Is That Even Possible?


 * Write What You Know: The Addams Family's house as it appeared in his cartoons (and later works based on them) is based on the home Addams himself lived in on Elm Street in Westfield, NJ, although another house on Dudley Avenue is believed to have contributed details.