![]() ![]() and Philly is a town with plenty of spooky, atmospheric old buildings, as well. His first couple of years of college were at U. So this is at least a partial explanation for his Gothic sensibility. He was also fond of frequenting cemeteries. The town Addams grew up in, Westfield, New Jersey, dates to the 17th century, and it contains some large, ramshackle 19th century manses of the type he loved to draw. He was related to social reformer Jane Addams, and both the Adams Presidents (though not through his main patrilineal line, it’s a different family.) Thus I am distantly related to him, too. His visual style is very different, but his sense of humor is similarly dark, grotesque and offbeat).Īddams was from a very old American family. Kliban (whom I believe was also strongly influenced by Addams, though not in obvious way. A few years later, my best friend in high school was a pretty devoted cartoonist, and his two biggest influences happened to be Addams and B. ![]() I undoubtedly saw the 1973 animated series by Hanna-Barbera (below) before seeing any live-action iteration of the show. This was over a decade after the show’s regular run, and it wasn’t rerun in syndication where I lived. It was only after I looked through all these that I learned that there had been a TV show based on them. My best friend in elementary school had paperbacks of Addams’ one panel cartoons from The New Yorker. I had the good fortune (unusual for someone of my age) of discovering Addams in the proper order. My post on the original Addams Family TV series is among my most popular (it even got me on the BBC and has been widely shared on other websites) but it is far from the whole story of this pop culture genius. This post won’t (can’t) answer where Addams imagination came from, but the question continues to intrigue me. Addams’ comically macabre vision was so hugely influential, but where did he come from? No one but Adam (never mind Addams) is allowed to be really “original”. I am obsessed with tracing the origins of things. We both love him a lot, though the more obvious influence on my wife’s work as an illustrator is Edward Gorey.) I have had dozens of occasions to mention Addams on this blog. (It was actually our second date, but it was the first one we acknowledged to be such. My first proper date with my wife was a lecture about the life of Charles Addams (1912-88) at the Museum of the City of New York.
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