Nightcrawlers

Charles Addams's Nightcrawlers (1964–present, Pocket Books) is a single-issue collection of his macabre, single-panel cartoons, originally published without captions in The New Yorker. Addams's signature gothic humor—featuring his famously morbid family and other delightfully sinister characters—established the tone for generations of dark comedy. This slim volume remains a key artifact of mid-century American pop culture, preserving the artist's uniquely twisted vision in a format that made his work widely accessible.