The Gashlycrumb Tinies
By Edward Gorey

I grew up with a taste for black comedy, in part because my father had a dark sense of humor. Gorey's drawings are so detailed, and the crazy, Victorian-era, gothic-y worlds he created are fascinating. This is ostensibly an alphabet instruction book, part of the three-volume Vinegar Works, but in Gorey's world, "A is for Amy who fell down the stairs." Gorey was amazing; he rarely repeated himself, publishing his books in completely different formats, like a one-inch-square book, a pop-up book, a series of postcards that came in an envelope. His imagination seems endless to me.