The Big Book of Freaks

Freaks
Published in 1996 and written by Gahan Wilson,^[10] the Big Book of Freaks features an introduction from stage magician-turned-film star and "scholar of the unusual" Ricky Jay, who has written a number of books on related subjects.
The book features stories on all manner of odd and interesting people, from sideshow freaks to legendary creatures, (including giants), the subjects of Tod Browning's famous film and exhibitors including P. T. Barnum.

The Big Books were published between 1994 and 2000. Just over half of them (ten out of seventeen) were written by a single author (including Doug Moench and John Wagner), with Jonathan Vankin taking over the writing of the later volumes.
A wide range of artists worked on the stories. Notably it was the first American work for Frank Quitely.^[1] Rick Geary reckons he is the only artist to contribute to all seventeen volumes.^[2] E.C. alums Joe Orlando, George Evans and Marie Severin are present as are Russ Heath and Gray Morrow. The Big Books were the last stands of masters of horror Tom Sutton and Pat Boyette. Other artists who were regular contributors to the series as a whole include Bob Fingerman, Eric Shanower, Lennie Mace, Randy DuBurke, James Romberger, Salgood Sam, Steve Leialoha, Joe Sacco and Roger Langridge.


Extract text taken from Wikipedia


More info on the books & the freaks:
Amazon
Wikipedia