The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: cube in the city.
The Cartoonists And Cartoons:
Sixteen cartoons, sixteen cartoonists. No newbies. One duo, that we know of (the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist). The longest active cartoonist in the issue is yours truly.
The Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonists: Paul Noth, E.S. Glenn, Tim Hamilton.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
The above perfect Talk design by the late Rea Irvin was in place for 92 years before being 86ed in May of 2017 and replaced by — if you can believe it! — a redrawn version. The Spill continues to keep its fingers crossed that the real deal will be returned. Read more here.
Rea Irvin’s A-Z Entry:
Rea Irvin (pictured above. Self portrait above from Meet the Artist) Born, San Francisco, 1881; died in the Virgin Islands,1972. Irvin was the cover artist for the New Yorker’s first issue, February 21, 1925. He was the magazine’s first art and only art supervisor (some refer to him as its first art editor) holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title of art editor. Irvin then became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn officially succeeded Harold Ross in early 1952. Irvin’s last original work for the magazine was the magazine’s cover of July 12, 1958. The February 21, 1925 Eustace Tilley cover had been reproduced every year on the magazine’s anniversary until 1994, when R. Crumb’s Tilley-inspired cover appeared. Tilley has since reappeared, with other artists substituting from time-to-time. Number of New Yorker covers (not including the repeat appearances of the first cover every anniversary up to 1991): 163. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.
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Table Talk
New Yorker cartoonist, Liza Donnelly, recently asked if I’d sit with her at our kitchen table and talk shop (i.e., New Yorker cartoons and cartoonists) while her computer recorded the conversation. Just two married-to-each other cartoonists yakkin’ away, unscripted, about cartoon stuff.
So far, there’ve been three of these table talks posted on her Substack, Seeing Things. You can find them here (the most recent is “The Formula.” Scroll through her posts to find “Draw Upon Yourself” (October 14) and “Cartoon Marriage” (Sept. 21)