The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: Ocean white with foam
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Sixteen cartoons, sixteen cartoonists (the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist. There are two duos in the issue, that we know of)). One newbie: Habiba Nabisubi, who is the 14th addition this year to the magazine’s cartoon colosseum, and the 158th addition since Emma Allen took the cartoon editor reins in 2017.
The longest active cartoonist in the issue is this cartoonist (see the Update below for more on the Olympics drawing in this issue).
This week’s Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonist: Hartley Lin
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
Way way back in 2017, Rea Irvin’s perfect Talk heading (shown directly above) was ixnayed, and replaced — if you can believe it! — by a version redrawn by a contemporary illustrator. The Spill continues to hope the real deal — Mr. Irvin’s work –will be returned. Read more.
Rea Irvin’s A-Z Entry:
Rea Irvin 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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The post below originally appeared on this site, August 27, 2019. It has been edited and updated.
Personal History: “It’s For You”
According to a quick run through of The New Yorker‘s archives, there have been at least eleven cartoons published in its history with this exact caption: “It’s for you.” The earliest belongs to Richard Taylor (it appeared in the issue of March 8, 1941). For whatever reason, the other six of the eleven are my responsibility. The first, shown at the top of this post appeared in The New Yorker issue of October 10, 1983. The next five: July 12, 2010 (clown and pie); December 3, 2012 (clown and banana peel); August 4, 2008 (fish and hook); June 24, 2019 (peacocks); August 5, 2024 (Olympic torch bearer.).
As you’ll see below, clowns appear twice, but otherwise the drawings have nothing much in common except the caption and the cartoonist.
One might think (and I’ve wondered it myself) if I’ve returned over the years to this caption because it’s been good to me. The answer is: mostly no. Obviously, I have returned to it, but not on purpose. All of these ideas came to me, as ideas always do, unexpectedly, in a great rush, and outta the blue. Will there be a seventh “It’s for you.” That’s for me not to know at the moment, and for me to find out.
