The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
Note: The New Yorker‘s digital issue, usually posted at 6:00 AM, is still unavailable to subscribers at 8:00 AM, so I’m forging ahead with this look at the new issue by using a listing of the magazine’s contents, rather than seeing the Table Of Contents. If I’ve missed something, I’ll correct it once the digital issue is posted.
Update (9:15 AM. September 16, 2025): The digital issue remained unpublished for much of Monday. Highly unusual! After looking through it this morning, there are no changes to the cartoon information below with one exception:
The section, “Covers, Live!: Six Photographers Reinterpret Classic New Yorker Covers” includes covers by Rea Irvin, Barbara Shermund, Charles Saxon, Julian de Miskey, and several cover artists.
The Cartoonists and Cartoons
Fourteen cartoons, fourteen cartoonists. One duo, that we know of (the Spill considers duos as one cartoonist). No newbies. The longest active cartoonist in the issue is this cartoonist (I began contributing in 1977).
This week’s cartoons (presented in a slide show).
This week’s Cartoon Caption Contest (the captionless drawing is by Julia Suits).
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch
The New Yorker magazine has not seen Rea Irvin’s perfect Talk Of The Town design, which ran for 92 years, since May of 2017 when it was whisked away and replaced by — if you can believe it! — a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. The Spill hopes Mr. Irvin’s work returns. Read more here.
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): 179. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.