Here’s To Rea Irvin!
Above: various objets d ‘Eustace Tilly I threw together this morning, perhaps feeling a bit sentimental as 2025 draws to a close, and with it, much of the hoopla associated with The New Yorker’s 100 anniversary (technically, I suppose, the confetti isn’t swept up til February of 2026). Rea Irvin, who created the fellow we’ve come to call Eustace Tilley (Corey Ford named Eustace Tilley “Eustace Tilley”) really needs to be placed on the magazine’s Mt. Rushmore. Without Irvin, no Tilley, and without Irvin, who knows where the magazine’s cartoons would’ve headed in those earliest of years. He has been billed, in recent times, as the magazine’s first art editor, but his earliest designation was art supervisor. I think it’s a more fitting title (art guru would work as well, but it doesn’t hit my ears right).
Why was Irvin so important to the magazine? He was an accomplished artist who had formerly worked in/for various publications, eventually landing as art editor and contributing artist at (the old) Life. The other asset he brought to the fledgling New Yorker — and perhaps the most important one –was the idea that there would be no New Yorker house style. Or, if you prefer: The New Yorker house style would be no house style. He was as ready to accept Otto Soglow’s work as he was Reginald Marsh’s — graphic opposites and sensibilities. This willingness to embrace a wide variety of art and artists has always been one of the great strengths of The New Yorker. The magazine’s cartoon culture was the armature of the magazine’s earliest years; the variety widened over time, strengthening the stable.
Irvin was never really the man behind the curtain at the magazine (he contributed covers, cartoons, and headings for the various sections), but his name, to this day, remains too little known (the new documentary film celebrating the magazine’s centennial does not mention his name, and only refers to him as “a designer”). Eustace Tilley, his most famous creation, will long be the face of The New Yorker, but it’s what Irvin oversaw and inspired inside the magazine that truly deserves applause.
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Pop-Up Of Interest…Sid Harris’s New Haven Exhibit
From the New Haven Independent, December 16, 2025, “New Yorker, Playboy Cartoonist Pops Up At The Gym”
This piece on an exhibit of (the now retired) Sid Harris’s work currently on exhibit in New Haven…but only til the 27th of this month. So hurry on over!
Mr. Harris’s A-Z Entry:
Sidney Harris (above) Born, May 8, 1933. New Yorker work: May 6, 1961– . Harris is well known for his science themed cartoons, of which there are numerous collections. His website: sciencecartoonsplus.com