— Above: from the New Yorker, December 23, 1985
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The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: Fireworks?
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Thirteen cartoons, fourteen cartoonists (Emily Flake has a “Sketchpad”). No duos, that we know of. No newbies. The longest active cartoonist contributor in this issue is Mick Stevens, whose first New Yorker cartoon appeared in the issue of December 17, 1979.
This being a double issue, the next time there’ll be new cartoons to peruse will be — oh my! — Monday, January 8th.
The Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonists: Hilary Campbell, Amy Hwang, Mike Twohy
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
Once again — alas and alark! — you won’t see Rea Irvin’s above Talk design in the new issue. The design, which ran for 92 years, was yanked in the spring of 2017 and replaced by — gasp! — a redraw. The Spill continues to hope that Mr. irvin’s work is returned. Read more here.
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.