The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
This is the third special issue celebrating The New Yorker‘s 100th birthday (one more to go!). See more on the anniversary here.
Cover Talk: Rea Irvin’s iconic Eustace Tilley cover returns, but you have to go inside the magazine to see it.
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Nineteen cartoons, twenty cartoonists (Suerynn Lee is a Spot contributor in the issue). No newbies, two duos, that we know of (the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist). The longest active cartoonist contributor in the issue is this cartoonist.
This week’s cartoons (in a slideshow)
The Cartoon Caption Contest (Juan Astasio supplied this week’s drawing).
Of Note: Cover artist Chris Ware contributes a piece on the late great Mary Petty.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
One thing you won’t see in this celebratory issue is the above perfect Rea Irvin Talk Of The Town design. After running for 92 years, it was given the old heave-ho in May of 2017 and replaced — if you can believe it! — by a contemporary illustrator’s redrawn version. The Spill hopes Mr. Irvin’s work returns. Read more here.
Rea Irvin’s A-Z:
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): 179. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.