The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: eerie.
Below, to the right of this week’s cover, is a New Yorker cover by Raymond Davidson, published 50 years ago this week, with an opposite point of view of Manhattan:
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Fifteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists. Three, count ’em, three(!) duos*, that we know of. No newbies. The longest active cartoonist contributor in this issue is Roz Chast, whose first drawing appeared in July of 1978.
*[More here about Collaborating Cartoonists, from a 2013 Spill post]
The Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonists: P.C.Vey, Lars Kenseth, Christopher Weyant
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
In the spring of 2017, Rea Irvin’s 92 year old perfect Talk design (shown directly above) disappeared from the magazine, only to be replaced by — gasp! — a redrawn version. At the time I thought the substitution was a temporary thing, and that Mr. Irvin’s design would of course return (it is, after all, perfect). Well…here we are seven years later, with the Irvin heading still in storage. Let’s hope we see Mr. Irvin’s design back where it belongs sooner than later. Read more here.
Rea Irvin’s A-Z Entry:
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.