The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cartoonists & Cartoons:
Fifteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists. No newbies. No duos, that we know of. The longest active contributing cartoonist in the issue is P.C. Vey, whose first drawing appeared in the issue of November 22, 1993.
This week’s cartoons (in a slideshow).
This week’s Cartoon Caption Contest (the new captionless cartoon is by Joe Dator).
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch
(With apologies to Don McClean)… A long long time ago I can still remember how opening up The New Yorker to the Talk Of The Town made me smile. Well actually it wasn’t that long ago — eight years to be exact. That’s when, in the Spring of 2017, Rea Irvin’s perfect Talk Of The Town design (shown above) disappeared from the magazine and was replaced by — if you can believe it! — a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. The Spill continues to hope that Mr. Irvin’s work returns. 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): 179. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.