The Monday Tilley Watch Takes A Glancing Look At The Art & Artists Of The Latest Issue Of The New Yorker
The Cover: doggies looking at a biscuit
The Cartoonists:
Fifteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists (the Spill counts duos, such as this week’s combo of Sophie Lucido Johnson and Sammi Skolmoski, as one cartoonist). No newbies. No collaborations (other than Johnson/Skolmoski) that we know of.
The Cartoons:
Just for fun, I’ve IDed each of this week’s drawings by one or two key words. Five years from now, if I was trying to recall a Robert Leighton drawing about summer camps, I’d type Leighton +camp into the database, and his drawing of August 9, 2021 would pop up immediately. Or, if I just wanted to see summer camp drawings by every New Yorker cartoonist, I’d simply type in summer camp. Mr. Leighton’s would still turn up. I do this kind of cartoon search almost daily. It’s instructive, and fun, and sometimes frustrating, as I realize my key words aren’t dovetailing with the database’s. I almost always discover a drawing I’d not seen before. Trust me: exploring for cartoons can be exciting.
As I’ve already given Mr. Leighton’s drawing two key words, I’ll move onto the rest:
Adam Douglas Thompson: technology + button
Drew Dernavich: travel + airlines
Leise Hook: kids +toys
John Klossner: technology +windmill (and yes, love)
Zach Kanin: death +angel (oh alright: and information booth)
Millie von Platen: dog (maybe conversation as well, but that’s kind of asking for trouble, # of returns-wise)
Ellis Rosen: ice cream
Lars Kenseth: bug bites
Roz Chast: storefront +money
Johnson/Skolmoski: ghosts +tv
Liana Finck: sun +tomatoes
Mick Stevens: magician +rabbit
Frank Cotham: desert island
Trevor Spaulding: baseball +L.A.
The Rea Irvin Talk Masthead Watch
The above iconic design by The New Yorker‘s great Rea Irvin, was 86ed in the Spring of 2017 and replaced by — if you can believe it! — a redraw. Read about it here.
Mr. Irvin’s entry on the Spill‘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 editor, holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title. Irvin became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn succeeded Harold Ross. 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.
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A Return To a Favorite Bookstore
After way too long a time I returned yesterday morning to my favorite used bookstore, Rogers Book Barn in Hillsdale, New York (written about here on the Spill most recently in 2017).
The small parking lot was packed; the barn itself was buzzing with book lovers.
The only significant pandemic-era change was the absence of the book island that once greeted customers as they walked in the front door; a smaller bench island in the adjoining room was also gone (there have been piles of Life magazines near the bench for ages — they were moved upstairs).
Six-eight feet in from the front door is the New Yorker shelf of books: always my first stop. I found (and bought) two books that are already in the Spill library: a dust-jacketed 1st edition of Thurber Country that I just could not leave behind, and a beautiful 1st edition of Thomas Kunkel’s fab Harold Ross biography, Genius In Disguise. The Spill‘s copy of the Ross bio is falling apart at the binding from being used (consulted, bookmarked, re-read) so often. Left behind on the shelf was the paperback version of the Ross bio (have one), and a really good dust-jacketed copy of The New Yorker Album of Sports & Games (have several). Regrets: should have bought, but didn’t: an A.J. Liebling anthology.
A third purchase was a book I’d never seen before (always a thrill): a signed copy of The Publishing Experience by Cass Canfield (University Of Pennsylvania Press, 1969). This thin book (73 pages) found in the Book Barn’s “signed” section, got my attention for the reproduced letters from E.B. White and James Thurber (Mr. Canfield, who the New York Times called “a titan of publishing” signed James Thurber & E.B. White for their duo effort, Is Sex Necessary?).
Here’s the trio haul from yesterday’s Book Barn visit:
One of the pleasures of visiting the Book Barn, besides the drive through Columbia County, and the barn itself, is that one can walk out with treasures such as the trio above, and not spend more than the cost of a deli sandwich, drink, and fries. The total spent on the above books: $10.50. The Ross bio was the most expensive purchase at $4.00; the Thurber was next lowest at $3.50, and the Canfield was $3.00.
— photo of the Book Barn by Gretchen Maslin accompanied the Spill piece “Book Store on A Dirt Road,” published February 13, 2011.