The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: Subterranean Santa
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Seventeen cartoons, eighteen cartoonists (Ivan Ehlers has a “Sketchpad”). No newbies, and no duos, that we know of. The longest active cartoonist contributor in this issue is Roz Chast.
This week’s Cartoon Caption Contest cartoonist is Elisabeth McNair.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
The above perfect Rea Irvin New Yorker Talk design ran uninterrupted for 92 years before being replaced in the Spring of 2017 by — if you can believe it — a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. The Spill would so love to see Mr. Irvin’s work return for The New Yorker‘s 100th birthday issue this coming February.
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Rea Irvin’s A-Z Entry:
Rea Irvin (Self portrait above center 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.