Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue Of December 25, 2023

The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker

The Cover: above and below (?) from the cartoonist, Ed Steed.

The Cartoonists And Cartoons:

It’s the 3rd “Cartoons & Puzzles Issue,” with numerous pages of the magazine devoted to multi-panel strips.

But first, the Spill‘s primary focus: the single panel cartoons. There are fifteen of them in the issue. There’s one cartoon (that we know of) by a duo; the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist. There’s one newbie: Benjamin Slyngstad, who is the 19th addition to the cartoon stadium this year, and the 145th cartoonist brought in since Emma Allen took the Cartoon Editor’s reins in 2017. The longest active cartoonist contributor in this issue is Mort Gerberg, who began contributing in 1965 (the issue of April 10th).

Now on to the comics. I’ll list the cartoonist contributors as they are grouped in the issue’s Table Of Contents (I’m not listing the folks in these sections who have not appeared in the magazine as single-panel cartoonists…as always, there’s one exception).

Puzzles & Games Dept.: Suerynn Lee appears with the magazine’s Puzzles Editor, Liz Maynes-Aminzade)

Comics: Roz Chast, Emily Flake, Zoe Si, Ngozi Ukazu, Ali Fitzgerald, Julia Wertz.

Showcase: Liana Finck.

This week’s cartoons.

The Rea Irvin Talk Watch

The cartoon-centric special issues sometimes playfully mess around with the Talk Of The Town design. This issue has a puzzle-inspired version by a non-New Yorker cartoonist, Joao Fazenda:

Here’s Rea Irvin’s Talk design, which stood in place for 92 years:

Ordinarily, on Mondays, the Spill laments the 86ing of Mr. Irvin’s design. You might recall it was replaced in the Spring of 2017 by — if you can believe it! — a redraw (read more here). Wouldn’t it be the perfect time, beginning with next week’s issue (January 1, 2024) to bring back Mr. Irvin’s iconic design, and let the redraw go on a forever vacation.

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.