The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: A boardwalk
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Fifteen cartoons, seventeen cartoonists (Edward Steed takes care of this week’s Spot drawings, and Liana Finck has a “Sketchpad”). One duo in the issue, that we know of (the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist). No newbies. The longest active contributor in the issue is this cartoonist, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 1977.
The Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonists: Felipe Galindo, Harry Bliss, Shannon Wheeler.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
The above design by the great Rea Irvin was removed from its berth of 92 years in the Spring of 2017 and replaced by — gasp! — a redraw. The Spill hopes (against hope?) that it one day returns. Read more here.
Rea 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 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.