The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cartoonists and Cartoons
Thirteen cartoons, thirteen cartoonists. No duos, that we know of. One newbie: Bruno Pieroni, who is the 14th cartoonist added to the magazine’s colosseum of artists this year, and the 179th brought in since Emma Allen took the cartoon editor’s reins in May of 2017. The longest active contributing cartoonist in the issue is Mick Stevens, whose first drawing appeared in the issue of December 17, 1979.
This week’s cartoons (in a slideshow)
This week’s Cartoon Caption Contest (Rich Sparks provides the contest drawing).
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch
In the Spring of 2017 someone at The New Yorker (you probably know who you are) decided it would be a good idea to yank Rea Irvin’s perfect Talk design (shown here) and replace it with a redrawn version (I kid you not!) executed by a contemporary illustrator. It would’ve been a fun thing, if just for a week — but it’s still there, eight years later, greeting us weekly (weakly?); a modified and even clunkier version of the redraw is in place for this centenary year. The Spill hopes Mr. Irvin’s work returns. It was perfect for 92 years. It is no less perfect now. 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.