The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: Basketball Is Big. A Spill fave New Yorker artist, John Cuneo, channels Gulliver’s Travels.
From the magazine’s Contributors page:
John Cuneo has contributed to the magazine since 1994. An exhibition of his drawings is on display at Manjari & Partners Gallery, in Paris, starting December 5th.
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Fourteen cartoons, sixteen cartoonists (John Cuneo has the cover, and Dahlia Gallin Ramirez has a Sketchbook). No duos, that we know of. One newbie: Thomas Wykes, who is the 22nd addition to the magazine’s cartoonist colosseum this year, and the 165th addition since Emma Allen took The New Yorker‘s cartoon editor’s reins in May of 2017. The longest active cartoonist in this issue is Roz Chast, whose first New Yorker drawing appeared in July of 1978.
This week’s Caption Contest Cartoonist: Liam Francis Walsh
This week’s cartoon caption contest.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
It was “only” seven years and a few months ago that someone at the home office thought it a good idea to replace Rea Irvin’s perfect Talk design (shown above) with a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. The Spill has been tapping its foot ever since, patiently waiting for the real deal — Mr. Irvin’s work — to return. Hey, anything’s possible. Read more.
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.