The Monday Tilley Watch Takes A Glancing Look At The Art & Artists Of The Latest Issue Of The New Yorker
The Cover: A beauty by Christoph Niemann. Read a short Q&A with him here.
The Cartoonists:
Fifteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists. No newbie this week.
The Cartoons: As always, a real pleasure seeing a drawing by Edward Koren (it’s on page 40), our senior contributing artist (senior in number of years contributing. His first New Yorker cartoon appeared in the issue of May 26, 1962). Who ever is in charge of cartoon placement does right by Mr. Koren’s work. Roz Chast, another senior contributor (is “veteran” a better word? Maybe. Ms. Chast’s first New Yorker cartoon appeared in the issue of July 3, 1978) has a fun take on theme bars (it’s on page 53). This is possibly my favorite recent cartoon by Ms. Chast. Her cartoon, coming out on a day when a big snow “event” is whacking the northeast, is especially well-timed.
On a personal note, while looking through the new issue this morning (the digital issue), I came across Liza Donnelly’s lasagne drawing. We’ve told people over the years (footnote: Ms. Donnelly & I are married) that we don’t see each other’s work until it’s published, and this particular drawing was no exception. Ms. Donnelly happened to be walking in my direction just as I turned to her drawing. I said, “Hey, you’re in the magazine this week.” So we looked at her drawing together. I paid her a compliment, asking as well when she sold it, and then she continued on her way.
Carolita Johnson’s very big spider cartoon (p.42) recalls her own very big dog cartoon of January 7, 2008. I confess to trying my hand at over-sized something or others in cartoons. What can I say — it’s tempting to draw whatevers much much bigger than they (hopefully) ever would be. A few other drawings that caught my eye this week: Jeremy Nguyen’s fun crying baby (which made me think of Zach Kanin’s also fun kicking baby), Ellis Rosen’s five stages of Winter (p. 17), and Matilda Borstrom’s strolling grape and raisin (p.22).
The Rea Irvin Talk Masthead Watch
The above iconic Rea Irvin design was moth-balled in the Spring of 2017 and replaced by…a redraw (gasp!). Read all about it here.