The Monday Tilley Watch Takes A Glancing Look At The Art & Artists Of The Latest Issue Of The New Yorker
The Cover: MLK
The Cartoonists & Cartoons:
Fourteen cartoons, fourteen cartoonists. No duos (that we know of). One newbie: Dahlia Gallin Ramirez, who is the third addition to the magazine’s cartoonist stable this year and the one hundred-and-third cartoonist brought in under cartoon editor Emma Allen’s watch, begun in May of 2017. The longest active contributor in this issue is Roz Chast, whose first drawing appeared in the magazine July 3, 1978.
Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
Alas, the above design by the late great Rea Irvin is still mothballed, replaced in May of 2017 by a — gasp! — redraw. Read all about it here.
Mr. Irvin’s A-Z Spill 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.