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
Fourteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists (Liana Finck has a Sketchpad).
This week’s cartoons (in a slideshow).
One duo, that we know of (the Spill considers duos as one cartoonist). No newbies. Always so good to see a drawing by the late great Sam Gross.
The longest active cartoonist in the issue is the fab Mick Stevens, whose first New Yorker drawing appeared in the issue of December 17, 1979.
Left: A 1989 collection of cartoons by Mick Stevens.
The Cartoon Caption Contest (E.S. Glenn provides this week’s drawing).
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch
The above perfect Talk heading, by Rea Irvin, appeared in The New Yorker for 92 years before being discarded in May of 2017 and replaced — if you can believe it — by a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. Read more here.
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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.