The Monday Tilley Watch Takes A Glancing Look At Some Of The Art & Artists Of The Latest Issue Of The New Yorker
The Cover: Thinking Spring.
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Thirteen cartoons, thirteen cartoonists. No duos, that we know of. No newbies. One meta drawing (by Liana Finck). The longest active contributor in this issue is Mick Stevens whose first New Yorker cartoon appeared in the issue of December 17th 1979. Here’s Mr. Steven’s entry on the Spill’s A-Z:
Mick Stevens Born March 11, 1942, Portland, Oregon. New Yorker work: December 17, 1979- . Key collections: If Ducks Carried Guns (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1988), A Mystery, Wrapped in an Enigma, Served on a Bed of Lettuce (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1989), Things Not to Do Today (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1989). Website: mickstevens.com
Every once in a while a newly published cartoon detours me to thinking about work by another cartoonist — often one from the magazine’s earlier days. Not that the newer work is too close to the older — usually it’s a fraction of one style that recalls another. This latest issue caused me to take two quick detours.
The very first cartoon in the new issue is by Meredith Southard (who began contributing to The New Yorker in 2021). It made me think of J.B. “Bud” Handelsman, (he contributed nearly a thousand cartoons to The New Yorker, from 1961–2007). Below, on the left, is a Handelsman New Yorker drawing from the issue of June 14, 1982, shown alongside the brand new cartoon from Meredith Southard. Looking at them side-by-side, I see what made my brain bring these two cartoonist’s styles together. Handelsman’s figures were very well defined, outlined I guess you could say, with a good amount of detail. They weren’t in danger of blending into their surroundings (or setting). The same goes for Meredith Southard’s figures here.
By the way, I’m not considering, or comparing the captions in either’s work — this is purely a fun (I hope it’s fun — or at least mildly interesting) little exercise in thinking of styles as apples from alike orchards.
The other drawing in the new issue that brought another style (and, in this case, setting) to mind is Sara Lautman’s, shown below left. The drawing on the right is by the late Joseph Mirachi (it appeared in The New Yorker, March 27, 1978). Of Mirachi’s 553 New Yorker drawings, just about 10% somehow involved an automobile. If my memory is correct, he was thought of as a “car guy” in the cartoon community. Lautman’s and Mirachi’s style are definitely not in the same stylistic school as Handelsman.
I should add here, that the situation of a mechanic looking under the hood has been used by a number of cartoonists (including myself). Lars Kenseth did this one just a few years ago. Two other cartoonists come to mind who did under the hood work: George Booth, and Edward Koren, who put his New Yorker classic (published September 20, 1976), shown directly below, on the cover of one of his collections:
The 1980 Koren collection:
See all the cartoons in this week’s issue here.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
If you look at the “Monday Tilley Watch” on any kind of regular or irregular basis, you know that this section is devoted to hoping that Rea Irvin’s perfect design (shown directly above) for The Talk Of The Town is returned someday (it was whisked away in the Spring of 2017).