The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: Book butcher via Barry Blitt
The Cartoonists And Cartoons:
Nineteen cartoons, twenty-one cartoonists (Barry Blitt has the cover, and Emily Flake has a “Sketchpad”). One duo, that we know of. One newbie: Lawrence Lindell, who is the 4th addition to the cartoonist stadium this year and the 131st cartoonist brought in to the magazine since Emma Allen took the cartoon editor’s reins in May of 2017. The longest active cartoonist in this issue is Frank Cotham, who began contributing in 1993.
A Sidenote: this issue is the first in recent memory that does not include any of the magazine’s active cartoonists from the 1960s thru the 1980s. (Edward Koren is the magazine’s longest active cartoonist contributor, with his first New Yorker appearance in 1962).
See the issue’s cartoons here.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
Back in the Spring of 2017, Rea Irvin’s iconic Talk design (shown below) was suddenly bounced off the stage and replaced by — gasp! — a redraw. The Spill continues to hope (against hope?) that the real thing will be returned. Read more here.
Rea Irvin’s Spill 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.