The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: the ties that bind.
The Cartoonists & Cartoons:
Sixteen cartoons, seventeen cartoonists (Barry Blitt has the cover). No duos, that we know of. One newbie: Tim Sniffen, who is the 7th addition to the cartoonist stadium this year and the 152nd cartoonist brought in to the department since Emma Allen took the cartoon editor’s reins in May of 2017.
See this week’s cartoons here.
The Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonists: Kaamran Hafeez, E.S. Glenn, Drew Panckeri.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
It’s been almost seven years to the day (day of the magazine’s issue date that is), since Rea Irvin’s perfect Talk design (above) was replaced by — gasp! — a redrawn version. It’s never too late to undo what was done, and bring back Mr. Irvin’s work.
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.