The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: Busy busy busy.
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Fifteen cartoons, sixteen cartoonists (Liana Finck has a Sketchbook). Two duos, that we know of (the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist). One newbie: Juliana Castro Varon, who is the 17th addition to the magazine’s cartoonist colosseum this year, and the 161st cartoonist brought in since Emma Allen became The New Yorker’s cartoon editor in May of 2017.
Notes:
In the lead off position this week is the late Michael Crawford, whose love for baseball turned up in many of his cartoons during his 32 year run at The New Yorker. (Mr. Crawford passed away in 2016. Read the Spill‘s Appreciation of him here).
The longest active cartoonist in the issue is this cartoonist (I began contributing to The New Yorker in 1977).
The Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonist: Mads Horwath
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
Puts your hands together for Rea Irvin’s perfect design (above). It sat atop The New Yorker‘s Talk Of The Town for 92 years(!) before being booted (in 2017) for a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. The Spill continues to hope Mr. Irvin’s work will return. Read more.
Rea Irvin’s A-Z Entry:
Rea Irvin (Self portrait above, middle, 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.