The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: released last week.
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Fifteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists. No duos, that we know of. One newbie: Michael Lukk Litwak, who is the 18th addition to the print magazine’s cartoon colosseum this year, and the 162nd cartoonist brought in since Emma Allen took the magazine’s cartoon editor reins in May of 2017.
The longest active cartoonist contributor in this issue — and the current longest active New Yorker cartoonist contributor — is Mort Gerberg, whose first New Yorker drawing appeared in the issue of April 10, 1965. Mr. Gerberg is 93 years old (read the Ink Spill Mort Gerberg interview here). [Edward Frascino is our senior active contributor — he’ll turn 94 this November. His first New Yorker cartoon appeared in the issue of September 4, 1965. And as long as I’m mentioning dates and numbers, you might wonder which New Yorker cartoonist had the all-time longest run. It was William Steig, who contributed for 73 years].
The Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonist: T.S. McCoy
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
The above perfect Rea Irvin design for The Talk Of The Town ran for 92 years. In May of 2017 it was replaced by — believe it or not! — a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. The Spill has been wishin’ & hopin’ ever since that Mr. Irvin’s work will return. 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): 163. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.
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Ed Steed’s Book Launch
There’s a book launch tomorrow night at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn, NY for Ed Steed’s Forces Of Nature (Drawn & Quarterly).
Mr. Steed began contributing to the magazine in 2013.