The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: stairway to candy.
The Cartoonists And Cartoons:
Fourteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists (Zoe Si has a “Sketchpad”). No duos, that we know of. One newbie: Ollie Wooton, who is the 14th cartoonist added to the magazine’s arena* of cartoonists, and the 140th cartoonist brought in under cartoon editor Emma Allen, who took the editorship reins in May of 2017. The longest active contributor in this issue is P.C. Vey whose first New Yorker cartoon appeared in 1993. Visit his website here.
Link here to this week’s cartoons.
The Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonists: Tom Toro, Kit Fraser, Dan Misdea.
Link here to this week’s contest.
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
In the Spring of 2017 the above design by Rea Irvin disappeared from its 92 year old perch in The New Yorker, only to be replaced –if you can believe it — by a redrawn version. The Spill continues to hope that Mr. Irvin’s work will be returned. Read more here.
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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.
*When referring to The New Yorker‘s collective pool of cartoonists, the Spill has long used “stadium” instead of “stable” reflecting the large number of cartoonists now contributing to the magazine (140 added since 2017 on top of the existing number). Stadium, of course, implies a larger number than “stable.” — the commonly used descriptive. Beginning this week, “stadium” becomes “arena.”
Also: a Spill reader wrote in a few weeks back saying he missed the Spill Applause icon, and politely asked for it to return. And so David Fay, for being such a faithful Spill reader, here’s the Applause icon, just for you.