The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
The Cover: shades of Halloween past (but it’s only September!).
More reading: April 2, 2024 New York Times piece on the NYC steam stacks.
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Twelve cartoons, twelve cartoonists. One duo (the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist). Two newbies: Lindsey Budde, and Isaiah Legette. They are the 15th and 16th cartoonists added to the magazine’s colosseum this year, and the 159th and 160th brought in since Emma Allen was appointed The New Yorker‘s cartoon editor in the Spring of 2017.
The longest active cartoonist in this issue is Victoria Roberts, who began contributing to the magazine in 1988 (the issue of September 5th ’88).
Nice to see a cartoon by the late great Sam Gross.
The Latest Cartoon Caption Contest Cartoonist: Ivan Ehlers
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
Behold Rea Irvin’s perfect Talk Of The Town design! It sat atop that page for 92 years before being yanked, in 2017, for — hold onto your hat — a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. Although 7 years have passed since that switcheroo, the Spill continues to hope that Mr. Irvin’s work will return. Read more here.
Rea Irvin’s A-Z Spill 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.