Tag: Frank Cotham

The Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue of March 23, 2020: No GOAT

News

The Cover: This week’s cover, by Christoph Niemann is right on the money. The New Yorker‘s art editor, Francoise Mouly, has a Q&A with the artist here.

Historical Note:  this is the first issue of The New Yorker  not to include a Goings On About Town section. A notice appears on this week’s Table of Contents.

A potted history of GOAT (as it’s sometimes affectionately called)

The very first issue of The New Yorker  included a “conscientious calendar of events worth while” called Goings On.  The very first Goings On was just one page, near the back of the book. Below is the heading of that first Goings On.

The Goings On heading survived up through the issue of October 31, 1925. Goings On About Town was used for the very first time in the next issue (November 7, 1925). Goings On About Town was moved to the very front of the magazine in the issue of January 23, 1926.

______________________________________________________________________________

And now back to the present…and this week’s issue.

The Cartoonists:

Once again, I’ve posted the entire listing of artists as this week’s Spots are by the fab cover artist, Marcellus Hall.

There is a newbie this week: Matilda Borgstrom, who is the third new cartoonist to enter The New Yorker‘s stable of cartoonists this year, and the fifty-sixth new cartoonist brought in under Emma Allen’s cartoon editorship, begun in the Spring of 2017.

The Cartoons:

There are, as you would expect, a number of cartoons (“Drawings”) this week reflecting directly or indirectly the times we’re in: Roz Chast’s store front sign referencing hand sanitizer and face masks, Frank Cotham’s castle cleaning crew, Liza Donnelly’s kitchen full of fermented food, Emily Flake’s monster coming out of a closet.

The remaining cartoons take us away for awhile– as we’d want them to; the variety includes a mermaid, a couple of cowboys, a typing kitty, stargazers…and more.

The Rea Irvin Talk Masthead Watch: Virus, or no virus, the watch continues. Read about Mr. Irvin’s moth-balled iconic Talk masthead here.

Here’s what we’re no longer seeing:

 

 

The Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue Of March 2, 2020

News

The Cover: As mentioned last Friday, Barry Blitt‘s Bloomberg exploding cigar cover (above) was rush-released. Here’s a short piece about the cover’s subject by magazine’s art editor, Francoise Mouly.

The Cartoonists

The Cartoons

A likely too-deep-in-the-weeds observation: I believe (someone please correct me if I’m wrong!) this is the first issue of the magazine in contemporary times composed fully of stable mates whose entry into the stable dates back no further than the early 1990s (Frank Cotham, who began contributing in 1993 is this week’s elder, with 27 years at The New Yorker). On the flip side, you might recall that the last issue of the magazine (the 95th anniversary issue) contained a drawing by Edward Koren, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 1962. A deep (cartoonist) bench remains at The New Yorker.

Here’s the rundown of this week’s cartoonists, in order of their freshman year:

Frank Cotham (1993); William Haefeli (1998); David Sipress (1998); Joe Dator (2006); Julia Suits (2006); Emily Flake (2008); Amy Hwang (2010); Liana Finck (2013); Lars Kenseth (2016); Maggie Larson (2017); Liz Montague (2019).

Two cartoons in the issue that caught my attention both feature non-humans. David Sipress‘s stand-up kitty, and Joe Dator‘s opposum/possum. Also noted: Ed Steed‘s (sort’ve Ben Shahn-esque) full page illustration for Adam Levin’s fiction piece.

The Rea Irvin Talk Masthead Watch: Read about Rea Irvin’s iconic Talk masthead,shown directly below.  Below it is the redrawn version plugged-in Spring of 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video Of Interest: Dem Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Captions New Yorker Cartoons; A Case For Pencils Spotlights Rich Sparks; Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon (And Yesterday’s)

News

Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Captions New Yorker Cartoons

Well this might be a first: a candidate for President captioning New Yorker cartoons. Mr. Yang takes a shot in this brand new video. Cartoons, in order of appearance, are by: yours truly, Frank Cotham, Ben Schwartz, Liam Walsh, Tom Cheney, and Kaamran Hafeez.

_____________________________________________________________________

A Case For Pencils Spotlights Rich Sparks

Jane Mattimoe’s fab A Case For Pencils takes a look at Rich Sparks’s tools of the trade. Read it here.

Mr. Sparks began contributing to The New Yorker in 2016. His latest book is Love and other weird things. Visit his website here.

_______________________________________________

Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon…

Kim Warp on Trump & Golf & A Pipeline. Ms. Warp began contributing to The New Yorker in 1999.  Visit her website here.

and Yesterday’s:

Drew Dernavich on politics & Star Wars. Mr. Dernavich began contributing to The New Yorker in 2002. Visit his website here.

The Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue Of November 25, 2019; Today’s Daily Cartoon & Daily Shouts Cartoonists

News

The Cover: It’s the Food Issue and it’s the Thanksgiving issue, so surprise: a turkey. You can read a Q&A with the cover artist here.

The Cartoonists:

The Cartoons… random comments on a few of the cartoons in this issue:

…Mick Stevens delivers a fab caveman drawing (it’s on page 69).  Beautiful drawing with a great caption.

…another fine drawing/caption from Bruce Eric Kaplan (p.50).

…a full page color “Sketchbook” by Kendra Allenby, as well as drawings by Amy Kurzweil and Lonnie Millsap reflect the issue’s food theme (and, for good measure, a drink drawing by Ellie Black).

…a Thanksgiving drawing by one of The New Yorker‘s Cartoon Gods, Gahan Wilson.

… a fun evergreen caption by Frank Cotham.

…I wonder how many of you will turn T.S. McCoy’s drawing (p.72) upside down.

The Rea Irvin Missing Talk Masthead Watch:

Sadly still missing from The New Yorker (but you can see it directly below). Read about it here.

___________________________________________________________________

Meet The Artist (1943): Richard Taylor

Another in a series of self portraits of New Yorker artists included in the Meet The Artist catalog published by the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in 1943.

Richard Taylor’s entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:

Richard Taylor Born in Fort William, Ontario, Sept. 18, 1902. Died in 1970. New Yorker work: 1935 -1967. Collections: The Better Taylors ( Random House, 1944, and a reprint edition by World Publishing, 1945), Richard Taylor’s Wrong Bag (Simon & Schuster, 1961). Taylor also authored Introduction to Cartooning (Watson -Guptill, 1947). From Taylor’s introduction: the “book is not intended to be a ‘course in cartooning’…instead, it attempts to outline a plan of study — something to be kept at the elbow to steer by.”

Below, the great photo of Richard Taylor from his book Introduction To Cartooning.

___________________________________________________________________________

Today’s Daily Cartoon & Daily Shouts Cartoonists

Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon: Robert Leighton on government officials. Mr. Leighton began contributing to The New Yorker in 2002. Visit his website here.

Today’s Daily Shouts: “Dating Material: Stalking Your Ex Throughout History”  by Julia Edelman & Olivia de Recat.  Ms. de Recat has been contributing to The New Yorker (print magazine) since 2018. Visit her website here. Ms. Edelman is a writer who has contributed Daily Shouts pieces illustrated by New Yorker artists.

 

The Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue Of October 28, 2019

News

The Cover: Trick or treaters in the woods courtesy of Liniers. To me, the creatures appearing in this cover seem to be above-sea-level up-in-the-trees relatives of Ed Steed’s August 26th cover’s creatures. I’m reminded of the fun fans had years ago by hunting for The Beatles faces on the cover of The Rolling Stones album, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Details from each below, with Mr. Steed’s fabulous creatures on the left and Mr. Linier’s on the right:

                                          The Cartoonists And Cartoons

A number of cartoons to mention this time around beginning with David Sipress’s alien being at the eye doctor’s office (the drawing is on page 29). It’s a clean, clear drawing with an excellent caption. The second I saw it it became my all-time favorite Sipress cartoon (applause, applause)…

…The same applause goes to Ed Steed’s dog at a typewriter (p.56). It’s a captionless drawing that excels because of words, or more specifically one word repeated twenty-two times.  As a bonus,  the drawing has been placed beautifully on the page. It too has risen in status to at least my co-all-time favorite in the Steed canon. Great drawing…

…Roz Chast’s drawing (p. 61) immediately brought to mind this hilarious scene from Jerry Lewis’s 1985 movie “Cracking Up” — Zane Busby is the waitress…

…I wonder how many New Yorker readers will be Googling “Gowanus” after looking at Paul Karasik’s drawing (p.28).  The same cartoon happily led me to thinking about this scene from Monty Python’s “Holy Grail”…

…Really enjoyed Lars Kenseth’s good humored and practical dad reassuring his son (p. 34)…

…Frank Cotham’s drawing (p.66) is another which has instantly become a favorite. It reminds me somehow of Charles Saxon’s best work (which is to say, a large percentage of Saxon’s seven hundred and twenty-five New Yorker drawings). Love the mood of the drawing plus its triumphal caption.  Applause Applause…

…Also much fun is Barbara Smaller’s  city dwellers politically flavored Halloween cartoon (p.17). Ms. Smaller sets a fab scene with details galore: the port-hole elevator door window, the number of locks on the apartment door, the taped-up paper pumpkin on the door…and let’s not forget the dandy caption.

The Rea Irvin Talk Of The Town Masthead Watch

The above heading by the great New Yorker artist Rea Irvin sat atop the New Yorker‘s Talk Of The Town for ninety-two years until being removed and replaced by a redrawn(!) version in the Spring of 2017. Here’s hoping the powers that be (or power that be) reverses the situation. Read more here.