Over on The New Yorker’s website there is much to dig into: cartoon slide shows from various decades, selected classic pieces, covers. Go here to see what’s going on. Note: Alas, Rea Irvin’s classic cover of the magazine’s mascot does not appear this week. Nine contemporary takes on Tilley appear instead. I took the above photo to accompany
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Auction of Interest: Swann Offers Numerous New Yorker Cartoons; Covers Calendar Noted; Video: Mankoff on Science of Humor
Swann’s upcoming auction on January 22nd is chock full of New Yorker cartoons, with work by a number of the magazine’s giants. Cartoons on the block by Steinberg, Mischa Richter, Barbara Shermund, William Steig, Richard Taylor, Edward Sorel, Victoria Roberts, Charles Addams, Helen Hokinson, Rea Irvin, and Peter Arno. Below: a beautiful early Steig included in the auction. Link here
Read moreHarold Ross & “Specific People” New Yorker Covers
I was leafing through Thomas Kunkel’s book, Letters From the Editor (the Editor: The New Yorker’s founder and first editor, Harold Ross) when I came upon the one letter in the book to Rea Irvin (Irvin was The New Yorker’s art consultant from the magazine’s inception through 1952). Written in May
Read moreRea Irvin, Beyond The New Yorker
Rea Irvin, who gave us the impossibly perfect Eustace Tilley (the top-hatted dandy on the first issue of The New Yorker, February 21, 1925) was no budding flower when Harold Ross hired him to guide the magazine’s art. Irvin was an established artist, with his cartoons and
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