The Monday Tilley Watch Takes A Glancing Look At The Art & Artists Of The Latest Issue Of The New Yorker
The Cover: A polar moment from John Cuneo’s unbelievably restless-pen. Link to a Q&A with him here. And be sure to check out his new book,Coping Skills: Helpful Drawings, out May 1st from Fantagraphics
The Cartoonists:
Eleven cartoons, eleven cartoonists (the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist). A newbie, Yinfan Huang, is the fourth cartoonist added to the magazine’s stable this year and the eighty-second brought in since Emma Allen became The New Yorker‘s cartoon editor in May of 2017.
The Cartoons:
A stand-out this week is Chris Weyant’s mobster/waiter drawing on page twenty-one. Besides it working on all cylinders, it’s size and placement are topnotch.
Mobster drawings have been plentiful in the magazine over time (given that the magazine is ninety-six years old, that’s a lot of time, and a lot of plenty); when they show up they’re usually gems. Here’s one from Pat Byrnes published May 12, 2008, and another from the late Michael Crawford, published November 21, 1994. But really, there are sooooo many more. Go to The New Yorker‘s Cartoon Bank site and type in “mobster”…
My one (?) excursion into that territory ran March 17, 1997:
The Rea Irvin Talk Masthead Watch:
Rea Irvin’s classic design (above) is still — still! — in mothballs. Read this for more info.
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 editor, holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title. Irvin became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn succeeded Harold Ross. 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.