As we’re in the second week of a double issue period, there are no new New Yorker cartoons to look at today. The Monday Tilley Watch will return next Monday.
A friend of the Spill has alerted me to a number of New Yorker “spot” drawings posted on Ebay in recent weeks. Spot drawings are those (usually) small drawings that appear throughout each issue. In modern times, an issue’s spots are all the work of one contributor, and are part of a story. In the past the spots were from a variety of artists, and thematically unrelated.
The spots at auction are by Thomas Eastwood, a mystery to me (the Ebay seller identifies the work as appearing in the 1930s through mid-1940s). The magazine’s spot artists have not been a focus of the Spill‘s attention for a variety of reasons. The spot drawings in the early days were sometimes unsigned, or were signed using only initials. Ofttimes the artist who did sign the work had zero history online (if the spot artist was also a cartoonist, that didn’t/doesn’t apply. Case in Point: Henry Martin). There were (and are) multiple challenges to identifying many of the early spot contributors. Mr. Eastwood is an example of someone who gave us a good clean readable signature, but left no biographical trail (if someone knows anything about him, please let me know).
Now back to the Ebay Eastwood spots. Here’s a sample of what’s been posted so far (you can find them on Ebay by searching for Thomas Eastwood New Yorker). Some beautiful work!
More Reading…a sampler of other Spill pieces about spot drawings: