First And Last New Yorker Cartoon…Gilbert Wilkinson
Here’s a cartoonist whose entire time at The New Yorker was spent in the magazine’s infancy: eight drawings in five months, from April 4, 1925 through August 29, 1925. Unlike last week’s First and Last subject (James Mulligan) whose biography remains a mystery despite his three decades at The New Yorker, there is much online about Mr. Wilkinson, courtesy of the terrif British Cartoon Archive.
Here then is Mr. Wilkinson’s very first New Yorker drawing from the issue of April 4, 1925. Not a he/she drawing, but a he/he –not hee hee — drawing:
…and here’s Mr. Wilkinson’s eighth and last New Yorker drawing, from the issue of August 29, 1925:
A sidebar though here about the months Mr. Wilkinson’s work appeared. It’s interesting (to me anyway) that these months were significant in The New Yorker‘s first year. By April of ’25 the magazine was failing. In a meeting on May 8th 1925 to decide The New Yorker‘s fate, Raoul Fleishmann, The New Yorker‘s financial backer, decided to pull the plug. But for a lull in traffic, and an overheard remark, the magazine wouldn’t have survived its first year.
With Fleischmann’s reverse decision in that month of May, the magazine went on, focusing on the Fall to reignite interest. Wilkinson’s cartoons came in when times were tough at The New Yorker, and then ceased to appear just before the Fall 1925 push, followed by the magazine’s lift-off to success. But as you see by the British Cartoon Archive’s entry, he had a great career outside of The New Yorker.
Not only do we have a decent amount of biographical information about Wilkinson, there is also a video profile!
Here’s Wilkinson in 1938, courtesy of British Pathe: “Mr. Wilkinson Artist”