The Tilley Watch Online, July 25-29, 2022
An end of the week listing of New Yorker artists whose work has appeared on newyorker.com features
The Daily Cartoon: Colin Tom, Sophie Lucido Johnson, Sarah Kempa, J.A.K., Emily Flake.
Daily Shouts: Sarah Kempa (with Kathryn Kvas), Liana Finck, Ali Solomon.
Barry Blitt’s Kvetchbook: “The Queen Of England, Activated”
________________________________________________________________________
Today’s Reading…
On this not too crazy hot Saturday I decided to randomly select a bound volume of New Yorkers off the shelf and do some time traveling.
The very first issue in the volume is the one you see here — the magazine’s 12th birthday issue. So great to see Rea Irvin’s Eustace Tilley leading off! Without looking inside the issue I know there’s gold in them thar hills. The New Yorker, by 1937, had begun to hit its stride, with an abundance of great artists in their stable (not to mention editors and writers).
Looking through just this first issue in the volume (the last is May 15, 1937) the line-up is, as expected, stellar: there are two Mary Petty drawings, a Helen Hokinson, and a Barbara Shermund, a Charles Addams drawing of a fellow who has brought his goose that lays golden eggs to an appraiser (an appraiser of the eggs, not the goose). As befits a birthday issue, there’s a two page spread of drawings: Rea Irvin’s “Our Own Previews Of Hollywood Attraction.” And of course, single panel drawings by, among others, Syd Hoff, Richard Decker, Alain, Alan Dunn, Carl Rose, Richard Taylor, and Peter Arno. Surprisingly, Arno’s drawing is not a full page. I wonder if that irked him a little. We know from Thomas Kunkel’s Harold Ross biography that Arno showed more interest in drawing up full pages (because, it’s fair to say, he was paid more for full pages).
It’s not just the cartoons that catch my eye during these visits to past issues, it’s often the little things. Today it was a spot drawing by the great cartoonist and cover artist, Abe Birnbaum.
This fab drawing (shown here at a much larger size than appears in the magazine) represents a good argument for bringing back independent spots to the magazine (in today’s New Yorker, one artist handles all the spots; the spots themselves tell a story). Here, in a very small space, in one terrific drawing, is a “moment” of several stories — all of them whatever we wish to imagine.