The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker

The Cartoonists and Cartoons

Fifteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists. No newbies. One duo, that we know of (the Spill counts duos as one cartoonist). The longest active cartoonist contributor in the issue is Roz Chast, whose first New Yorker cartoon appeared in the issue of July 3, 1978.

This week’s cartoons (in a slideshow).

The Cartoon Caption Contest (Hartley Lin provides the drawing for this week’s contest).

The Rea Irvin Talk Watch 

This week marks the 9th “anniversary” of Rea Irvin’s perfect Talk heading (above) disappearing from The New Yorker (only to be replaced — if you can believe it! — by a redrawn version courtesy of a contemporary illustrator). Using the word “anniversary” seems like a bad fit…here at the Spill it’s head shaking time. The abandonment of Mr. Irvin’s work continues to haunt. Read more here.

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Rea Irvin’s A-Z:

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 and only art supervisor (some refer to him as its first art editor) holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title of art editor. Irvin then became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn officially succeeded Harold Ross in early 1952. 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. Number of New Yorker covers (not including the repeat appearances of the first cover every anniversary up to 1991): 179. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.

Tilley Watch Online, The Week of April 27–May 1, 2026

An end of the week listing of New Yorker artists whose work has appeared on newyorker.com features

Daily Cartoon: Lynn Hsu, Enrico Pinto, (the duo of) Sophie Lucido Johnson and Sammi Skolmoski, Sarah Kempa, Hilary Campbell. See them here (in a slideshow).

Barry Blitt’s Kvetchbook: “Charles And Donald See Eye To Eye”

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Pomp And Circumstance: A slideshow of graduation cartoons (the below, from the great Warren Miller,* is just one of many in this online special feature.

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*Warren Miller’s A-Z Entry:

Warren Miller (photo by Liza Donnelly, NYC, Sept. 1997) Born 1936, Chicago, Ill. The following biographical information comes from The Phoenix Gallery site which hosted a group exhibit of NYer cartoonists work (Lorenz, Harris, Modell, and Miller) in 2007: “Warren Miller studied commercial and fine art at the American Academy of Art, Chicago. He started selling cartoons to Playboy and The New Yorker in 1961 and moved to New York City later that year. Miller’s work has also appeared in Esquire, Punch, Rolling Stone, Audubon, Harvard Business Review, Barrons, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, and the London Sunday Times. Mr. Miller is a painter and a sculptor as well. He has exhibited his work in a number of shows in the New York area and in the Midwest.” Key collections: All Thumbs (Bobbs-Merrill,1967); Prince and Mrs. Charming (Bobbs-Merril, 1970). New Yorker work: 1959 -.

baytram366 posted a photo:

12 October 1959
Scanned from a slide in my personal collection. Original photographer is unknown.

LOS ANGELES, June 6 — Prosecutors filed murder charges yesterday against the man arrested in ‌the fatal stabbing of veteran Hollywood actor James Handy, a familiar face in dozens of films and television shows for half a century and the boyfriend of the suspect’s mother.

If ‌convicted, Michael Gledhill, 44, who was jailed as a suspect on Wednesday, faces up to 26 years in prison, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

In a separate statement on Thursday, police said Gledhill was arrested after he flagged down police near the murder scene in the city’s Tarzana neighbourhood on Wednesday and told officers he was the one they were looking for.

Police said officers were dispatched in answer to a cryptic emergency-911 call from a man who told operators: “I am the son of man. I just ‌killed the man of sin.”

Responding officers found an 81-year-old man unconscious ⁠on the front lawn of his girlfriend’s ⁠home with a stab wound to the chest. He ⁠was pronounced dead shortly afterward ⁠at a nearby hospital, ⁠the Los Angeles Police Department said. Gledhill lived at his mother’s home, police said.

The victim was later identified as Handy, a prolific character actor whose ⁠movie credits included supporting roles in Brighton Beach Memoirs, Arachnophobia, Jumanji, Unbreakable and Logan.

His last big-screen appearance was playing an older bartender named Jimmy in a bar frequented by military fighter pilots in the 2022 Tom Cruise hit Top Gun: Maverick.

Handy also appeared in scores of television shows dating back to the 1970s, often portraying law ⁠enforcement characters or authority figures.

Police described the killing as an isolated incident but offered no possible motive for the slaying. Gledhill was slated to ⁠make his first court appearance yesterday, but it was not immediately known whether ⁠he had ⁠obtained legal representation.

The Handy killing marked the second high-profile celebrity stabbing death in Los Angeles in six months. In December, actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer-producer Michele Reiner, ‌were killed at their Brentwood mansion. Their younger son, Nick Reiner, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for their slayings. — Reuters

KUANTAN, June 14 — The Pahang Department of Environment (DOE) said no acid contamination had been detected in Sungai Cherating following a hydrochloric acid spill from an overturned tanker near the Cherating Bridge yesterday.

The department said the accident site was about 100 metres from the river.

Water samples taken at three locations within the surrounding mangrove area recorded a normal pH level of six.

“Meanwhile, pH monitoring using YSI equipment in Sungai Cherating recorded a reading of 9.4, indicating that no acid contamination had occurred in the river,” the DOE said in a statement today.

DOE enforcement officers were dispatched to the scene after receiving reports of the accident involving a tanker carrying hydrochloric acid at about 8.45am yesterday to assess any potential environmental impact.

Initial investigations found that the tanker, which had been transporting nearly 25 tonnes of hydrochloric acid from Pasir Gudang in Johor to Kemaman in Terengganu, had overturned.

“The Fire and Rescue Department successfully sealed the air vent at the rear of the tank to prevent a larger spill.

“An estimated 1,000 litres of the chemical was released and subsequently neutralised using soda ash, with no further leakage detected,” the statement said.

The DOE said any release of pollutants found to be in breach of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 would be thoroughly investigated, with enforcement action taken where necessary.

It added that regular monitoring would continue at the site and surrounding areas to ensure there were no delayed environmental effects and that clean-up measures were fully implemented.

                                             Arthur Getz’s Memorial Day Cover

I could be wrong about this, but I believe that this Arthur Getz cover, dated May 30, 1958, is the first Memorial Day themed New Yorker cover (I looked through every end of May issue from 1925 to 1958). The cover shows us  The Eternal Light Flagstaff located in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park, along its west side on Broadway.

The screen grab from Google’s street map shows the monument today (the base mostly obscured by a blossom tree. A few of the buildings Mr. Getz painted remain along Broadway.

Dedicated on Veteran’s Day in the mid 1920s, the monument, according to the New York Department of Records includes a:

star-shaped luminaire at the top of the pole [that] is intended to be lit at all times as an eternal tribute to those who paid the supreme sacrifice. 

More about the Eternal Light Flagstaff here, with history and photos

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Arthur Getz’s A-Z Entry:

Arthur Getz Born, Passaic, New Jersey, 1913; died, 1996. NYer work: 1938 -1988. Primarily a cover artist, he had one cartoon published: March 15, 1958. (You might say his career was a mirror image of George Price’s, who was one of the most prolific cartoonists, with over 1200 published, and one cover). According to the official Getz website, he was the most prolific of all New Yorker cover artists, having 213 appear during the fifty years he contributed to the magazine. The official Getz website, containing his biography.

Henry Cavill is among the actors who have brought numerous iconic characters to life. His run as Geralt of Rivia catapulted Netflix’s The Witcher to great heights and garnered a lot of fan appreciation. His run as the Man of Steel was short but became a source of joy for millions of fans around the world, giving us a never-before-seen brooding, dark Superman on the big screen. He even took up portraying iconic British detective Sherlock Holmes in the Millie Bobby Brown-led Enola Holmes movies, a third installment of which is due out soon.

Henry Cavill likes to stick to his lane when it comes to action movies at the moment, but whether he's playing a spy or a soldier, or a man with a suspicious mustache, he's become one of those stars who's become very happy and comfortable working under a specific director. So, you'd think that would make this film an easy win, and yet, here we are, three weeks after it opened in theaters, In the Grey is already on digital.

Aggressive U.S. foreign policy has created deep instability—not only here in Canada, but globally. From the ongoing war in Iran to a devastating four-month fuel blockade in Cuba—causing medical blackouts and sanitation crises—the global impacts are severe. This week on rabble radio, we share a clip from the most recent Off the Hill political panel on American Imperialism. This webinar took place on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 and featured Gabriel De Roche, Madelaine Drohan, Thomas Ponniah and Karl Nerenberg. To watch the entire panel, visit rabbleTV or rabble’s YouTube channel.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and now: subscribe to rabble on Patreon to hear exclusive bonus episodes of rabble radio. 

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