Peter Smyth
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holymahogany.bsky.social
Peter Smyth
@holymahogany.bsky.social
cartoonist & cartoon historian | art history phd student @ OSU | posts are doubled at @holy_mahogany on twitter
This one (can't read the signature—making a note to locate the artist later) strikes me as stylistically unusual for a spot illustration, but maybe that's only to my modern eye
/end
August 15, 2023 at 4:17 AM
1st image: nice graphite illustration with ink used only on the central figure. 2nd: details on this butler figure are comically small (see the tiny glass) but thus hard to read. 3rd: Pekinese spots! 4th: most header illustrations are reused from 1st issue, but this one's new
August 15, 2023 at 4:17 AM
These illustrations by Ralph Barton (left) and W. Heath Robison (right) have lots of weird artifacts. The New Yorker clearly prioritized the clarity of text in the scans for their archive, leaving illustrations with subtle value gradations to suffer
August 15, 2023 at 4:16 AM
We have TWO Covarrubias illustrations this time, both great
August 15, 2023 at 4:16 AM
Bonus #2: I found an archived Time article that refers to Rea Irvin as a "comic stripper". The artists who draw comics are often uncertain whether to call themselves cartoonists, graphic novelists, etc. The obvious solution is that they call themselves "strippers"
August 14, 2023 at 2:00 AM
Bonus: I was delighted to learn that Rea Irvin, the cover artist, drew a comic strip called The Smythes (image from https://www.printmag.com/design-resources/everybody_loves_rea_irvin/)
August 14, 2023 at 1:59 AM
One last spot. It's too bad the spots usually aren't signed
August 14, 2023 at 1:58 AM
Don't love these illustrations—left is signed "Kelley" and right "Herman"(I think?)—but I do like the device of pairing thin contour lines with heavy spots of black
August 14, 2023 at 1:58 AM
Some header illustrations. I like the short hatching, like under the clouds in the "Profiles" header—looks like the way Bushmiller draws Nancy's hair
August 14, 2023 at 1:57 AM
This illustration by Ralph Barton (left) is interesting. Not sure if it's actually that dark or if the New Yorker archive's scan just isn't that good. Reminds me of some of Feininger's illustrations in German magazines, like this one (right) from the Lustige Blatter, 1904 or 1905
August 14, 2023 at 1:57 AM
To start, we've got the classic cover by Rea Irvin and an excellent portrait illustration by Miguel Covarrubias
August 14, 2023 at 1:56 AM