Molly was informed earlier this year that her grandfather, Rea Irvin, was to be inducted into the Eisner Fall of Fame at the Comic Con International in San Diego.
This was great news to us since her grandfather was an extraordinarily talented artist who has largely managed to fly under the cultural radar despite his influence and impact on comic art, illustration and graphic arts in general. We’re not aware of him ever receiving an award during his lifetime.
If you spent anytime reading this blog you may have heard of Rea Irvin. Molly’s grandpappy was a career long cartoonist and, most importantly, the art editor and person most responsible for setting the New Yorker’s visual aesthetics. He designed the logo, the typeface, drew the heading and oversaw the selection process for cartoons to be used in the magazine. He illustrated over a hundred covers including the very first issue featuring the fop with monocle, Eustice Tilley.
We flew down to San Diego for Molly to accept the honor for her grandfather at the Hall of Fame ceremony held on Friday, July 26th.
I am so pleased that my grandfather has received this recognition and induction to the Eisner Hall of Fame.
Throughout my lifetime it seemed he was solely known for the iconic first New Yorker magazine cover of Eustace Tilley, which has eclipsed a long and creative career of diverse, wonderful and lively art.
Rea’s life was full and varied, he travelled much of the country in his youth as an artist and actor and loved being around fellow artists such as his very good friend Rube Goldberg.
Born in San Francisco and raised in the Mission district, Rea started life needing to earn his way at the early age of 15. He bounced between newspapers from San Francisco to Honolulu, Portland and Pittsburg, drawing everything from sports cartoons, courtroom art, caricatures, magazine ads and comic strips. I believe there is a new book coming out later this year on his comic strip - The Smythes - by Lucas Adams, R. Kikuo Johnson and Dash Shaw.
Rea also drew for many different publications like Red Book, Green Book, Judge and the humor magazine Life. The covers he created for Life magazine are among my most favorite of his work.
When he left Life magazine he was approached by Harold Ross with Ross’s idea for a new literary magazine which also focused on humor.
My grandfather was skeptical but intrigued and agreed to come on board as a de facto art director, willing to teach Ross what a humor magazine was and what it could contribute to a literary magazine. He was responsible for the overall look of the New Yorker magazine including the logo, typeface, which is known as the Irvin Font, headings, the development and selection of New Yorker cartoons, as well as having control over the covers for many years. I think he rather enjoyed this as it led to his creating over 169 New Yorker covers of his own.
My grandparents had purchased an old button factory in New Town Connecticut which they renovated into a wonderful home with a pond. Artists and writers such as Peter Arno and James Thurber would come out to New Town for big weekend parties. Rea would work in his studio every morning for several hours after his daily morning swim in the pond. My mother has said that as a small child she used to go into his studio and climb on his lap when he was drawing to watch him.
Once a week my grandfather would take the train into New York for the Tuesday morning meetings at the New Yorker, and then spend time at the Player’s Club, a club intended for artist and actors, which was his home away from home.
I remember my grandfather as a genial and quietly introverted man who smoked cigars and wore bowler hats, much like the many bowler hats his characters wore in his illustrations.
That my grandfather’s work is being honored now, for the amazing, humorous, subtle and masterful artist that he was, is wonderful. It’s a great honor to be here to represent my grandfather, Rea Irvin, and accept this award for him.
Thank you.
The living creators are The living Kyle Baker, Steve Bissette, Eddie Campbell, Lucy Shelton Caswell, Roz Chast, Dan Clowes, Philippe Druillet, Phoebe Gloeckner, Junji Ito, Todd Klein, John Romita, Jr., Joe Sacco, Bill Schanes, Steve Schanes, Frank Stack and Angelo Torres.
