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Eustace Tilley

Eustace Tilley is a caricature that appeared on the cover of the first issue of The New Yorker in 1925 and has appeared on the cover in various forms of every anniversary issue of the magazine except 2017. He was not initially named, but acquired the name from Corey Ford in subsequent issues as part of a fictional magazine history backstory included to fill the early issues of the magazine. The original cover, showing Tilley examining a butterfly through his monocle, was drawn by Rea Irvin, but a younger and more modern-looking version of him as drawn by Johan Bull in subsequent months appeared throughout the magazine in its early years. This later version was given the name Tilley and subsequently the original cover was also declared to be Tilley. Because of the cover's prominence, almost all of the references to Tilley in the press discuss the Irvin version.

Irvin drew three versions of the masthead artwork that featured Tilley in 1925 and 1926. Irvin's third version from 1926 was not updated or revamped until the May 22, 2017, issue with artwork by Christoph Niemann. In 2023, Niemann drew a robot named Till-E for the magazine.


Until 1994, the original cover artwork was reproduced for the annual anniversary edition, but, since then, there has been significant variation in how his character has been embodied. He has become the mascot of the magazine and is described as a dandy. There have been two years without any anniversary issue and in other years when the anniversary celebration/remembrance has broken from previously-established tradition it has resulted in stories in publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times. Since 2008, artists have competed in an annual Eustace Tilley contest with prizes that include the potential to have their artistic interpretation submissions chosen for the anniversary cover. All contest submissions are derived from Irvin's version.

Persona[edit]

The New York Times described him as follows: "The enduring symbol of The New Yorker magazine — the aristocratic, top-hatted Regency dandy, Eustace Tilley, studying a fluttering pale pink butterfly through a monocle".[8] The Comics Journal says his depiction is incongruous: "a seeming sophisticated man-about-town who is so vapidly empty-headed as to find a fluttering insect an object worthy of minute inspection."[1] Crosstown rival magazine New York describes him as a dandy who has always been somewhat condescending.[9] ABC News describes him as "foppish".[10] The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in their Nieman Reports stated that Tilley portrays the "essence" of the magazine—"a slightly condescending but consummately tasteful arbiter of the larger world" despite the fact that he was derived from a less than smart and jazzy source.[2]

Rebirth[edit]

The 1994 version broke with tradition by substituting for the dandy a drawing by R. Crumb of a contemporary city youth wearing a logo t-shirt and a backwards baseball cap and looking at – instead of a butterfly – a flyer for a pornography theater. The New York Times described this version as bearing mere resemblance to the original staid and wing-collared Tilley, rather than being a copy, but with similarities that included the "long neck, the pointy nose, the all-but-concealed eye, even the penciled arch of eyebrow".[8] Twice in the late 1990s there was no anniversary edition.[4]


January 7, 2013, was the deadline for the sixth annual Eustace Tilley contest in which readers submit their own interpretations of the magazine's mascot.[10] This suggests the original annual contest was for the 2008 issue. User submissions for the original contest can be found online at Flickr.[11] Nine winning entries from nearly three hundred entries were announced in a published release dated February 4, 2008.[12] The original contest earned coverage by outlets such as Gothamist.[13] The 2008 cover was produced in homage to the ongoing 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries as a two-headed face card dubbed Eustace Tillarobama, with depictions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.[1] By the time of the sixth annual edition, editors selected 12 winners and readers subsequently voted to determine 5 readers' choice winners.[14] When interviewed by New York, 2013 contest winner Simon Greiner described his hipster work on updating of Tilley's physical cues based on the original as follows: "the sideburns into the beard, the monocle into the eyeglasses, the coat, and the hat".[9]


In protest of Executive Order 13769 by Donald Trump, the newly seated President of the United States, Tilley was not depicted on the 2017 anniversary issue, instead appearing two issues later.[15][16][17] That year's anniversary cover was art from John W. Tomac that was based on the hand and torch of the Statue of Liberty in an effort to stand behind American values that welcomed immigrants in contrast to the values Trump expressed via executive order.[17] The March 7, 2017, cover featured a human observer resembling Vladimir Putin and the usual lepidopteran subject of observation with a Trump–based head to highlight the New Cold War.[18] The work by artist Barry Blitt is titled "Eustace Vladimirovich Tilley".[19]


By the time of the 2021 edition of the Eustace Tilley contest, there had been years in which none of the winners actually appeared on the cover and other years in which multiple covers with depictions of the character by multiple artists were published. The range of variations have been significant. The mascot had twice been manifested by contest winners as a female Eustacia (once on an anniversary edition cover and once in the summer). Tilley has also been depicted by contest winners as a youthful punk and a youthful hipster as well as a wide variety of character contexts.[20] The 2023 winner and anniversary cover veteran, Tomac, presented Eustace in canine form.[21]