The New York Times On William Steig’s Shrek

Here’s a welcome out-of-the-blue, awkwardly headlined New York Times article by Brian Raftery on William Steig and his most famous creation, Shrek.

“Nobody Once Told Him the World Was Gonna Meme Shrek” 

I have two bones to pick with this otherwise terrif piece — both concern “a thousand illustrations” found in this sentence:

“Steig began selling his art to publications including The New Yorker, to which he’d ultimately contribute more than a thousand illustrations.”

Bone #1: technically, “…more than a thousand…” is correct, but of the very few New Yorker cartoonists who have contributed 1000 or more cartoons to The New Yorker (approximately 20 something out of the approximately 850 cartoonists who have contributed since 1925), only four have contributed in the range of 2000: Steig, James Stevenson, Alan Dunn, and Lee Lorenz. A (perhaps weedsy) feat worth mentioning, at least here on the Spill.

Bone #2: cartoons are not illustrations, and illustrations are not cartoons. The New Yorker has had a 100 year practice of making sure the cartoons in the magazine do not refer to the accompanying text. Illustrations accompany and refer to accompanying text — cartoons do not. Cartoons stand alone — they are graphic islands.

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William Steig’s A-Z Entry:

William Steig (photo above) Born in Brooklyn, NY, Nov. 14, 1907, died in Boston, Mass., Oct. 3, 2003. In a New Yorker career that lasted well over half a century and a publishing history that contains more than a cart load of books, both children’s and otherwise, it’s impossible to sum up Steig’s influence here on Ink Spill. He was among the giants of the New Yorker cartoon world, along with James Thurber, Saul Steinberg, Charles Addams, Helen Hokinson and Peter Arno. Lee Lorenz’s World of William Steig (Artisan, 1998) is an excellent way to begin exploring Steig’s life and work. New Yorker work: 1930 -2003.

The Tilley Watch Online, May 11-15, 2026

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

Daily Cartoon: Mo Welch, Adam Douglas Thompson, Brendan Loper, Avi Steinberg, (the duo of) Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby. See them here. 

The Daily: How To Win Our Cartoon Caption Contest— a Q&A with Caroline Mimbs Nyce and the magazine’s deputy cartoon editor, Rachel Aster Perlman.

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Exhibit (In Spain!) Of Interest: Andrea Arroyo and Felipe Galindo

An exhibit of work by this married duo. Andrea Arroyo first contributed to The New Yorker in 1992; Felipe Galindo began contributing to The New Yorker in 2002.

Andrea Arroyo’s website.

Felipe Galindo’s website.

–photos courtesy of Ms. Arroyo and Mr. Galindo

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Ronald Searle’s James Thurber Medallion 

Below is a Ronald Searle designed medallion that turned up on Ebay the other day. I know nothing about medallions, or Ronald Searle‘s part in designing them, so I’m recommending that you visit Attempted Bloggery‘s posts on them here.

I like the dog side of the medallion; the Thurber portrait side…not so much. Here’s the Ebay listing for the piece shown below.

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James Thurber’s A-Z Entry:

James Thurber Born, Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 1894. Died 1961, New York City. New Yorker work: 1927 -1961, with several pieces run posthumously. According to the New Yorker’s legendary editor, William Shawn, “In the early days, a small company of writers, artists, and editors — E.B. White, James Thurber, Peter Arno, and Katharine White among them — did more to make the magazine what it is than can be measured.”

Key cartoon collection: The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments (Harper & Bros., 1932). Key anthology (writings & drawings): The Thurber Carnival (Harper & Row, 1945). There have been a number of Thurber biographies. Burton Bernstein’s Thurber (Dodd, Mead, 1975) and Harrison Kinney’s James Thurber: His Life and Times (Henry Holt & Co., 1995) are essential. Website

  Another in a series of quick looks at an artist’s very first New Yorker cartoon and their last. 

Looking through the Spill’s A-Z this morning, my attention turned to Richard Oldden (1931-1995).  A search immediately turned up this entry on Lambiak Comiclopedia. The entry included a number of things I hadn’t known before including this:

“On 14 May 1973, Oldden and gag writer Sam Gross launched their daily newspaper comic ‘The Genius’ (1973-1977) through King Features Syndicate.”

Reading this brought memories of speaking with Sam on the phone — sometimes long conversations about cartoonists I knew little about. I can still hear Sam, in his distinctive voice, saying “Dick Oldden” this and “Dick Oldden” that (oddly, Sam never mentioned “The Genius” strip).

Checking The New Yorker’s database, I found that the magazine published 72 Oldden cartoons. Here’s the first, from the issue of July 23, 1966:

And here’s the last Richard Oldden New Yorker cartoon, published in the issue of September 6, 1993:

                                                  Happy Birthday, Liza Donnelly!

The Spill sends birthday greetings to long-time New Yorker contributor, Liza Donnelly, seen above attempting to take it easy for a few minutes in Maine a few years ago.

Born in Washington, D.C., then high-tailing it asap to New York City, she has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1979. Among the many hats she wears, the most recent is filmmaker. Her documentary on The New Yorker‘s women cartoonists, Woman Laughing, co-directed with Kathleen Hughes, is making the rounds, festival-wise this year.

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— Drawing above: Donnelly’s first drawing bought by The New Yorker). Although sold in 1979, the magazine didn’t run it until November 22, 1982.

–Photo above: taken by this cartoonist 

Note: We’re in the second week of a double issue (May 11 & 18, 2026) so no new issue for us to thumb through. The regular Monday Tilley Watch will return next Monday, May 18th with a look at the cartoons  appearing in the issue of May 25, 2026. Today , for fun, we’ll time travel to the issue of May 19, 1951. 

                                         75 Years Ago In The New Yorker

Here’s a quick look at a few highlights from long long ago.

I love this Arthur Getz cover. As in so many of his paintings there seems to a story being told; the reader (at least this reader) lingers, thinking about what the heck is going on.

And what’s not to love about this Abe Birnbaum GOAT drawing:

The Talk Of The Town section was headed by, ta-da!, Rea Irvin’s iconic design (read more here about the unfortunate tinkering that began 66 years later :

A terrif bonus at the bottom of the Talk page…this Thurber spot drawing:

Of the many cartoonists represented in the issue here are just a few favorites:

From Anatol Kovarsky:

From Frank Modell:

and finally, this classic from Chon Day:

And I’ll end with this truly wonderful Henry Martin “spot” drawing that ran –postage stamp size!– along with that week’s Current Cinema review.

The Tilley Watch Online, May 4-8, 2026

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

Daily Cartoon: Emily Flake, Victoria Roberts, Ben Schwartz, Bob Eckstein, Olivia Pecini (a bonus cartoon by an online only cartoonist), Meredith Southard.

See them here (in a slideshow)

Barry Blitt’s Kvetchbook: “Straight Outta Hormuz” 

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Happy Mother’s Day

One from The New Yorker, August 19, 1985.