the new yorker's eustace tilley competition

Two of my pieces won:


The New Yorker recently ran a contest inviting the public to submit their own interpretations of the magazine's iconic mascot, Eustace Tilley. The original was drawn by Rea Irvin and graced the magazine's first cover in 1925, and the monocled dandy has appeared in some form or another on most every anniversary issue cover since.

20 winners were chosen from a pool of almost 300 entries. You can see all 20, including both of my submissions on the New Yorker's web site here.

Check out the contest page on Flickr to see all of the entries. There were many very clever ones and I don't envy the judges.

You can listen to an interview with the magazine's art director, Francoise Mouly, in which she discusses the contest, the history of the character, and mentions my "blowing bubbles" piece here.

You can also see my entry "The Springfieldian," - a collaboration with Claire B. Cotts who came up with the basic premise - in The New Yorker magazine itself along with a few of the other winners in the current anniversary issue (Feb. 11th & 18th). So check it out!

All apologies to Matt Groening and the good people at Gracie Films.