The Smythes

“The strips [are] gorgeously composed, with characters dancing elegantly on the page…. [A] playfully wry and tender portrait of married life among the social set.” —Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker

“The invaluable Irvin, artist, ex-actor, wit, and sophisticate about town and country, did more to develop the style and excellence of New Yorker drawings and covers than anyone else.” —James Thurber

“The strip was a domestic comedy; a husband and wife navigating the brittle charms and absurdities of upper-middle-class life. But under Irvin’s pen, the couple became something more than a gag. They were a mirror, lightly fogged with irony, reflecting the anxieties and aspirations of postwar America …To read Rea Irvin’s The Smythes now is to rediscover not only his forgotten brilliance but a quieter kind of humor, one that trusts its reader to see the joke without being told when to laugh. It’s a reminder that irony and tenderness, in the right hands, are not opposites at all.” —Tammi Morton-Kelly, The Comics Journal

Rea Irvin (1881-1972) was a graphic artist and cartoonist who served as the de facto first art editor of The New Yorker. He created the magazine’s iconic Eustace Tilley cover portrait, designed its typeface, and introduced many of publication’s most recognizable and distinguishing design elements.

R. Kikuo Johnson has illustrated over a dozen covers for The New Yorker and has published three graphic novels, Night Fisher, The Shark King, and No One Else. In 2023, he was the recipient of the Whiting Award for fiction, the first cartoonist to receive that honor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Caitlin McGurk is the Curator of Comics and Cartoon Art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and Associate Professor at The Ohio State University. McGurk’s scholarship and exhibitions center around the work of women in comics, alternative and underground comics, and early American comic strips. She is the author of the bestselling book Tell Me A Story Where the Bad Girl Wins- The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund. She lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Dash Shaw is a cartoonist and animator. His most recent graphic novel, Blurry, from New York Review Comics, was named a graphic novel of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, and others. He’s also the cartoonist of Discipline, New School, Bottomless Belly Button, BodyWorld, and others. He’s written and directed two animated features, most recently the 2021 film Cryptozoo, which won the Sundance Next Innovator Award. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia.

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