The Smythes

A CLASSIC 1930s COMIC STRIP: The New Yorker’s first art editor satirizes the petit bourgeoisie in these stylishly eccentric cartoons with echoes of Cheever and Wodehouse.

Rea Irvin was The New Yorker’s first art editor and creator of the magazine’s iconic mascot, the butterfly enthusiast Eustace Tilley. In 1930, he ventured into new territory with the comic strip The Smythes. The Smythes--comprised of John, Margie, and their two forgettable children, Willie and Maudie--are a niceish suburban family, restless in their social stature, and eager to climb a sometimes wobbly social ladder. Irvin’s distinct, graceful line renders the Smythes in all their glory and hilarity as they navigate ill-fated dinner parties with pompous socialites, fend off robbers dressed as Santa, and get chased out of restaurants by cleaver-wielding chefs.

The Smythes drolly captures the joys, heartbreaks, and humiliations of being in a family. Handpicked by acclaimed cartoonists R. Kikuo Johnson and Dash Shaw--who also penned the introduction together--this new selection of Smythes strips also includes an enlightening afterword by comics historian Caitlin McGurk. An unsung masterpiece of cartooning, The Smythes is finally available to a new generation of readers ready to marvel at the full reach of Irvin’s artistic abilities.

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 several covers for The New Yorker and 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 graphic novelist to receive that honor.

Dash Shaw is the author of several graphic novels, including Bottomless Belly Button; Discipline, published by New York Review Comics in 2021; and Blurry, published by New York Review Comics in 2024 and named one of the best graphic novels of the year by The Washington Post. He has written and directed two animated feature films, the most recent of which is Cryptozoo.