21 February 1994

Elvis Tilley

Robert Crumb. 1994. Elvis Tilley [Cover]. The New Yorker, February 21.

R. Crumb re-imagines Rea Irvin's Eustace Tilley on the magazine's sixty-ninth anniversary. Tilley is the iconic figure that often appears on New Yorker covers. This is Crumb's spin on it: a not very attractive young man with acne, beard stubble, earring reading a flyer for a porno place. Logo on T-shirt and the group of other men all have hats (with advertising) on backwards and earrings—kind of like a youth national costume of today. Eustace Tilley updated to today—even the name is no longer the old-fashioned "Eustace" but the more hip "Elvis". Conveys a sense of aimlessness—not a very happy picture. Necks are long like a giraffe and like the buildings behind—a new species of introverted, self-absorbed youth.