THE SMYTHES

A CLASSIC 1930s COMIC STRIP: The New Yorker&rsquo,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&rsquo,s first art editor and creator of the magazine&rsquo,s iconic mascot, the butterfly enthusiast Eustace Tilly. In 1930, he ventured into new territory with the comic strip The Smythes. The Smythes&mdash,comprised of John, Margie, and their two forgettable children, Willie and Maudie&mdash,are a niceish suburban family, restless in their social stature, and eager to climb a sometimes wobbly social ladder (a ladder made even wobblier by the Great Depression). Irvin&rsquo,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.&nbsp,With flavors of the upper-crust humor of Wodehouse and the suburban surrealism of Cheever, The Smythes drolly captures the joys, heartbreaks, and humiliations of being in a family. Handpicked by acclaimed cartoonists R. Kikuo Johnson and Dash Shaw&mdash,who also penned the introduction together&mdash,this new selection of Smythes strips also includes an afterword by comics historian Caitlin McGurk that sheds new light on Irvin&rsquo,s work and life. 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&rsquo,s artistic abilities.