For the third year The New Yorker is holding a Eustace Tilley contest, in which participants are encouraged to submit their own (usually modernized) interpretation of the top-hatted and monocled character who has become the magazine’s iconic symbol.

The original Eustace Tilley (above, top left) was drawn by Rea Irvin, then art director, for the cover of the magazine’s first issue in 1925.

Since then, the character has been reinterpreted by numerous artists on New Yorker covers, and now by many others in the course of the contests.

There’s no particular prize other than being selected by the New Yorker’s art editor, François Mouly, for a sildeshow on the magazine’s site. The point, of course, is the fun and challenge of doing your version (a bit like a high-profile version of Illustration Friday).

I’ve entered again this year (image above, bottom right, larger version here; some of you may recognize it as a repurposed version of my last-minute submission from last year, with a uniform change – grin).

You have to sign up to enter, and then you can upload as many entries as you like. You can find links the rules, signup page and information about the contest, as well as galleries of current and past entries, on the contest’s main page.

Deadline is 11:59 PM January 18, 2010. Results will be announced February 8, 2010.