Craig Yoe is astounding. A one-man machine guided with precision and passion. Those of you in comics culture certainly know of him, but "cross-category" exposure, surprisingly, is increasingly lost in the web these days. It has become to easy to form your own cult, tribe and cloudy circle of friends in this the decade of social media...but what we really need is a service which locates interesting people NOT in our immediate circle. If you came across Craig, there is NO question you would "like" him you Facebook folks. But when is the last time you went out of your friend list comfort zone to discover something new without a damn software program doing it for you? Friends of friends of friends indeed. Look up from the screen!
Not that Craig Yoe is new or particularly obscure, having already made major contributions to our world and the art world. Here is the OFFICIAL blurb on Yoe:
Vice magazine has called Yoe the "Indiana Jones of comics historians." Publisher Weekly says he's the "archivist of the ridiculous and the sublime" and calls his work "brilliant." The Onion calls him "the celebrated designer,"The Library Journal,"a comics guru. "BoingBoing hails him "a fine cartoonist and a comig book historian of the first water." Yoe was Creative Director/Vice President/ General Manager of Jim Henson's Muppets, and a Creative Director at Nickelodeon and Disney. Craig has won an Eisner Award and the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.
Yoe has six patents for toy inventions. Before founding YOE! Studio, Craig was Creative Director/Vice President General Manager of Jim Henson’s Muppets and a Creative Director at Nickelodeon. Dubbed “Dr. Seuss on acid!” by Animation Magazine, Craig Yoe is a wildly entertaining speaker on creativity. His worldwide travels as a lecturer have taken him to Italy, France, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, and Singapore. Closer to home, he teaches for the Master’s program at Syracuse University and at other institutions of higher learning. He has curated fine art exhibits at museums from Japan to New York.
All true, but it hardly begins. I fortunately found Craig a few years ago, and he has been nothing but generous when he could easily slap me down like a fly. Witness Yoe's output HERE, a good share of which has been produced in the last few years.
Yoe splits his brain among Yoe Books and Yoe Studio (with the help of his notable designer and partner Clizia Gussoni) and what spills out is considerable. He is also associated with the I.T.C.H blog. a collaborative effort of a comic creativity which you may have been missing for five years. I was.
I cannot pick the best Yoe project for you. I can suggest you browse and pick one yourself. Click the link HERE, drop your jaw and choose.
JUST A FEW OF THE YOE BOOKS
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