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Do IT this week: Layering
Artist-author-designer Craig Yoe celebrates childhood influences of Akron hometown
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
Craig Yoe is a creativity machine.
From comic books and book publishing to toy design, Web sites, animation and company logos, the list of what the Akron native has created with his artistic talents and imagination goes on and on.
Yoe, a 1969 graduate of Akron Firestone High School, is the author of Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster, a book recently reviewed in the New York Times.
Yoe appeared on Terry Gross' Fresh Air NPR program this year to talk about the book.
Two more books by Yoe come out this month: The Art of Ditko and The Great Anti-War Cartoons.
He worked closely with Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, and has worked with Disney, Nickelodeon and scores of other companies on creative projects.
Yoe ran an underground newspaper here called the Acorn and started a church called Avalon Jesus People.
Now based about 50 miles north of New York City in Mahopac, N.Y., he and his wife, Clizia Gussoni, run YOE! Studio.
Q: Where did you buy comics as a kid?
A: ''Buy'' would be a misnomer. I bought some, yes, but used to shamelessly steal a lot from Gray Drug Store at Highland Square. . . . I had a whole system where I'd inconspicuously shove the comics down the back of my pants and waddle out. I think there is still a warrant out for my arrest, which makes visiting Akron difficult.
Q: Are you one of the lucky comic collectors whose mother did not throw out your collection?
A: Yes, I gotta thank my mom, Betty Yoe, who is 90 and is now living at the Merriman, for indulging me and encouraging me in my art. I still have a bunch of comic books she bought me, actually giving the shopkeepers money, when I was a kid over a half-century ago.
Q: How did growing up in Akron influence your life work? And does it still?
A: There was something about daily breathing that noxious burning rubber from the factories that made me and a lot of my friends creative. I had so much fun as a kid in Akron, building forts in the woods, riding my bike around the streets, stealing and reading comics. I never wanted to leave my childhood — and really haven't. You hear some people say they're in their second childhood; I never left my first.
Q: Your first journalistic venture was a publication for your Boy Scout Troop, Troop 11. Tell me about that.
A: I loved the Boy Scouts with the awesome leader we had, Robert Fergusson [Fergie]. I think I learned a lot of leadership skills from him. I edited and designed a troop newsletter, which was a great experience. But I soon became anti-establishment in the late '60s. Firestone High had the paper, the Firestone Focus. So me and my hippie friends together produced the Flower Child alternative: The Crocus. I drew cartoons for it, alongside an amazing artist, Paul Mavrides, and published it in my basement — underground. That taught a lot about standing up for your beliefs and being willing to shake up the status quo. And how I got a certain thrill and satisfaction from that. We reprinted old World War I anti-war cartoons that I unearthed from the Akron Public Library in the hippie newspapers I was a part of. Some of those cartoons are now going to be in a book I just edited, The Great Anti-War Cartoons. . . . It is sad that these anti-war cartoons of the past are still so relevant.
Q: What was life as a student like at Firestone in the late 1960s?
A: There were only a few hippies and we took a lot of grief from other students, the teachers and the principal. . . . I definitely look back in appreciation at an English teacher, Nancy Mettler, that saw how disaffected I was and encouraged me to find meaning in reading The Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace.
Q: You started a church in Akron after your college days at the University of Akron: the Avalon Jesus People. Where are you at spiritually now?
A: I'm proud of the efforts to help the poor in the church neighborhood and the spiritual hunger I had then, but had my fill of church politics, even with hippy Christians. I now don't darken church doors, but have a pretty fair long-distance relationship with the Parent Upstairs, I think. I look at things in a much more ecumenical way now and don't browbeat people that don't share my beliefs. I rarely bother God much now except when I or someone I love gets in a jam, and he/she doesn't bother me much. I think we both like it that way.
Q: You worked with Jim Henson. How did he influence your work and change your life?
A: Jim was a boss, friend, mentor and working with him as his creative director and vice president/general manager of the Muppets was a fantastic experience. Jim was a man who lived for bringing creativity into the world and good social values. He always pushed for the highest quality in all he did. These things influence me every day to this day and I still miss him.
Q: You have been involved in seemingly thousands of creative projects in your career. Which one was the most fun to do? Which one was the must frustrating?
A: They all have aspects of both. I am really enjoying working on writing and designing tons of books — kids books to books about sex and lots of books about comics and cartoons. I'm still working in the entertainment industry and designing toys, but I love books of all kinds more than anything else. I've written or designed or produced 50-some books for kids and adults.
Q: How did the book about Joe Shuster come about?
A: I found some sexy drawings he did after he had a falling-out with DC Comics over the rights to Superman and was down on his luck. I knew this material was historically important, so I signed a contract with the world's largest art-book publisher [Abrams] to do a book about this work of Joe's. It turned out to be a fascinating story with starving artists, the mob, crusading do-gooders, teenage Nazi juvenile delinquent killers called the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, a murder trial, Senate investigations, show girls, good cops, bad cops, Supreme Court censorship and more. The Gotham Group in Hollywood is interviewing top directors now. It's soon to be a major motion picture.
Q: What are the current toys you play with?
A: Art supplies and a blank piece of paper. I still love drawing cartoons and doodling like I used to do in my notebooks when I was supposed to be listening in class.
Q: Of all the books you've read, which one influenced you most?
A: Catch-22. I really identified with the main character, Yossarian, fighting against the system and the powers that be.
Q: Favorite comic-book character?
A: Little Lulu and Spider-Man. Both break rules in their own way. Lulu, a joyful feminist, and Peter Parker, the nerdy outcast teenager put down by his fellow high schoolers who really had amazing secret powers.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
Craig Yoe is a creativity machine.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, , OH
Posted 08:11 AM, 11/10/2009
Creative, Akron native.
Akron, Oh
Posted 08:29 AM, 11/10/2009
Way to go, Yoe. There must be something in the air here. You may have something with your theory between the rubber fume link and creativity. I am so glad you talked about the amazing artist, Paul Mavrides, another hometown artistic icon. There are many! Great work on the books-- keep on keepin' on.
Posted 10:42 AM, 11/10/2009
I got saved at the Avalon. If your read this, Craig, it was a good thing.
Akron, OH
Posted 12:27 AM, 11/11/2009
I was part of the core group at the Avalon. Craig was one of the most compassionate person I ever met. Still have a stack of "Jesus Loves You" newspapers that are filled with Craig Yoe drawings. Those were wonderful times.
Posted 06:01 AM, 11/11/2009
Wow, this takes me back. I remember those days all too well and all the talent that came out of Firestone. I am sure I still have some of those papers laying around.
