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Given the huge crowds at Comic-Con International, it’s not surprising that an artist or publisher will promote The Latest and Greatest at the show.  With all the buzz, the media, the fans… it’s an excellent opportunity for a publisher to debut something amazing, something they hope will generate a lot of interest and lead to sales through the holiday season.

So regular con-goers shouldn’t be surprised that Craig Yoe, Eisner-Award winning author and designer, will have a new book to showcase.  Not only are his history books beautifully designed and researched, but they are also fun to read.  He even finds little gems, like Elvis reading a copy of “Betty and Veronica”, to spice up his books.

And, people who know Yoe, know he’s a bit of an animated character.  He loves comics, loves the medium, and can be a bit madcap, sharing his enjoyment of the comics medium with everyone!

So, while most creators might be debuting a single title, might do a single panel and signing to promote that book, Craig Yoe will be debuting FOUR new titles at San Diego!  Sure, you might say, “Four books… why, Bendis and Johns do that all the time.  What’s the big deal?”  Well, those books, as good as they are, are reprints.  Someone in editorial collects the issues, designs a functional book with a nice cover, and six months later, the creators get a nice royalty check.  Not so with Yoe Books.  These books have to be researched.  Comics long forgotten must be located, rights cleared, images photographed and scanned, and every page proofed and designed down to the smallest detail.  Even the covers are designed, not slapdashed together.  That Archie malt-shop cover shown below?  That cover has the figures die-cut and pasted on top!  Other covers have spot varnish, metalic foil, cut-outs, and even lenticular covers!

So, you might expect one book a year from Yoe! Books, meticuously designed, religiously researched, a masterpiece of book bindery, almost a fetish object or icon, something to be venerated and regarded with awe.  Well, as I said above, Mr. Yoe is a bit unexpected-ous.  He’s got four new books, some being air-freighted in from China, and the only criticism of all this is, which one should you buy (if you can buy only one)?

Do you get the cool Amazing 3-D Comics!, with the lenticular cover by Joe Kubert, reprinting 3-D comics by Kirby, Jaffee, and Toth?

Or do you buy the Big Book of Barney Bear, featuring forgotten stories by Carl Barks?  (Think that’s a generic cover?  Think again!  Jeff Smith provided the artwork, and the yellow and grey on the cover is foil, with a spot varnish to make the figures pop!)

Or maybe your tastes tend towards indie art comics.  Crazy, avant garde comics, like Wally Wood drawing Archie Andrews (and Betty and Veronica, hubba hubba).  Yes, that’s archival art on the cover! From the Sixties!

Or perhaps you enjoyed Craig’s “Tiger Tea” compilation of Krazy Kat narcotic comics.  So you’ll probably want Krazy Kat and the Art of George Herriman, with a special essay by Bill Watterson!

Or you could just buy them all, and be the hoopiest frood, gupping and willomying like a mattress in a swamp!  Be the envy of your peer group!  Gain geek cred when you tell adoring geeks that yes, you were there in 2011 when Craig Yoe did the unthinkable!

Here’s the PR from IDW, along with Craig Yoe’s signing and panel schedule.  At smaller cons, he would have his own programming track.  Place him in a high school gymnasium and he could have his own con!

San Diego, CA (July 13, 2011)—Adding to the growing excitement for San Diego Comic-Con 2011, author/designer Craig Yoe and IDW Publishing today announced the debut four beautiful coffee table hardcover books at the year’s convention, following close on the heels of other major books by Yoe.

Amazing 3D ComicsAMAZING 3-D COMICS (IDW) is a stunning retrospective on these unique comics, featuring a special multi-layered lenticular cover by Joe Kubert, the co-inventor of 3-D comics. The book opens with a fascinating introduction by Kubert. This is followed by Yoe’s revealing forward, leading directly into the book’s detailing of the beginnings of the 3-D comics of the 1950s, and drawing parallels to today’s hot 3-D movies. Comic publishers of the 1950s jumped on the 3-D wagon, fortunes were made and lost, even causing one publisher to take his own life. AMAZING 3-D COMICS boasts incredible 3-D art by Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, Bob Powell, Al Jaffee, Milt Stein, and many more artists, with over twenty stories, all in eye-popping 3-D. To ensure readers enjoy this book to the fullest, AMAZING 3-D COMICS comes with free, custom 3-D glasses, and also includes a 3-D photo of Kubert and Yoe on the back cover.BarksTHE BIG BOOK OF CARL BARKS’ BARNEY BEAR (IDW) collects for the first time in color and English all the Barney Bear and Benny Burro team-up stories by comics’ genius Carl Barks. While stories of Barks’ Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck are known and loved around the world, the adventures of the animation film stars Barney Bear and Benny Burro have been often overlooked. At last, THE BIG BOOK OF CARL BARKS’ BARNEY BEAR offers a deluxe, hardcover archiving of this warm and hilarious , “lost” alternate world. And the book has a cover and an introduction by Jeff Smith of Bone fame, himself a big Barks fan. Added Yoe, “This volume is sure to delight Carl Bark’s legions of fans, young and old alike!”Archie's MadHouseARCHIE’S MADHOUSE (IDW) collects the greatest stories from the swinging 1960’s title. MADHOUSE is crammed-full of searing satire, silly surrealism, sick superheroes, mirthful monsters, and, of course, tantalizing teenage girls as only the Archie artists can draw them!  Artists include powerhouses like Dan DeCarlo, Harry Lucey, Chic Stone, Bob White… and Wally Wood! Said Yoe, “I don’t think any book I’ve ever done offers more fun that this material from Archie artists at their zaniest! Archie, satire fans and Good Girl Art fans are gonna go ape!”Krazy KatKRAZY KAT AND THE ART OF GEORGE HERRIMAN (Abrams ComicArts) unearths an incredible array of countless unpublished and ultra-rare paintings, drawings, strips, photos, animation-related art, essays, and ephemera of the comics greatest master, George Herriman. Starting with a special appreciation by Bill Watterson, this beautiful large format book astounds page after page. Patrick McDonnell of Mutts exclaimed, “This book is a treasure-trove of classic Kat art and Kat curiosities. Like a brick out of nowhere, you’ll be knocked out by its many surprises.”

Archie CelebrationOther recent books by Craig Yoe and the IDW imprint, Yoe! Books, include: ARCHIE: A CELEBRATION OF AMERICA’S FAVORITE TEENAGERS, and POPEYE: THE GREAT COMIC BOOK TALES BY BOB SAGENDORF, featuring an introduction by Jerry Beck.

Yoe concluded, “I’m proud and excited about this cornucopia of comics books. A lot of wonderful stories and incredible art are between the covers, which I’m positive will delight Comic-Con going fans of great cartoonists!”

Headquartered at the Yoe! Books section of the IDW booth #2643, Craig Yoe’s scheduled appearances at the con include:
•    KRAZY KAT AND THE ART OF GEORGE HERRIMAN signing; Thursday, July 21st, 1:00-2:00 PM, Abrams Booth #1216

•    Amazing 3-D panel, in actual 3-D with free glasses for all audience members; Friday July 22nd 1:00-2:00 PM Room 4

•    Yoe! Books signing; Friday, July 21st, 2:00-3:00 PM, IDW Booth #2643

•    The Art of Design panel with Chip Kidd, Seymour Chwast and Michael Gross; Friday, July 22nd 4:30-5:30 PM Room 24 ABC

•    ARCHIE: A CELEBRATION OF AMERICA’S FAVORITE TEENAGERS signing; Saturday, July 23rd 3:00-5:00 PM, Archie booth #2547

•    ARCHIE signing, with Victor Gorelick, John Goldwater, Mike Pellerito and Dan Parent; Saturday, July 23rd, 6:00-7:00 PM, IDW Booth #2643

•    IDW: Special Projects and Imprints panel with Scott Dunbier, Dean Mullaney and others; Sunday, July 24th 11:00 AM-12:00 PM, Room 24 ABC

•    Yoe! Books signing; Sunday, July 24th, 1:00-2:00 PM, IDW Booth #2643

Visit IDWPublishing.com to learn more about the company and its top-selling books.

About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE, Paramount’s Star Trek; HBO’s True Blood; the BBC’s Doctor Who; Toho’s Godzilla and comics and trade collections based on novels by worldwide bestselling author, James Patterson. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints; Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studio; and is the print publisher for EA Comics.

IDW’s original horror series, 30 Days of Night, was launched as a major motion picture in October 2007 by Sony Pictures and was the #1 film in its first week of release. More information about the company can be found at IDWPublishing.com.

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1 COMMENT

  1. You can never go wrong with a Yoe! book. The best thing I can say about them is that they could never be really reproduced in a digital format. They are book-books — nice and heavy and you will enjoy them for hours on end.