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Well, I should be working on the January list of new and exciting titles, but it’s still New Years Day here at Stately Beat Manor, so I’m not in the mood.  But Cow Clicker only let’s me visit once every six hours, so I must pass the time with other distractions.

Last month, Yoe Books announced the redesign of their website, updating it from what would now be considered a retro design to something sleek and sexy.

Overall, it’s a pretty good design, with a scrolling slide show just below the menu bar, then a three column design featuring the recent postings from the I.T.C.H. blog and Twitter, titles which are now available to order, and a listing of forthcoming books.  (It even has a “kid friendly” page of titles!)  Below that is the indicia and (the only criticism) the search bar.  It’s all a division of the Yoe Studio conglomerate, which does corporate design for a wide variety of clients.  Unlike other design studios, YS! does bill for butt-kissing.  (Look at the crawl beneath the corporate logos!  Between “branding” and “sculpting”.)

(Another bit of criticism… the Yoe Studio! page is a billboard.  There’s nothing beyond that screen, which is a shame, because they could feature some of their products, like the Eisner Award-winning Syroco-style sculptures comissioned by Dark Horse.)

So, just who is the mad genius behind Yoe Studios?  Well, according to the site:

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.

If you have some time to kill this holiday, I recommend the Super I.T.C.H. site.  It’s a treasure trove of old comics and cartoons, some from Britain!  If you’ve gotten a gift card or some sweet filthy lucre this holiday season, buy one of his books!  They are beautifully designed, and full of amazing comics and history!