Meet Craig Yoe, one of the creative forces behind the Muppets, who got much of his inspiration from Boys’ Life

Decades before he was recruited by the legendary Jim Henson to be a creative director, vice president and general manager of the Muppets, Craig Yoe was a Scout in Troop 11 in Akron, Ohio.

Yoe loved everything about Scouts, but what he loved the most was getting Boys’ Life (now Scout Life) magazine every month.

We were so intrigued by Yoe’s story of his time as a Scout that we asked him to put it into words, and boy, did he deliver.

Read on for more information on Yoe, his time as a Scout and his latest project, Captain LOL + Rubber Chicken: HAR HAR!, a book he describes as a combination of the Boys’ Life comics and joke sections.

On the left, an image of Norman Rockwell’s 1964 Boy Scout Handbook cover. On the right, Craig Yoe’s tribute to Rockwell’s work.

Yoe! A sad story …

By Craig Yoe

Boys’ Life RUINED me for life!

When I was a tender, impressionable young lad in the early ’60s and became a Tenderfoot in Boy Scouts at the Church of Our Savior in Tire Town (ne’ Akron, Ohio), Mom got me a subscription. I became hooked on all the mesmerizing articles, fascinating photos and intoxicating illustrations.

I even ferociously devoured the ads!

But I especially became hooked on the Boys’ Life comics and “Think and Grin,” the joke-infused last page of every issue, which I always read first.

Unfortunately, these early obsessions made me totally unfit for a normal life and a respectable career later. When it came time to adult, I sadly ended up desperately and childishly becoming a senior designer for MGA, the world’s largest toy think tank (where I got six patents for toy inventions).

Then Jim Henson recruited me from there to become a creative director/vice president/general manager of the Muppets. Later, I was relegated to similar shameful, embarrassing roles for Nickelodeon and Disney.

And now, for a new chapter in my life, this ungrown adult of 74 years is a kids’ graphic novelist. In other words, I’m focusing on comics à la Boys’ Life characters like Pee-wee Harris and the Tracy Twins mashed with “Think and Grin”-like puns!

Please don’t pity me! I guess if I can’t be a role model, I can at least serve as a horrible warning.

Fond memories of Scouting

Seriously now, Boy Scout Troop 11 was incredible!

That incredibleness started with a beloved, devoted Scoutmaster, Robert Fergusson. “Fergie” and his wife had no kids, but he treated all of us as his own and was an affirming and inspiring soul.

Where we met every Tuesday was the most awesomest digs! We had our opening ceremonies and then played games in the big church gym. Then we climbed the stairs to the dedicated Scout room — filled with animal furs and skeletons, spears, tribal blankets, sculpted Indigenous American busts and motivational carved wooden plaques.

There was a fireplace there with an embedded relief of the Boy Scout pledge above the mantle. In this uber-Scout clubhouse, we would raise the roof by robustly singing silly songs around our built-in campfire! There was no hole in our bucket of delights.

Fergie encouraged my love of art and let me paint “trustworthy,” “loyal,” “helpful,” etc., on each of the 12 steps to be a good reminder as we ascended to our “boy cave.”

Besides the gym and the dedicated Scout room, the church had its own theater. There, we Scouts held our annual Scout Parent Night, where each patrol enacted its own zany skit to amuse the audience members in the seats.

As a patrol leader, I wrote our vaudevillian schtick — shades of what was to come for me with the Muppets! It was easy being green in our Scout uniforms as we playfully acted out corny jokes for our adoring/forgiving moms and dads.

The Amazing Spider-Patrol

I loved Scouting so intensely that I was inspired to recruit friends from school to join up. I must have gotten a dozen pals to become members of Troop 11. Other boys took notice of my efforts and actively worked to get their friends into our merry band.

This became sort of a contest. Our troop soon went from some 20 kids to a membership of well over 100 Scouts! Boy, did jaws drop when other troops witnessed our ginormous battalion marching each night to the Camp Manatoc mess hall.

Cue the Camp Manatoc theme song:  ♫♪♪ “There’s a camp along the Cuyahoga …” ♫♪♪

When Fergie anointed me a patrol leader, with my recruited friends as members, I deemed us “The Amazing Spider-Patrol,” after The Amazing Spider-Man comics I had started collecting. I bought blank patches from the Scout department at O’Neil’s department store and hand-painted Spidey’s webbing on each one. I made a patrol scrapbook, gluing our National Jamboree photos on the pages of an early Spider-Man comic, destroying its now many thousands of dollars of value.

(Oh, well. There goes my kids’ inheritance!)  ¯\\(ツ)/¯

Besides a Spidey scrapbook, I wanted Troop 11 to have its own Boys’ Life-style publication. To make one, I used my folks’ typewriter to write some copy, then scrawled my first crudely drawn cartoons (as opposed to my crudely drawn cartoons of today). Fergie’s day job was being a printer for the B.F. Goodrich Tire Company, so he printed copies there at lunch time for all the members of our now huge troop.

I blame Boys’ Life for this!

Now, if you have a second, I’d like to tell you about my newest publishing project, the book Captain LOL + Rubber Chicken: HAR HAR! It’s dad jokes and funny superhero stories in comics form. It really is just a mashup of the old Boys’ Life comics section and “Think and Grin.”

I, for sure, blame Scouting and Boys’ Life for this too!

A People magazinearticle recently proclaimed me to be “The Silliest Man of the Year!” I do feel that, with the stress of the world today, kids, who acutely feel it, badly need silliness in their lives. And I want to encourage kids and parents (and Scout leaders, teachers and librarians) to read together. Thus, Captain LOL (the straight man) and Rubber Chicken (Cap’s punchline-producing son) are the Daffy Duo. The Punny Pair tell silly dad jokes and have silly superhero adventures while seriously sharing their love for reading, as well as their deep love for each other.

I even, inspired by Boys’ Life’s “Think and Grin,” use some kid-submitted jokes in the Captain LOL + Rubber Chicken book.

Boys’ Life is now the wonderful boys’ and girls’ mag Scout Life. And Boy Scout Craig is now a white-haired faux adult who, as a snot-nosed kid, learned about leadership, motivation, entertainment, writing, drawing, publishing and s’mores from his valued and treasured Scouting experience.

But honestly, this old man is still committed to youthful enthusiasm, attitude and pursuits — such as crudely drawing funny comics — because, as the Boy Scout Handbook taught, as I remember it, anyway, “You can’t help getting old, but you can be immature forever.” Or something like that.

Please, friend, as you descend the 12 steps from the Scout room (“reverent,” “clean,” “brave,” etc.), take a moment to claim a copy of the silly laugh-filled Captain LOL + Rubber Chicken: HAR-HAR!book for you and yours.

Click to enlarge these sample pages from Captain LOL + Rubber Chicken: HAR HAR!.

Inspired by the pages of Boys’ Life, Yoe would go on to create a number of magazines for kids, including editing and publishing the Big Boy Magazine comic for the Big Boy restaurant chain and working with representatives of Nelson Mandela to publish a magazine encouraging children’s literacy in Africa.

In the 1990s, Yoe and business partner, Clizia Gussoni, started a company called Yoe! Studio, which later launched a pocket-embedded magazine for Mudd Jeans, giving Yoe the opportunity to interview an unknown Britney Spears (just before her first album dropped), along with other young stars such as Justin Timberlake and Usher.

In addition to initiating the Boys’ Life-like comics section for Nickelodeon Magazine, Yoe has authored and produced more than 125 books for publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, Marvel Comics and many more.

“Our proudest moment was when Yoe! Studio created an award-winning comic book to educate kids in 26 countries on the importance of washing hands for hygiene,” Yoe says. “With a circulation of more than 20 million in 23 countries, the award-winning The School of 5 superhero comic has been credited with saving millions of lives. Comics for the win!”

Photos courtesy or Craig Yoe. Captain LOL + Rubber Chicken: HAR HAR! is available now wherever books are sold. Click here for links to order the book and to read some of the Daffy Duo’s dad jokes.