Thursday, October 23, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

A thousand words

Phil Yeh promotes literacy through comics

By F. Andrew Taylor

When I mentioned that Phil Yeh is a literacy advocate, one wag I know japed about how hard it must be to go up against all those anti-literacy advocates. The sad fact is that the forces against literacy are pervasive and legion. From the dumbing down of what little print media is still out there to sound-bite journalism to populist anti-intellectualism, it's a wonder there are still some of us who can get through the blurbs on our breakfast cereal without moving our lips. While the rest of us have been standing around wringing our hands in impotent dismay, Phil Yeh has been fighting the good fight for the past 19 years.

I first saw Yeh at the San Diego Comic Convention a decade ago. In the largest gathering of its kind, surrounded by costumed freaks, celebrities, porn stars and a mind-boggling swirl of cacophony and color, Yeh was holding court at his Cartoonists Across America booth, and he was easily the most fascinating thing there. He was rattling off more intelligent commentary and thought-provoking statements in minutes than most people do in a lifetime. He leapt from subject to subject, speaking with a hypnotic intensity. With indefatigable energy, he returned again and again to literacy, and how damned important that was in the 287-channels-of-cable age. I watched, transfixed for the better part of an hour, until I finally had to slink away, exhausted just from watching him.

Yeh creates comics and graphic novels promoting literacy, because he knows you've got to get 'em started young if you want to cultivate a serious reading jones. For 19 years, he's traveled the world, speaking at schools, painting murals and basically creating a spectacle to attract attention to the staggering illiteracy rate in the world.

It began when he interviewed Wally "Famous" Amos, of cookie fame, who was and still is a literacy advocate. At the time there were 27 million American adults who could not read. Inspired and challenged, Yeh decided to take up the cause.

"I thought it was a natural, no-brainer to use cartoons and humor," says Yeh. "We could get all America reading. The world would be better. Life is good. Arnold Schwarzenegger's not the governor."

Four years ago, when the Public Library Foundation in his home county of Los Angeles honored Yeh, there were 44 million functional illiterates in this country. "America's getting worse, not better," notes Yeh, "and we need to start telling the truth."

He has published more than 80 comics and graphic novels, and his most recent work is bilingual, written in English and Spanish. However, Among Yeh's more impressive works is The Winged Tiger, a graphic novel that promotes literacy, yet is completely wordless. In effect he has created an international tool for the promotion of literacy using the universal language of cartoons.

"We're all to blame. We don't need to hand out the blame to certain parties," says Yeh. "We live in a society where it's okay to be stupid and we celebrate that. I'm bound and determined to see America understand why it's not a good idea to celebrate dumbness."

Yeh will be appearing and creating large murals at the Vegas Valley Book Fair and the Las Vegas Comic Con the following weekend. He'd like schools to know that during that week, he'll be available for public speaking. He can be reached at 805-735-5134 or through the Cartoonists Across America website at www.ideaship.com.