Thomas Yeates was part of the first graduating class from The Kubert School.
His first published comics work was "Preacher" a five-page backup feature in Sgt. Rock #312 (Jan. 1978). He provided spot illustrations for a Batman prose story in Detective Comics #500 (March 1981) written by Walter B. Gibson, longtime writer of The Shadow.
Yeates and Jack C. Harris briefly revived Claw the Unconquered as a backup feature in The Warlord #48-49."Dragonsword" was a backup feature by Paul Levitz and Yeates which appeared in The Warlord #51-54 (Nov. 1981–Feb. 1982).
In 1982, Yeates and writer Martin Pasko revived Swamp Thing in a new series titled Saga of the Swamp Thing.
Timespirits was created by Stephen Perry and Yeates for the Epic Comics line.
He drew the Universe X: Beasts and Universe X: Cap one-shots for Marvel in 2001. On April 1, 2012, Yeates began drawing the Prince Valiant comic strip, replacing Gary Gianni.[13] Yeates collaborated with Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier on the Groo vs. Conan crossover for Dark Horse Comics 2014.
