“Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm” and instant Flesk bestseller!

After Flesk record-breaking sales, Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm deluxe hardback edition sold out in early February. Our distributors have sold out of the paperback edition as well. A fresh printing of the paperback is scheduled for release in May.

Naughty and Nice represents our largest initial print run for any Flesk book. I knew it would be popular and for it to sell out in the matter of a few short weeks is amazing. All of us at Flesk are celebrating the stellar success of Timm’s book!

Diamond’s January 2012 Previews catalog has announced Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm as the #1 bestseller in the books section, making this our first bestselling book! Congratulations to Bruce Timm on this well-deserved acknowledgement of a truly stunning collection of work.

I have held on to a small batch of the first printing of the paperback edition which is available for direct purchase on our online store. Furthermore copies will be on hand at our booth at WonderCon held in Anaheim, California on March 16-18. Wholesale requests to the book trade can be made through SCB Distributors and through Diamond Comic Distributors for the comic store specialty market, with copies becoming available through them in late May.

Thanks to everyone who purchased the book! I’ll be working with Timm to have a new limited chapbook ready for Comic-Con International in July.

Enjoy,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications
Text © 2012. All rights reserved.

Links:
Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm book details
Order Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm at the Flesk Store

Flesk Publications Show Updates

As 2012 moves along we look forward to the show season beginning for us.

This Friday, February 24 will be a Warren Chang: Narrative Paintings book signing. Warren Chang will be present from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Arts Council for Monterey County gallery in Carmel, California. This is the premier exhibition for The Arts Council’s new series “Celebrating Monterey County.” Admission is free and all ages are welcome. Original paintings and giclee prints of Chang’s work will be on display. For more information and directions visit The Arts Council website here.

We’ll be exhibiting again at WonderCon in Anaheim, California from March 16-18. Our booth number is 816. William Stout will be set up right next to us and Craig Elliott will also have his own space. Both Craig and I are excited to have the opportunity to show off his new “Art of Craig Elliott” book for the first time to the public. What do I think about the show not being in San Francisco this year? I think we’ll see a lot of new faces and possibly people who will choose to go to WonderCon instead of dealing with the crowds at Comic-Con. Business-wise I think it will work out just fine. Personally, from a purely selfish reason, I hope it comes back and stays in San Francisco. It’s a local show for me there and I like sleeping at home.

I’ll be headed to the Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle on March 30-31& April 1, not to set up, but to walk around and meet with a few artists and possibly find time to enjoy myself. It’s been close to ten years since I’ve gone to a show that I have not had a booth at. It’ll be nice to have some freedom. If my scouting mission goes well I’ll sign up for a booth there for 2013.

Without a doubt the show I am most looking forward to this year is the inaugural Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! event held in Kansas City, Missouri from May 18-20. I have an island reserved (four booths) and William Stout, Mark Schultz, Gary Gianni and Petar Meseldzija will be joining me. Craig Elliott will have his own booth close by. Also, our friends Jim & Ruth Keegan will be across from us. I am honored to have been asked to produce the show commemorative art book featuring the five guests of the show. They are Phil Hale, Android Jones, Mike Mignola, Brom and Iain McCaig. More details on this book, what we will be doing at the booth and my praise for the show coming soon in upcoming blog entries.

Now, an issue has come up in that my favorite local show for me, Big Wow! ComicFest in San Jose, California is running the same weekend as Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! Since I am already committed to the Spectrum show, it leaves me in a bit of a pickle since I want to support both shows. (I believe next year they are already planning on being on different dates.) I want to have a booth at Big Wow! as well. I’m checking with a few people who I trust and who know Flesk well enough to handle the show without me. More details soon.

Then on July 11-15 we will be at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The show is always exhausting, but tends to do well for us. We’ll be there again. Mark Schultz, Gary Gianni and Jim Silke are all show guests this year. William Stout and Craig Elliott will be set up at their usual spots not too far from me.

Then, our final show for the year will be APE, Alternative Press Expo, on October 13-14. I love this show. It’s a lot of fun with a hip and sophisticated crowd. Mark Schultz and William Stout will join me this year.

At this moment we are not planning on making a trip to The Netherlands for the Strip Festival this year, but very much hope to make it again in 2013. We can’t stay away for too long!

This completes our 2012 appearances. I hope to see you at one of these shows!

Enjoy,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Links:
Arts Council for Monterey County
WonderCon
Emerald City Comic-Con
Spectrum Fantastic Art Live!
Big Wow! ComicFest
Comic-Con International
APE

Flesk Publications New Facebook Page

We’re now on Facebook! I’ve wanted to start a page for quite a while now, but have not been able to find the time to get it going. Enter Jonathan Leveck, the latest gentleman to join the Flesk ranks, who has graciously volunteered to build and administer the page on an ongoing basis for us. Thank you Jonathan! He has already been very busy adding news items, book pages and all sorts of cool stuff. Check it out here.

Enjoy,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Link:
Flesk Publications Facebook page

Warren Chang Book Signing at the Winfield Gallery in Carmel, California.

Warren Chang

On Saturday, February 4 visitors to the Winfield Gallery in beautiful Carmel, California were treated with an outstanding warm spring like day for the book premiere signing of Warren Chang: Narrative Paintings. A fine art exhibition of Warren’s original paintings was also on display. My estimate is that approximately 70 plus people filtered through the gallery between the signing from 1 to 4 p.m. It remained quite busy as people took advantage of meeting Warren and viewing his paintings, which are spectacular to see in person. We are grateful for the support of the local community and visitors, many of whom left with a personalized copy of Narrative Paintings. At the end of the event, Warren, the gallery owner Chris Winfield and I were all very pleased with the turnout.

A large part of the success was from the cover mention and front page article in the “Life and Times” section of The Monterey County Herald on the Friday before the show, and then repeated in The Santa Cruz Sentinel on that Saturday. This same article can be found online at The Herald’s website. An article in the local paper The Carmel Pine Cone rounded out the press to make people aware of the festivities.

I was a bit eager to listen to peoples comments when comparing the book reproduction to the originals. It felt good to hear feedback regarding how closely they matched. This was something Warren and I worked very closely together to achieve. It serves no purpose to have a book come out that does not represent an artist’s vision. Reflecting the true colors, depths and tones of the originals is imperative. In this regard I feel publishing a book is a tremendous responsibility to get right.

However, as great as a book can be, nothing beats viewing the original paintings in person. Still on display at the Winfield Gallery are Warren Chang’s paintings “Studio at Chestnut,” “Harvesters Resting,” “Fall Tilling,” “Imitation of Life,” “Stacking the Net: Monterey Harbor,” (both the final painting and a study), “Artist in Her Studio,” “Studio Interior III,” “Twilight in Santa Cruz,” “Bus Stop,” and his “Jameson Whiskey” advertisement painting that can currently be seen all over the subways in New York City. If you can make it to Carmel, I highly recommend you stop in to view his paintings. They are truly moving.

Warren Chang discussing his "Jameson Irish Whiskey" painting.

Another Warren Chang exhibition of original works and Narrative Paintings book signing will be held this February 24 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Arts Council for Monterey County in Sunset Center, Room #5 at San Carlos between 8th and 9th in Carmel, CA 93921.

We look forward to seeing you there. Thanks to everyone who made it to the Winfield Gallery!

Enjoy,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Links:
“Stories on Canvas: Illustration meets fine art in the works of Warren Chang” article in The Monterey County Herald.
Arts Council for Monterey County website
Winfield Gallery
“Warren Chang: Narrative Paintings” book details
Warren Chang website

Meet Warren Chang. Book Signing and Exhibition This Weekend!

Come and meet Warren Chang at his book signing and exhibition this weekend. Join us to celebrate the release of Warren Chang: Narrative Paintings. The event will be held at the Winfield Gallery in lovely Carmel, California on Saturday, February 4th from 1-4 p.m. You can visit the Winfield Gallery website for directions and further details.

See you there.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Links:
Winfield Gallery website
“Warren Chang: Narrative Paintings” book details