We are very excited to be flying to Maryland early next week for the Baltimore Comic Con.
We will have our Flesk booth packed with our latest art books. Arthur Adams, Frank Cho, Wendy and Richard Pini, and Steve Rude are all special guests. This is an all-star line-up that you won’t want to miss.
Each artist will have some goodies available for purchase at their respective booths. You can also bring along some of your favorite comics or books to get signed.
I have spent the last week working on the new J.A.W. Cooper book. This collects a large variety of beautiful paintings and drawings from the last couple of years. I find the movement of this pencil drawing to be so alive and graceful.
In some ways it gets easier to work on a book with an artist who I have made a few books with before. We have that trust and line of communication in place. But, in other ways it gets harder. As the artist grows, I feel I need to grow and improve alongside them. I put a lot of pressure on myself to not lose my sense of curiosity and wonder.
I came up with a flow and pace for this book that is a new approach that respects her past books and art, but adds a clear independent voice to it. I’m excited to run it by Cooper tomorrow to see what she thinks.
Whenever I design a book, no matter how much time or effort I put into it, I’m always willing to throw it all away and start over from scratch if a better idea surfaces. The best situation is when a design that I present to an artist sparks an idea from them and we end up making something better together than we could have done alone. I feel like if I get blind to a bad design, then I will be stagnant and fail to represent the artist. In this sense, I am never precious about a design and always open to trying a new approach.
I’ll keep you updated about the release date. Paper shortages and supply chain issues are still a problem. But, this will come out in due time.
All fifteen of these Flesk titles are now officially out of print and out of stock from our book trade distributor–PGW. These are no longer available to order by book or comic stores.
The last remaining copies are available on our Flesk website. We have anywhere from just a few copies to a handful of cases left of each title.
It is rewarding to see how popular all of these books have been. You have our thanks for making these art collections a success!
Al Williamson: Strange World Adventures (The paperback edition is sold out. We have hardcover copies available.)
Ballpoint Beauties by Frank Cho (Limited copies of the paperback is available.)
Carbon 2 by Mark Schultz (Limited copies of the paperback is available.)
Carbon 4 by Mark Schultz (Limited copies of the paperback and hardcover is available.)
Drawing Beautiful Women: The Frank Cho Method (Limited copies of the hardcover is available.)
Spectrum 21 (Paperback and hardcover is sold out.)
Spectrum 22 (Limited copies of the paperback and hardcover available.)
Spectrum 23 (Limited copies of the paperback and hardcover available.)
Spectrum 24 (Limited copies of the hardcover is available. The paperback is sold out.)
Spectrum 25 (Limited copies of the paperback and hardcover available.)
Spectrum 26 (Paperback and hardcover is sold out.)
Spectrum 27 (Limited copies of the hardcover is available. The paperback is sold out.)
Storms at Sea by Mark Schultz (Limited copies of this hardcover is available.)
The J.A.W. Cooper Genesis Collection (This book is sold out.)
The Thousand Demon Tree by Jeffrey Alan Love (Signed paperback edition available.)
We have new collections in the works with Arthur Adams, Frank Cho, J.A.W. Cooper, Rachel and Terry Dodson, Jeffrey Alan Love, Richard and Wendy Pini, Mark Schultz, and Al Williamson.
Thanks for supporting us to allow us to make more art books!
Our Art of Tyler Jacobson Kickstarter campaign ends on Thursday, August 5th.
All of the book and print pledges come with a free signed mini-print and access to a streaming time-lapse video of the book cover and slipcase painting. We have a deluxe signed edition and trade hardcover on offer, along with some beautiful signed premium prints.
This art featured today is a thesis piece done by Tyler while he was in college. This book will show examples of his earliest drawings all the way up to his most recent paintings.
We had a driveway visit with Jeffrey Alan Love earlier this week. Jeff was kind enough to sign more copies of his Notes From the Shadowed City and The Thousand Demon Tree books. We have them available on our Flesk website.
It was nice to catch up with Jeff and to hear about a
pair of book ideas that he has. He’s a great guy and wonderful to work
with. I look forward to publishing more books with Jeff in the future.
When people learn that I’m an art book publisher, the number one question that they ask is if I am an artist.
The answer is that my gifts lie elsewhere. Instead of being an artist, I have this fortunate position to be able to bring people together, to help raise the awareness of the art community, to be able to make books on the artists whose work that I love, to share who these artists are with others, and to raise artists up, while playing a part in putting the spotlight on them. In addition, I am humbled by being able to participate in running the Spectrum awards ceremony. This ceremony goes far beyond simply handing out awards. We get to recognize the entire fantastic art community on stage, in a prestigious theater. This was a dream for Arnie and Cathy Fenner to be able to to one day. And now this vision has become a reality where hundreds of people can participate.
Fantastic artists, on stage, in the spotlight, being recognized for outstanding achievement, among their peers, the fans, and the community. It’s unlike anything else.
So no, I’m not an artist. I was not given that gift. But, I’m ecstatic that so many others have this gift and that I can help share your gifts with others.
I hope you can join us at the Spectrum 26 Awards Ceremony that will be held on March 30, 2019 at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, MO.
Thanks for making so much beautiful art, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this community.
If you are interested in submitting to Spectrum 26, you have until Thursday, January 24th.
The Stoke Out 2018 charity event was a big success! I’ll write more about it later, but for now here’s me and my buddy Gary Velo and his son “J” after a busy day of volunteering. (And some dodgeball action afterward!) Dozens of volunteers made it possible to help hundreds of families today. It was a good day.
I’m back to working on the new Al Williamson art book. Here’s a picture that I took of a stack of X-9 originals in Al’s studio to whet your appetite while you wait for me to finish the book.
Much of the detective work has been done. I have all of the art that I need with few exceptions. I just need to get scans of a handful of prime EC originals, and a few scans from Creepy, Eerie and House of Mystery–then there will be representation from just about every area that Al touched.
I haven’t set a release date. It’ll be done when it’s done. I’ve been wanting to do this book for the last 8 years. I’m pretty happy to be sitting here with Kathy as we chip away at it!
