The latest Flesk email newsletter was sent out today. I’ve posted it in this blog entry as well. If you would like to join our newsletter for future notifications, you can click here to add your email address. Jungle Girls and our other Flesk books can be purchased at our online store.
Enjoy!
John Fleskes
Flesk Publications
Jungle Girls is a celebration of that impossible, loony, glorious nonsense that Jim Silke somehow finds essential!
Jungle Girls unleashes over fifty never-before-seen images of the fabulous and provocative female inhabitants of the fictional world’s steamier climes, all created by that renowned modern master of the pinup, Jim Silke.
This sumptuous volume celebrates literature’s original “natural woman” in all of her varied and glorious incarnations. From earthy jungle goddesses and sensual jungle queens to bedazzling slave girls and haughty harem damsels; from resplendent tropical tramps and beguiling dragon ladies to brazen, semi-clad barbarian babes to Silke’s versions of the modern, bold, daring and dangerous beauties that prowl his imagination. They’re all here—including H. Rider Haggard’s She, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Jane and Hedy Lamarr’s Tondelayo. Each and every one of these delectable and decidedly dangerous beauties has been wholly captured— heart, body and soul—by Silke’s lush lines and brush strokes.
Jungle Girls showcases 52 all-new, simply stunning Silke illustrations, supplemented by an extensive selection of movie stills and other rare images from private collections, all of them carefully chosen to further heighten the reader’s enjoyment. As with all Flesk Publications, each and every page of this book will be reproduced, presented and printed on the best-quality paper to meet the highest, most exacting of standards, all to ensure that Silke’s “Jungle Girls” are presented to their best advantage.
In a playful tone Silke often refers to his fascination with jungle girls as “nonsense.” “Nonsense has been with us since the first bad joke was told, so the Jungle Girl nonsense that charmed my life in the early 1940s might just appeal to today’s young people, after all the video games and movies they enjoy today are almost all absolute nonsense," jokes Silke.
In reference to the gorgeous models that inspire his art, Silke shares, “Thank God for beautiful women, particularly those that pose for me."
When confronted by the possibility of distributors and retailers finding the cover artwork for Jungle Girls a bit too revealing Silke explains, "Looking at the book, now that it’s printed, it occurs to me that I spent an awful lot of time placing strings of beads on my gorgeous brown skinned girls in precisely the right place so the book could get past the censors."
Jungle Girls is 84-pages with two gatefolds at 8.5 x 11”. The softbound edition is $24.95, ISBN: 978-1-933865-32-4.
The hardbound deluxe edition is limited to 500 copies with jacket. Exclusive to this edition is a bound in plate reproducing an unpublished illustration. Each copy is numbered and signed. The cover price is $44.95, ISBN: 978-1-933865-33-1. Only 100 copies of this edition are left for sale.
About Jim Silke
Jim Silke served as the Executive Art Director at Capitol Records. He is the creator and editor of the magazines Cinema and Movies International, novelist (the Death Dealer series), and screenwriter (Sahara, King Solomon’s Mines, Revenge of the Ninja, etc.). His books include, Bettie Page: Queen of the Nile, Bettie Page: Queen of Hearts, Bettie Page Rules and Pin-Up: The Illegitimate Art. Silke has won many awards, including a Grammy for the cover of Judy at Carnegie Hall, an Emmy citation for AFI’s James Cagney Life Achievement Award, and citations from The Society of Illustrators, and the Los Angeles Art Directors’ Club.
Full details and sample pages for Jungle Girls and all Flesk Publications titles and our most recent news can be found on our website, and on publisher John Fleskes’ blog. Jungle Girls and our other Flesk books can be purchased on our online store. Thank you for your support! Feel free to contact us with any questions and interview requests.