New Flesk Books, Logo and T-Shirts. Plus, Shows and More.

I’m packing my bags for the flight to Kansas City, Missouri to exhibit at the “Spectrum Fantastic Art Live!” event put on by Cathy and Arnie Fenner this weekend. I’ll be taking pictures and notes along the way to share the experience here as soon as I return. For the moment, I have a handful of items I would like to talk about before leaving.

The first is, and with great sadness, I learned of Tony DeZuniga’s passing away late last week. I was informed by my good friend Manuel Auad, who was close to Tony. Manuel was kind enough to introduce me to Tony a number of years ago and I enjoyed the handful of times I was honored enough to speak with him. My immediate impression was that he was a true gentleman, a feeling which was reinforced with each successive meeting. He is missed.

This weekend, besides being the date for the “Spectrum Fantastic Art Live!” event, is also the weekend for “Big Wow! ComicFest” in San Jose, California. I am very disappointed to be missing this show as it is my local show being just 15 minutes from my house, run by a terrific group of guys who I like to support, and they have a killer guest list—including one of my favorites, and someone whose work I have published—Mr. Jim Silke. Unfortunately the two shows fall on the same weekend and I had to choose. My attempt to find someone I can trust enough to run a Flesk booth at the “Big Wow!” show failed, leaving me knowing I will miss an opportunity to promote ourselves there, along with SFAL!, and miss what will inevitably be a terrific show. Check out the website and if you are in the Bay Area, go!

In terms of books I am working on, I have finished, sent to the printer and approved the proofs for the Bruce Timm Naughty and Nice 2012 Teaser that will premiere at Comic-Con in July. I wanted to get it totally done before leaving for Kansas City. It’s looking really great! Bruce provided all new artwork created over the last few months. None of the material is art that didn’t make it into the main book. It is all fresh and incredible work. The Teaser is limited to 1000 numbered and signed copies. I’ll add it to our Flesk store for pre-orders in June.

Last year Terry Dodson put out two sketchbooks: Reveries and Bombshells 5. I provided some production assistance with both. I am in the process of helping Terry out again with another project. The details, though, I will leave to Mr. Dodson to share first on his website. For the moment he is traveling to London as a guest at the “Kapow! Comic Convention,” also running this weekend. Check out his blog in the next few weeks for some news on his trip and upcoming book details.

Last Saturday, our newly appointed Director of Operations, Jonathan Leveck, my friend Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. and I, all went to Monterey, California for the day for Warren Chang’s Narrative Paintings book signing at the Pacific Grove Arts Center. Sales of the book benefited the PGArts and Alba Farms. People had the chance to meet Warren and see over 40 of his original paintings. Afterwards, we visited Warren’s studio where I assisted with some modeling photography for Warren’s future reference. Out of respect for Warren, I will share the story with some photographs only once his new painting is complete and he is ready to reveal his process.

I know I am bouncing around here but, I have a lot of bits of information to share.

I will be revealing our new Flesk logo at the “SFAL!” show. I have long wanted to update my original Flesk “Franklin Booth tree” logo that I made way back in 2002. For our 10th anniversary I wanted something fresh and hip, yet reflected better who I am by making it more personal compared to the old logo which I feel is too old fashioned and out of date for the future of Flesk. (This explains why I haven’t used it for a while.) I put Randall Dahlk to task and he designed a new logo that I approved. The design and elements actually have a meaning to me yet; the exact definition is something I will keep under my hat. I’d rather let people define it as they want, and let it serve as a symbol of the company. My close friends will get it right away, and the few I have shown did.

Randy also created a T-shirt design incorporating the Flesk name and new logo. I had the shirts made on exceptional quality American Apparel T-shirts and hand screened at a local facility by a pair of outstanding craftsmen in Santa Cruz, California. You’ll see our staff at the Flesk booth all wearing them. I’ll bring a few extras along to sell. I’m really excited we will all have team shirts at the show. I’ll show off some pictures of them in a future blog.

The new Illustration Magazine came out last week. It features an article on one of my favorite artists, Coby Whitmore. I’ve been inspired by Dan Zimmer’s magazine since he started in 2001 and he still keeps these beautiful issues coming. This issue, #37, also has a full-page Flesk ad inside. I enjoy Illustration Magazine so much that I have been advertising with him since issue #4. And in the back of this issue Dan promotes our Flesk Prime and Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm books with praiseworthy reviews. Thanks, Dan!

I’ve been talking with Steve Rude about two new books. We’ve already gotten started on one of them. I’ll give you the skinny once I get back from Kansas City. It’s a pleasure to be working with “The Dude” again.

The new Flesk website is coming along well. I hope to have it go live by this summer. It’s mostly waiting for me to review and double check the content. My fault! But it looks amazing and I am anxious to share it with you all.

I look forward to seeing those that can make the “Spectrum Fantastic Art Live!” show! I haven’t been this excited about going to a show for a very long time.

Enjoy,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications
text and photos copyright 2012 John Fleskes. All rights reserved.

Links:
Big Wow! ComicFest
Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! commemorative book
Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! official website
Terry Dodson website
Kapow! Comic Convention
Illustration Magazine