Flesk Publications at Comic-Con 2011 — Part 2. Artists and Signings.

At the 2010 Comic-Con we only had a handful of artist signings at the Flesk Publications booth. I wanted to stimulate more activity at my booth and made an effort to increase the number of artist appearances for 2011.

First of all, Mark Schultz gave up his previous spot which he shared with Gary Gianni and Jim Keegan for the last 10 years or so and moved to the Flesk booth. Mark was with us each day with guaranteed signing times in the morning. Then he would pop in and out throughout the rest of the day. This gave Mark the freedom to come and go as he pleased and not have the responsibility that comes with being committed full time to a booth for five days. He did end up staying with us much of the time, but I know the mental freedom of not being chained to a booth was rewarding for him. I’ll always have a welcome spot for Mark should he choose to continue staying with us.

Bruce Timm stopped by for an hour on Thursday which brought in a steady stream of fans. Even with our keeping the new BT Naughty and Nice Teaser chapbook behind the counter and limiting it to two per person we still blew through many copies. Bruce noticed copies of his Teaser were up on Ebay a full week before we premiered them at the show. I checked and sure enough they were up there. I held back copies just for our Flesk store for those who didn’t make the show. There are still some signed copies left if you want one. They will only run you $15.00 instead of the $35.00 and up prices you will find on Ebay.

Pierre Alary, in conjunction with Stuart Ng Books, did two signings at our table. They ran on Thursday and Friday for two hours each session. Pierre was doing beautiful drawings in his Sinbad and Belladone books purchased from Stuart Ng Books. Even though we do not publish Pierre’s work, I am a huge fan of his and was more than willing to open up a spot for him at our booth. I filmed him drawing three full sketches during his second session. I’ll have video clips up of Pierre drawing on our future revamped Flesk website which will be available in a couple of months.

To get off track for a second, Mark Schultz and I took a little break on Saturday at a quiet spot behind the convention center. During this time away, I filmed him drawing a Hannah portrait and a dinosaur sketch. I will post these clips on the new Flesk website once it is ready.

Also, I filmed Bill Carmen working on one of his gallery paintings. I saw Bill painting at his booth and happened to have my camera with me. I got a good clip with some commentary while he was working. This will also be available online in the near future.

Adam Warren did a signing on Saturday. This was another case of my admiring an artist’s work and my willing to give up a spot for a few hours for him to sign.

Gary Gianni stopped by and we put him to work signing his new Mysterious Islands books. He also was kind enough to sign all of our copies of Flesk Prime that I brought along for the show. Schultz, William Stout and Craig Elliott followed suit by providing their signatures. This made for four out of the five artists’ autographs that are featured in the book. I have a small amount left signed by these four and will add them to the Flesk store in a few days.

Then, Emily McGuiness unveiled her self-published book, Ties at our booth on Saturday.

I would like to thank all of the artists for their willingness to sign at our booth!

For 2012 I would like to increase the number of signings and artists. I enjoy having the positive energy at the booth. I’ve already been in touch with some great individuals. I look forward to surprising everyone with some fresh faces and our always exciting familiar faces for 2012.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Best,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications
Text © 2011 John Fleskes

Links:
Flesk Online Store
Stuart Ng Books