All of the Kickstarter pledges and Flesk online store pre-orders for Carbon 5 by Mark Schultz have been shipped. Thank you so much for making Mark’s latest art book collection a success!
We have approximately 80 copies left of the hardcover signed edition that is limited to 800 copies. This fifth volume in his Carbon art-book series features new drawings and paintings, all created within the last two years.
For those who may want to pick up a copy, here is the link to learn more:
New graphic novel by Jeffrey Alan Love in development from Flesk!
A note from Jeff:
“I finished painting the pages for my next graphic novel with Flesk Publications last week. Whenever I finish a project I immediately think that I should redo it, as I’ve learned so much in the making of it, and I could do a better job of it now. There’s so much left to learn, and I hope I have the years left in my life to grow as an artist and writer in the ways that I hope to. Next up is working with a letterer to find a type that integrates with the art, painting the cover, and then letting John Fleskes work his magic.”
The book is currently being designed. We will announce a release date as soon as we are done.
Photographing Daniel Warren Johnson sketchbooks! We have been slowly working on a new DWJ book. We don’t have any details or a release date to share yet, but rest assured it is in development.
I was talking with Vicky and the subject arose regarding what our top sellers were for 2022. I never sorted out a top 10 list before. Out of curiosity we pulled up the numbers and found ourselves surprised with the results.
We decided to determine the rankings based upon the quantity sold rather than the gross sales. We then combined all of the editions for each title. For instance, paperback and hardcover and limited edition sales were all combined to make one grand total for each title.
Franklin Booth is the clear winner when factoring in both total sales and the total number of books sold. This book did far better than I expected. It came as a complete surprise when the hardcover edition that we offered on Kickstarter sold out. This book served as our Flesk 20th anniversary title and we poured a lot of passion into it. The success of the collection is a testament to just how extraordinary Booth’s art is. It’s great to see how someone who left us over 75 years ago can remain so relevant to a contemporary audience. And I can’t thank Alice Carter enough for her insightful manuscript detailing Booth’s life.
There is no magic formula to knowing how any one of our books will be received. I wanted to see this book back in print and guessed that others may be interested. Bruce Timm’s personal naughty drawings remain a bestseller year after year. He is a joy to work with and we have more books in the works together. Our other book with Bruce, The Big Tease, is currently sold out. I’ll bring this back to print once the shipping and printing costs drop back down to reasonable levels.
This was a very welcome surprise to see this title at the number three spot. This beautifully illustrated book is packed with Gianni’s pencil drawings. It’s a great value at only $19.95 for the paperback. Marcelo Anciano (editor and designer) and Gary Gianni poured their efforts and time into the creative design and production of this book. It was my pleasure to publish it.
Since we didn’t ship this book until 2022, I went ahead and rolled over the Kickstarter pre-orders from 2021 to combine with the 2022 sales. Even if I didn’t it would still have made the top 10. A gorgeous book and one that was a delight to work on with Tyler. His art is breathtaking. I’m delighted that he was willing to let us publish a collection of his art. We have some ideas that we are playing around with for a new book that will come out in the future.
I’m showing the cover for Spectrum 25 by Paul Bonner, but this is a combined entry for Spectrum 21-27. By grouping the sales for all seven volumes this book hits the fifth spot on the list. The sales for all editions for this series jumped in 2021 and 2022. Our distributor blew through the remaining inventory. Each volume is now sold out from our distributor and officially out of print. We have the remaining copies on our website.
No surprise here. Frank has always been a top and a steady seller here at Flesk. This book consists of all of the material that we wanted to add to his big The Art of Frank Cho book, but had to omit for space considerations. I feel satisfied and happy to have been able to share more great Cho art in this book. Frank is one of the best draftsmen in the business. His figure work is astonishing.
Even after almost a decade in print, The Art of Brom rules! We are sold out of the publisher edition and copies here at our office. The last remaining hardcovers are with our distributor and will sell out this year. Brom is a silly and really good guy who happens to draw dark subjects. I hope you have had a chance to read his novels too!
The most common question that we hear at events, in comments and through emails are, “When is new Xenozoic material coming?” My answer to you is that anything Mark wants us to publish–whenever it is done and ready–we will support him and get it into your hands. (Sorry for the politician answer.) We have had this Xenozoic book in print since 2010 and it remains one of our top sellers. This collects everything that Mark has written and drawn to date. It’s a terrific story that I enjoy reading over and over.
This book was over 15 years in the making. I met Brad when I was first starting to publish and he was first starting to become a serious painter. We always kept in touch and would visit with one another from time to time. We talked about working with one another for years. We remained patient and let the time present itself to us. The book came out exactly when it was meant to. We never rushed it and remained patient. I am thrilled with how beautiful it looks. The magic square idea that Brad came up with is brilliant and adds to how special this book is. I was reminded of something very important with this book. Brad’s collection may be the latest book that I have published, yet it remains Brad’s first. I have to work with everyone, and on every book, as if it is the first. The quality of the book always takes precedence over the release date and quantity of titles I publish in a year. I should note that if we determined this list by gross sales, this would jump to the number two spot.
I think it is pretty well known that it is tough to get published by me and that I do not take book proposals. A big part of this is because I made the conscience decision to keep this company small. That limits how much I can do in a year. When I received the email from Mark asking if I was interested in publishing this book it took me less than a minute to reply with a “yes!” Getting to work with Mark and Kevin was a dream. I absolutely love this book and am proud to have had the chance to publish it.
Honorable Mentions
Now it’s time for some honorable mentions. The Big Tease by Bruce Timm andBallpoint Beauties by Frank Cho may have been on the top ten if not for both titles selling out earlier in the year. I have plans to reprint both as soon as the supply chain issues have calmed down and shipping prices have subsided.
Next up is Covenant by Allen Williams. This book was a big seller in 2021. It’s nice to see it still being appreciated during the second year after its release. The Thousand Demon Tree by Jeffrey Alan Love was also popular. It would surely have had a higher ranking if it did not sell out at our distributor. I have plans to reprint this alongside Jeff’s next book that we will publish later this year.
The final book that I’ll note is Art of Gary Gianni for George R. R. Martin’s Seven Kingdoms. This is another magical collection put together by the editor and designer, Marcelo Anciano, and the artist, Gary Gianni. These two have packaged some extraordinary books and make quite the team. Again, this represents another time when I was lucky enough to publish a book by two people who I admire.
Back in June, Bruce Timm emailed me about a fresh stack of originals that he pulled together for me to scan for possible upcoming projects. When he mentioned that there was over 400 pieces we both got nervous about shipping them in the mail.
Vicky and I drove down to the LA area to scan and photograph the originals to make the process smoother. We arrived back home with enough material for three new Timm books. Pretty exciting!
This picture is of our makeshift office at the hotel. You can see a stack of originals on the scanner, and even more in the binder. There is another full binder that you can’t see in this picture. Bruce makes all of his art on standard copy paper. This is his favorite type of paper to work on.
Since this trip, Bruce has discovered more artwork. Another photography trip is in our future!
The first all-new book of three is planned for the fall 2023 at the earliest. I will share the details about exactly what each of these titles will focus on in the future. In the meantime, we hope you continue to enjoy The Big Tease and Naughty and Nice.
I’ve always held the belief that whatever challenges you face today are preparing you for something bigger in the future. These tests serve to build your confidence and provide you with the experience to help you to make the right decisions when it counts. Rather than look at an uncomfortable situation as a negative, I lean into it knowing that there will be a purpose revealed to me at some point when I’m ready to receive the lesson.
I also accept that as a business owner it is unhealthy to always win. Situations and scenarios should not always work to your favor. If they did, then there is no growth or learning and you may become entitled or sloppy. Things that do not work out were not meant to be. If I pursue a project and spend countless hours chasing after it, just to fall flat, I see it as my moving forward in other ways. No time is wasted and in the future there are opportunities that will arise from the failures of today.
Having this faith has always been helpful to me. That I believe it to be true allows my brain to move forward instead becoming paralyzed when faced with failure.
Over these last few years my belief in myself has been tested many times over. Since the pandemic hit these tests have arisen over and over again. As someone who has run a business for twenty years I can assure you that I don’t take any of our success for granted. It doesn’t take much to lose a business, even in the best of times. I’ve always been aware that it could all go away tomorrow, and that past success doesn’t guarantee future success.
I had all of these big plans for our twentieth anniversary with a full line of books coming out monthly throughout 2022. I quickly realized that I had to focus on adjusting and changing all of my plans. The ongoing issues that face us all continue to remind me that the flow of the river of life changes so suddenly and so often that I keep needing to change boats and paddles. Planning in advance doesn’t necessarily help. I’ve always been one who welcomes and gets a rush out of change. It keeps my brain stimulated. These last three years, since the pandemic hit, have been tough. I wouldn’t call it fun, and it has not carried the same type of usual excitement that I get out of challenges. There have been moments of high stress, which I will offer some insight into.
Prior to the pandemic the costs of business and scheduling were more predictable. I would deliver a book to the printer in Hong Kong and it would be delivered to our warehouse in California three months later. In rare cases it would take three and a half months. The shipping of a full cargo container of books would cost approximately $2500 after any processing fees and taxes and local truck delivery. During the peak of the pandemic this cost for a single container escalated to $26,000. The price is going back down now and is currently hovering at about $10,000 and it will drop more as the year progresses. I could write a full blog on the reasons why this happened and why I think the prices will eventually drop back down, but that is another topic. The focus is that our costs to have books printed and delivered skyrocketed. Especially as you factor in the paper costs rising about 40%. Imagine, a book that previously cost about $23,000 pre-pandemic to have made now costing upwards of $40,000 in less than a year.
What I did in March 2020, since I predicted that the shipping and manufacturing costs would explode, is I reprinted and had a batch of our books printed just as the pandemic hit. The printers had no work and needed business. I locked in good prices on paper and had a bunch of back stock printed. By the time our stock was delivered to us in the fall of 2020, manufacturers realized that people were still buying and were desperately trying to ramp back up. That’s when the shortages began in earnest and there weren’t enough cargo containers to handle the influx of goods coming to the west coast. This decision that I made early in 2020 saved us. We had a healthy amount of stock on our back list titles and it kept us afloat. This was a calculated risk, but it turned out to be a good call.
The other thing that got us through the pandemic was our website that was set up for direct orders going as far back as 2002. I worked at book stores and comic stores back in the nineties and had over a decade of convention experience helping friends at their booths. I’ve been involved in mail order transactions since the nineties. I knew that I wanted a solid website when I started my business in 2002 and allowing for a direct ordering system online. When the pandemic hit, our website sales took off. We had a solid system in place to handle the influx of orders and the stock to meet demand.
The other thing that saved us was using Kickstarter. Getting advance support and pledges from people helped us to cover these quickly rising production costs. It was enough to cover our warehouse rent, paychecks, artist royalties, printing and the extra shipping costs. I greatly reduced my salary and even did not pay myself on some months. Our profits took a hit, but I was happy to have a business that was surviving and where all of our bills were being paid when so many others were having a tough time.
Another thing set us up for the pandemic. In the fall of 2019 I felt that a recession would hit in the spring of 2020. This was due to my observation that cheap loans were readily available to businesses and the average debt for companies was at a high point. Once a recession hits, I felt that as profits would go down, businesses would be using their limited funds to repay debt and struggle through 2020. I made sure we had no debt and increased our savings in case things went soar in 2020. I was wrong about the recession since the pandemic hit, but my decision to better position our finances set us up to invest in our back stock with the printer in 2020.
Then, in the fall of 2021 some bad news hit us. Our printer of 17 years went out of business. I had such a good relationship with them. Due to the trust, I did not pay for printing or shipping bills until 30 days after the books arrived. As you can recall, it took three months to get books printed and delivered, then 30 days later I would pay the shipper and printer using our pre-orders funds. I would print 2-3 books at a time, and print about 8-12 books a year.
Not only did so many wonderful people who I worked with for years lose their jobs at the printer, I lost this relationship that I had built up over 17 years. I tried our backup printer, but they were nowhere to be found. I tried a printer in Canada. They could not take on any new clients since they were overwhelmed. The U.S. was not an option since the costs here at home are not affordable and the printers here are not set up for high end art books. In pre-pandemic times a new printer would fight for my line of books. Now, the printers could not handle the demand and were not even replying to emails. I found a printer in Belgium for Tyler Jacobson’s book. The costs were staggering to get it printed and delivery took seven months, but we got it made and into the hands of our Kickstarter supporters. I’m so grateful that the campaign did well. It just covered all of the costs.
Then, in December 2021 one of my long-time contacts with the printer who had closed in Hong Kong emailed me. She was with a new printer in Hong Kong. She knew how particular I am about printing and set me up with a new company there. I turned in our Franklin Booth, Brad Kunkle and Lupente: Flesk Artist Showcase (this book I have not advertised yet and will tell you all about it soon), on February 1, 2022. I negotiated fair terms, they ordered the paper, got the books printed and here we are 7-8 months later and they are arriving at the Oakland port in California soon.
Early this year, I made a conscious decision to hold back on delivering any of our other books to the printer for six months. A huge risk since this greatly affects our cash flow. I knew back in December 2021 that a few things would happen this year. The first was that manufacturers would print too many goods, that consumer spending would slow in 2022 as people started to travel and go out more, and that businesses would be stuck with too much product and have to sell at a discount to clear out inventory. Then, the printers and shippers would be more eager for work again and that prices would start to drop and turnaround time would improve. I focused on making new books here in the background, then pushed almost our entire line of books to 2023. But, this would never have been possible if I did not plan for it and make adjustments and certain decisions in advance. It was a big risk. But, I have faith it will pay off for us.
Currently, the biggest challenge we face is cash flow. As I mentioned, in the past books took 3 months to get made and delivered to us. Now it is taking 7 months on average and the base costs are much more expensive. Instead of our nice cycle of 2-3 books every quarter, we have 2-3 books every 7 months. Funds are being stretched out far greater than ever before. Also, paper mills and printers are struggling with cash flow. If a printer has to wait seven or eight months to get paid from a publisher, so does the paper mill. They are running out of cash, so they are all asking for deposits to help them manage their cash flow better. This is totally reasonable and understandable. This will probably continue until late next year. These deposits have resulted in thinning out our immediate cash flow. I do think it is important for printers to take deposits, since it holds publishers accountable. Otherwise, the publisher may over order or get too far ahead of themselves. It helps both sides. The printers may also be concerned that some publishers may not be able to pay their obligations later this year.
A challenge that I foresee for the future relates to our dwindling stock on back list titles. It’s a big positive that so many of our titles are getting thinned out. Now, it’s just a matter of replenishing the stock while navigating the best time to have them printed. Reprints tend to have smaller print runs. At today’s prices it is not viable to have them made. I’m watching things closely to make a decision regarding when and what titles can be brought back to print. For instance, The Big Tease by Bruce Timm could use a new printing.
At the moment I have quite a batch of books that are done and ready for the printer. As stressful and wild the last few years have been, we have managed to make a lot of really cool books that will be released in the future. As soon as the Franklin Booth and Brad Kunkle books arrive and we ship out all of the pre-orders, I will then make a pair of new announcements and run a new Kickstarter. I don’t like to take pre-orders for more than two books at a time. It limits how many books we can print right now, since I’m just a guy running a little publishing house, but I’m here for the long haul and aim to have a robust and solid company that makes nice books well into the future. Our saving grace has always been the support of people buying our books and placing pre-orders. Each and every day I am grateful to each and every person who has ever bought one of our books. My passion for books, my enjoyment in working with the artists, and my pleasure in getting our books into the hands of people keeps me going.
I’ve also been very lucky to have Vicky here working tirelessly at the office. She started as someone who occasionally came in to help pack books nearly five years ago, to now being an invaluable part of this business, including book design, photography and website updates. Good things don’t happen without the help of good people.
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!
We exhibited at SHM con at San Jose State University last Saturday, April 23, 2022. This student event is organized and run by the Art and Animation club (Shrunkenheadman) and is open to the public.
This show gives students and alumni an opportunity to gain event experience and to gather and visit with one another. It is a fun event with a lot of positive energy all throughout the day. We are grateful to have been invited by David Chai to be a part of the day.
We have, from left to right, Vicky, Laurence, Ocean and myself.
This is our Flesk table about 30 minutes before the doors opened. A big thanks to Ocean and Laurence for joining us to run an event table for their first time!
The SHM clap!
This picture is during the opening SHM clap to kick start the day. The show was very busy and all four of us enjoyed talking with people the entire time.
Vicky, Laurence and Ocean and the Flesk table.
Here’s Vicky restocking Spectrum books on the table. We brought bumped copies and had them at a greatly discounted price for students, which were very popular. Brom and Jeffrey Alan Love books were also a big hit.
Alice Carter and Courtney Granner giving the opening talk as things start to get underway.
This was our first event since SHM Con back in February 2020. I really missed seeing people and we are happy to be back to doing shows this year. We will be exhibiting at Baltimore Comic Con and Lightbox Expo this fall, with more events lined up for 2023.
Rachel Huang, one of the art students at SJSU who helped us in the office last summer. She is an amazing artist and has a bright future. Alice Carter (standing in the background) and I signing our first copy of the Edwin Austin Abbey book! Freshly signed!An SJSU alumni proudly showing his art in Spectrum.People listening in to the opening talk.
It was wonderful to see everyone! We’ll see you again next year!
The Telegraph Wire #19 cover by Arthur Adams and Mike Mignola. February-March 1985. This was a promotional giveaway from the Comics & Comix stores in the Bay Area. This Longshot and Rocket Racoon piece is a very early collaboration by these two legends!
We’ve been working hard here at Flesk on the upcoming The Art of Arthur Adams: A Forty-Year Retrospective book. This collection will show examples from each year of his career that spans from 1982 to 2022. I had a call with Arthur that lasted almost five hours last Friday to gather stories to use as captions. I have the captions for the first 100 pages typed up so far. The book has been fully mapped out and all of the art has been selected. Just as soon as I am done writing up the remaining captions, we will pour our energy into the book design. I can see it very clearly in my head, so the design work will flow nicely.
This is a really fun book to work on. We’re shooting for a mid-June delivery date to the printer, followed by a Kickstarter launch once it is on the press. I always feel much more comfortable when a book is done before launching a campaign.
Besides this book, our Rachel and Terry Dodson book is coming along very well. I mapped out their book and have one-third of their captions typed up. And, two other books that I have not even announced yet are almost done!
