Author: John Fleskes

I know we’re over three months away, but WonderCon will be here before we know it. And, I have some exciting news. Both Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz will be signing at the Flesk booth all three days! This will be Gianni’s first appearance at WonderCon.

Gianni’s art and Schultz’s script bring you Prince Valiant each week. We will have copies of Gary’s The Prince Valiant Page, as well as his new graphic novel adaptation “Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” available at the show. Also on hand will be a special signed The Prince Valiant Page poster that is free with any purchase.

Schultz will be available with previews of his upcoming Various Drawings Volume Four and Storms at Sea books.

Both gentlemen will have original art for sale! I will not know what art they are bringing until the show, and look forward to being seeing what they have for sale at the same time those who attend do.

WonderCon is held at the Moscone Center South in San Francisco. The show runs from February 27 to March 1, 2009. More information about the show can be found at their website.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Both Gary Gianni’s adaptation of Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and William Stout’s Prehistoric Life Murals are at the printer.

The Gianni book is on the press. I approved the second set of proofs last week. The printing and binding should be finished within the next two to three weeks. With this in mind, I expect to have the bulk shipment around mid-December for shipping to the stores and distributors. This estimated delivery date always seems to have a plus or minus factor of two weeks, depending on the shipping. There can be transit delays, such as the books being held in customs for an extra week.

Stout’s Murals book is in the early stages at the printer. I am awaiting the first set of proofs for review. I rarely approve the first set, as I tend to be particular about shadows, contrast, and making sure colors don’t shift. Or, sometimes proofs can come out too hot, or too warm. All in all, the murals book is in its final leg to completion.

With these two books at the printer, my full attention turns to Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon book. I am going through all of the material on hand, to see what we are missing, and to make a very rough book map to hand over to Randy Dahlk, the designer. This book map will contain the sequential pages, Mark Schultz’s text, and a scattering of sketches and unpublished drawings for Randy to play around with. This is a fun, highly collaborative project between Randy, Mark, and myself, with designs sent to Al and Cori Williamson for their input.

We’ve all decided to print Al’s finished art for his comic material in black and white. They are absolutely beautiful on their own. With almost the entire book scanned from the originals, the reader will be able to see Williamson’s tones, variations in line and shading lost in their comic book reproductions of the past. Our goal is to reproduce his artwork as faithful to the originals as possible. There will also be color works included, many unpublished.

If you are wondering what else is in the pipeline, we have started early development of five more titles. I will have full details posted on our website once the books have been completely fleshed out. Even though I am not ready to talk about the details, I can tell you one book is Mark Schultz’s Various Drawings Volume Four, then a Gary Gianni art book collection, and a new James Bama book! I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to continue working with these fine gentlemen, all of who also happen to be amazing artists!

As always, thanks to everyone for your support.

John Fleskes

Flesk Publications

Gary Gianni’s graphic novel adaptation of Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea will be available on January 1. In addition to the adaptation within, we have an introduction by Ray Bradbury, new drawings by Gary Gianni illustrating “The Sea Raiders” by H.G. Wells, and the book is colored by Jim & Ruth Keegan in a beautiful hardbound edition.  Full details and sample art can be viewed at the Flesk Publications website here.

 

Besides the trade edition, and signed and numbered edition, we will have forty super-deluxe copies available containing pencil preliminary art by Gary Gianni. These pieces were actually created for and used by Gary in preparation for this book. Those who purchase this special edition will be able to match up their art with an interior panel. The art will be tipped-in on a special page bound into the book. These copies will be numbers 11-50 of the signed numbered edition.

 

For those lucky enough to pick-up a copy of Gianni’s super-deluxe edition of The Prince Valiant Page, I would imagine you would be pleased, since they sold out quickly. Gary was kind enough to separate himself from more of his originals for this new book. We don’t have them priced yet. I expect them to be between $150.00 to $300.00 depending on the artwork and subject matter contained within. If you are interested on being put on the waiting list, please send me an email. I will contact you as soon as they are available. I let people select the artwork in groups of ten, going in order of when you signed up.

 

John Fleskes

Flesk Publications

Franklin Booth: Painter with a Pen is almost sold out. I have about twenty copies left. After six years of being in print and three printings, I don’t have any plans to reprint this book. I certainly could always change my mind in the future, but my guess is it would be years away from now. If you want one, I would recommend adding it to your collection soon. More information can be found here.

In case you are not aware of it, my good friend Manuel Auad of Auad Publishing has a great hardbound Franklin Booth book out. It has no duplication with my book. Check out the Auad website for more information.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Comic-Con International went very well for us. I am happy to have met so many new people, as well as to see a good amount of familiar faces stop by to visit. To have the opportunity to answer questions, and share our upcoming projects with people, is both welcome and fun for me.

I was very excited to have our new book The Prince Valiant Page by Gary Gianni on hand. This title turned out to be our best seller at the show, especially with Gianni providing head sketches in the book! We also unveiled our new Mark Schultz Xenozoic Tales print, which was our number two seller at the show. This is our first time producing a print and I am pleased with the results. Be on the lookout for a Mark Schultz portfolio in 2009.

One thing I appreciated at this year’s show was the crowd control. From the first day I showed up, I noticed a strong presence of comic-con workers directing people traffic. At the end of the day they even closed off the streets in front of the convention center, allowing for a quick crossing into the downtown area. The show opening earlier than last year seemed to relieve the crowds, too. There certainly were moments of deep crowds, but overall I found it much easier to get around this year, when compared to last year.

It was great having artist signings at our booth throughout the show. Thanks to Mark Schultz, who signed for two hours each day, Thursday through Sunday, and also to Gary Gianni and Steve Rude who made appearances. I am always impressed by how courteous Mark, Gary and Steve are with the fans. Each are gentlemen in their own right.

One of my perks is to go through Mark and Gary’s original art portfolios to savor the nuances of each drawing. Gary’s Prince Valiant original with a giant crab attacking a ship was unbelievable! And, Mark’s recent portfolio plates, prelims, and Storms at Sea Drawings! Wow! Later, I stopped by Steve Rude’s booth to see his art, especially the cool original demo he did live at the show.

I received an unusually high number of book proposals at the show. Almost all of which came on Friday. I have no idea why Friday was THE day for this? I normally do not view book proposals. The reason being is I collaborate with a small group of artists who I enjoy working with, and only have the time to publish a handful of titles each year. All of which I am extremely passionate about. Between the few artists I work with, and my personal projects, I am booked for the next four years–at a minimum. To date, the only book submission I have accepted is Brian Kane’s wonderful book, James Bama: American Realist. Brian set a high bar for other book submissions to follow. He provided me with a very professional and detailed book synopsis and chapter design samples to give me a full picture of his vision. That was in 2004. The reason why I immediately committed to Brian was because of his presentation, and the artist in question, James Bama, is someone who’s work I am crazy about. In brief, I am looking for someone who is capable of doing a suburb job on the book, and shares a passion with me for a particular artist.

Throughout the show, I was pleased to visit many creators I admire. One person I always enjoy talking with is Gregory Manchess. I have been familiar with his work for about fifteen years, going back to his children’s book illustrations and article in the Step-by-Step magazine. He is a supurb and powerful painter. He illustrated the third volume of The Complete Conan. Unfortunately, that’s the only collection that did not come out as a special edition from Wandering Star and has not been reproduced in color, yet. During the show, Greg did a painting demonstration of Hellboy at Arnie and Cathy Fenner’s Spectrum booth. I caught about ten minutes of the two-hour demo. This is one of the highlights of the show for me. You can view the demos online at their website.And speaking of the Fenner’s, I was ecstatic to spend more than a few minutes at the show with Cathy and Arnie and get to know my early inspirations on a more personal level. It’s no secret that the Fenner’s and Walt Reed (and Jim Vadeboncoeur) are my biggest influences in starting publishing. I’ll definitely need to write a blog covering everything they have accomplished and how they inadvertently helped get me started.

I got to see my friend Charlie Kochman, editor at Abrams. He’s the man behind the sweet new Jack Kirby book. It was a pleasure to see him, as always. I met Todd Hignite for the fist time at the Heritage Auctions booth. He has done some phenomenal work with his Comic Art magazine, and has completed a Jaime Hernandez book for Abrams. Other artist I respect and admire that I had the honor of talking with include Jim Silke, Geoff Darrow, John Zeleznik, Terry Dodson, Dan Brereton, Arthur Adams, Frank Cho, and many more.

Stopping by Albert Moy’s original art booth was as amazing as ever. His booth is like a museum. If you are interested in purchasing the finest comic art around, this is the place to go. Stuart Ng had a wide-assortment of cool books by artists I have never heard of. He continues to find a plethora of interesting French and random art books that make their way into my library.

One thing I hear every year from a certain few is the grumblings of San Diego not being like it used to be. The complaint revolves around the idea that the show has little to do with comics anymore. I disagree. Personally, I think the show is better than ever and I am excited by the changes and growth in the last five years. I agree the show is very different than fifteen years ago, but it’s still fun.

I think comics are greater than ever. I say this knowing comic book sales are dropping, but that doesn’t mean comics are dying. The difference is the delivery of the content is changing. People are getting their fix through alternative channels like graphic novels, books, television, movies, and pop-culture publications. What I recognize is that comics are still loved and enjoyed by a huge audience. Just because the individual sale of a comic book is dropping, does not mean the genre is dying. It’s alive and growing, as far as I’m concerned.

As always is the case, I came back from the show pumped-up to get to work. Having the chance to meet many talented artists and see their originals inspires me to work harder and get better at publishing.

A special thanks goes out to Cliff Moore, Paige Silverman, and James Walker II, who were a terrific help at at the Flesk booth all throughout the show! I couldn’t have survived without them!

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by, whether it was to visit, or purchase one of our products. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Best,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

With our postponing Mark Schultz: Various Drawings Volume Four until 2009 to allow Mark to focus on his upcoming book, Storms at Sea, we wanted to still provide a new Schultz product this year. Our solution is Mark Schultz’s first new Xenozoic Tales product in over ten years in the form of a fine art print. Its debut was at Comic-Con International in San Diego. This proved to be one of our best sellers at the show, of which we are grateful.

The Xenozioc Tales print is now available to order direct from Flesk Publications. Both regular and premium signed and numbered editions are available. Full details can be found here.

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications