Kathy and I spent a few hours going over all of the Flesk books we are working on over the next year. Thanks to Vicky and Lauren helping us now we are in a position were we can take on another book by an artist who we have not worked with before.
It didn’t take us very long to
come up with a list of 15 names. Now, we will take our time to narrow
down the list to one name before reaching out to the artist to see if he
or she is interested.
There are two that stand out the most to me, but my goal is to hand over more decisions to Kathy and Vicky to see who they are the most interested in contacting. I don’t want this company to reflect only my tastes.
I never expect that anyone would want to work with us. I’ve been turned down a few times, and that is perfectly OK. I never feel rejected since people may have their own plans and goals that take them in a different direction.
Working with a new artist goes far beyond what they do. It is also who they are and how they treat others. For instance, in few rare cases, there have been artists who are friendly to me, but not necessarily kind to James or Kathy. If someone talks to anyone here like they are a servant I will not work with that person. I won’t share the stories, but you’d be surprised.
But, my aim is for this to be a positive note while so much weird stuff is happening all around us. Thanks to people who supported us this year we could bring in Lauren and Vicky and we can look to the future. You have our thanks.
Two artists! Three Books! Four Prints! The Schultz and Williamson variety fun pack presented by Flesk is now live on Kickstarter!
Our latest Flesk Kickstarter campaign offers three new books! The first is the latest art book by Mark Schultz, Carbon 4. The second book, Xenozoic by Mark Schultz, is a handy to hold and affordably priced new printing of his classic Xenozoic Tales comic series. The third book focuses purely on the legendary Al Williamson, titled Strange World Adventures! Plus, we have four premium prints on offer: one by Williamson, and three by Schultz. Please read the details on our Kickstarter campaign page. Thanks so much for all of your support!
We sincerely hope that you are all doing well and that you are safe and healthy.
The Art of Frank Cho books arrived
at our Flesk warehouse! We entered phase 3 in Santa Cruz County, just in
time, making it open for tourism and for Frank to visit.
All of the Art of Frank Cho books, the prints associated with our Kickstarter campaign and all of the Kickstarter bonus items have been signed. Frank ended up doing just over 7000 signatures.
Kathy, Vicky and I have started packing. Due to Covid-19 we are still
being very cautious. We normally bring in a crew of helpers to pack
books, but we decided to limit the operations to just the three of us.
What this means is greater safety for us, but that means it will take us
a little longer to get you your goodies that normal. We hope you all
understand.
As of yesterday, 600 domestic packages of the signed deluxe edition
have been shipped. We are concentrating on mailing out all of the books
first, then we will mail the prints immediately afterward.
I’ll post weekly updates to inform you on what has shipped to date.
Big News! I’ve stepped down from Spectrum to focus on some new projects and visions. It has been an absolute joy to work with the Cathy and Arnie Fenner and to be a part of Spectrum. The friendships formed over the years has been incredible. Thank you all for your support and help!
Here’s the official press release with the details.
John
Changes for Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art
For Immediate Release
(06/08/2020) Overland Park, KS John Fleskes, the current Director of the Spectrum Fantastic Art competition and editor of the resulting book, has announced he will be stepping down from both positions following the publication of Spectrum #27 in October, 2020. Spectrum Fantastic Art founders Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner will return as Directors and editors beginning with the 28th annual competition in the Fall.
“Spectrum is an extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive project” says Cathy Fenner, “and John has many books for his Flesk Publications line that he is very passionate about but has been unable to pursue because of the energy and focus Spectrum demands. He also has some deeply personal projects outside of publishing that he needs time and attention to bring to fruition—and there are only so many hours in the day. Arnie and I greatly appreciate all of the excellent work John and his staff have put into Spectrum, SFAL, and the fantastic art community for the past seven-plus years and sincerely wish him the best of luck with all of his future endeavors.”
“It has been an absolute joy to be a part of Spectrum,” shares John. “I still have the same enthusiasm and care for Spectrum and the art community that I have always had. Both Arnie and Cathy Fenner have been wonderful to work with as mentors and friends. I can’t thank them enough for their trust in me and for their support over the years. I consider myself very fortunate to have had this experience. Being able to work with so many creative and amazing people is something that I will forever be grateful for. I’ll continue to be very active in the art world as I focus on a new line of books that I am eager to publish and I’ll be setting the foundation for a new vision that is close to my heart.”
John’s final volume, Spectrum #27 (as well as all previous in-print volumes), will be available through Flesk Publications and to the book trade via distributor Publishers Group West as usual.
The addresses for the Spectrum website and social media pages will remain the same; Spectrum 28 will open for entries in October, 2020 and the book will be available in October, 2021. Further announcements regarding the new Spectrum advisory board, additions to the Spectrum staff, the poster artist and jurors for #28 will be made at a future date.
Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art was founded by Cathy and Arnie Fenner in 1994 and is the renowned international symbol of excellence for the field of fantastic art. John Fleskes became Director/Editor/Publisher of the series in 2013.
For 27 years Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art has
been celebrating imaginative works by creators from around the world.
The Spectrum Awards Ceremony was held live online on Saturday night, April 4,
2019.
The celebration included the presentation of the Gold and Silver Awards for
exemplary art from the previous year in eight categories: Advertising, Book,
Comics, Concept Art, Dimensional, Editorial, Institutional, and Unpublished.
The ceremony was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 450 people
from all over the world connected to bring the community closer than ever. Recipients
from Australia, Canada, China, Japan, and in Europe were able to participate. For
the first time all of the recipients were able to provide winning speeches.
The ceremony introduction was by Spectrum founders and directors, Arnie and
Cathy Fenner. Lauren Panepinto and Dan dos Santos served as the hosts during
the ceremony. Between Lauren, Dan, along with Marc Scheff who ran tech support,
the three of them made it possible to bring the awards ceremony live.
The in memoriam introduction was presented by John English. He gave a
touching tribute about his father, Mark English, and spoke about how each
artist who passed away in 2019 served as mentors and changed people’s lives for
the better.
Presenters included such luminaries of the art community as Ed Binkley (Unpublished
category), Dan dos Santos (Advertising category), Christine Foltzer (Book
category), Karla Ortiz (Concept Art category), George Pratt (Comic category), Cynthia
Sheppard (Institutional category), Yuko Shimizu (Editorial category), and Chris
Sickles/Red Nose Studios (Dimensional category).
The five finalists and award-recipients in each category were selected by the jury consisting of Alice Carter, Craig Elliott, Anthony Francisco, Courtney Granner, Forest Rogers, and Chie Yoshii from over 4000 artworks submitted to the twenty-seventh annual competition.
Also presented at the ceremony was the Muse award, created and presented by sculptors Colin and Kristine Poole and intended to encourage a young artist. This year’s Muse award recipient was Alex Dos Diaz. Muse award finalists included Alex Dos Diaz, Irina Nordsol Kuzmina, and Erin Vest. The Spectrum Grand Master Award was presented by Iain McCaig which honors the career accomplishments of a living artist. This year’s Grand Master recipient was Terryl Whitlatach.
Time lapse art demos were featured in-between each category by Rovina Cai, Donato, Scott Fischer, Justin Gerard, Ron Lemon, Travis Lewis, Rebecca Leveille-Guay, Iain McCaig, Allen Williams, and James Zapata.
The Spectrum 27 awards were designed and made by J. Anthony Kosar and his
team at Kosart Effects Studio.
The award-winning art will appear with over 300 other pieces selected by the judges in the Spectrum 27 book, which will be published by Flesk Publications in November 2020.
Congratulations to everyone who was nominated and to the recipients!
The Spectrum 27 Awards Ceremony was sponsored by Drawn and Drafted, Flesk
Publications, Muddy Colors, and Spectrum Fantastic Art.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for an unforgettable evening.
Spectrum 27 Awards Recipients
2017 GRAND MASTER HONOREE
Terryl Whitlatch
RISING STAR AWARD Alex Dos Diaz
ADVERTISING CATEGORY
GOLD Bartosz Kosowski – The Shining
SILVER Brom – Lilith
BOOK CATEGORY
GOLD Rovina Cai – Ivywood
SILVER Sija Hong – The Three Lords of Shambhala
COMIC CATEGORY
GOLD Tim Probert – Lightfall 1: Walk in the Woods
SILVER Claudya Schmidt – Myre: Flora
CONCEPT ART CATEGORY
GOLD Tooth Wu – Devourer of Ghosts
SILVER Ian Jun Wei Chiew – Island Woodblock
DIMENSIONAL CATEGORY
GOLD Dug Stanat – Space Madness
SILVER Michihiro Matsuoka – Philosopher From The Past Coelacanth
EDITORIAL CATEGORY
GOLD Red Nose Studio – Truth, Lies & Uncertainty: Truth
SILVER Sam Araya – The Forest Yell
INSTITUTIONAL CATEGORY
GOLD John Jude Palencar – The Stranger: The Seventh Faith
You’re Invited to the Spectrum 27 Awards Ceremony!
Live online this Saturday, April 4th at 8pm. Please join us in toasting our community and the Fantastic Arts. It’s absolutely free and it will absolutely be fun.
A big note of thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered our upcoming Bruce Timm book so far! We’ve had a tremendous response. It is very helpful when people pre-order since not only does it help us to pay our initial printer bill, but it also helps me to determine the print run. I enjoy how many books that we sell direct since we like the relationship that we have with all of you. Thank you!
The Big Teasecollects his three Teaser collections—released from 2011 to 2013 and long sold out—plus Surrender, My Sweet from 2015. In addition, Timm has created new material especially for this collection and delved into his personal archives to share pieces not shown before. These culminate in more than 75 additional pages of material not reproduced in any of his previous Naughty and Nice collections. In all, over 260 women drawn in pencil, ink or color fill these pages. Timm’s art is reproduced at an impressive size and showcased in this oversized format.
The hardcover edition is only available direct from us at Flesk. Save $10 by pre-ordering your book at this special price. This collection ships in mid-June 2020. The book is done and at the printer. All hardcover pre-orders come with 2 free bonus 8 x 10” mini-prints that feature B.T. art found within the book.
I was curious about how long we have been working on this collection. I went through my emails and found the following message that I sent to Bruce on November 5th, 2018. (This is just a small portion of the email.
“I have a little itch to work on something else in the background.
“What do you think of making a new collection of your nudes that would collect the 3 Teaser’s and Surrender My Sweet into a 9 x 12″ collection? We’d be looking at 112 pages of material.”
Bruce’s reply was, “Consider me interested.” (Also, a small portion of his response.)
Since I know how busy Bruce always is I had suggested that this book was something that we could do without him needing to produce any new work, except for a cover piece. Well, here we are 1 year and 4 months later with a 208 page book that has an additional 75 pages of material not reproduced in any of his previous Naughty and Nice collections.
Bruce is a joy to collaborate with. I always work around his schedule knowing that in time we will have a beautiful new collection. For this reason we are grateful for your patience and truly hope you will enjoy this book.
We’ve had a lot of inquiries asking if Bruce can sign the books. His schedule is too tight and busy to allow him to. However, we hope some of you can meet him in person at the San Diego Comic Con where he can sign it for you in person. That’s the one show where he makes an appearance each year.
Here’s the link to pre-order if you are interested.
With everything that is going on right now, I wanted to reach out to
you and wish you all well. I hope that you and your family and friends
are safe and healthy.
We’re all doing good here. Kathy, Vicky and I are working from our respective homes while we are sheltered in place.
What does this mean for us at Flesk Publications? We can run the business from home with the one exception of mailing packages on a daily basis. For the time being we have limited our shipping to once per week until we are given permission by the city to resume our office operations. Only essential businesses are allowed to continue to operate at the moment. Health services, grocery stores and gas stations are examples of essential businesses. Thank you for your patience as our online orders ship slower than usual until the city gives us the safety clearance.
The health of our community, our friends, and our families takes
precedence during this time. We’re doing our part by staying at home to
respect the ordinance and to refrain from inadvertently adding to the
problem.
During our shelter in place we will use this time to pour all our
energy into being creative and to working with our artist friends. It’s
our goal to use this time of sheltering to make some beautiful new
books, including Spectrum 27, a new Arthur Adams collection, and our
first big book that highlights Rachel and Terry Dodson. We look forward
to sharing these new titles with you once we get through this
unprecedented situation.
The Art of Frank Cho is at the
printer. It’s too early to tell if there will be any delays with the
book, but we will get through this incredibly challenging time and
everything will be ok.
From Kathy, Vicky, Lauren and myself here at Flesk, and from Frank,
we wish for you and your family to be safe and secure and hope that you
all come out of this situation healthy. We’re grateful to all of you for
your support over the years. You have given us this gift of being able
to publish art books. We can’t thank you enough.
Spectrum 27 Call for Entries poster by Paul Sullivan
The complete list of artist names selected for inclusion into the twenty-seventh volume of Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art is now available!
These creators that work in every style and medium–both traditional and digital–represent the finest in the fantasy, horror, science fiction and the surreal genres from around the world. You will find top industry names who serve as the current definition of excellence and discover the rising stars who are being published for the first time.
Individual emails to those artists accepted will begin to go out this week. Full details regarding the next steps will be provided.
From everyone here at the Spectrum and Flesk offices, we would like to thank all of the artists who submitted to Spectrum 27. We couldn’t do what we do without your support. This includes putting out the Spectrum annual each year, organizing and running the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live event, putting on the Spectrum Awards Ceremony where we hand out the Spectrum awards, and making the artist feature videos that we post online. You have our most sincere gratitude. Thank you!
Spectrum 27 will be available from Flesk Publications in the fall of 2020 at your favorite comic and book store.
A
Mattias Adolfsson Alex Alice Marie Alice Sam Araya Steve Argyle Tommy Arnold
B
Daren Bader Anna and Elena Balbusso Wylie Beckert Ed Binkley Steven Russell Black Michael Blank Paul Bonner Zoltan Boros Bruce Brenneise Brom Laurie Brom Alan Brown Thomas Buchanan Dmitry Burmak Wesley Burt Chris Buzelli
C
DJ Cacouault Rovina Cai James Cain Thomas Campi Bill Carman Milivoj Ceran Lynn Chen Zhiying Chen Ian Jun Wei Chiew Frank Cho Heonhwa Choe Yongjae Choi Jehan Choo Waiji Choo Dan Chudzinski Hilary Clarcq J.A.W. Cooper
D
Daarken Jessica Dalva Galen Dara Bastien Lecouffe Deharme Julien Delval Jie Deng Eric Deschamps Peter de Seve Laura Diehl Daxue Ding Anna Dittmann Daniel Dociu Terry Dodson Hope Doe Dan dos Santos Allen Douglas Adam S. Doyle Chris Dunn
E
Jesper Ejsing Micah Epstein
F
Diego Fernandez Thomas Fluharty Owen Freeman
G
Shaun Gentry Justin Gerard Annie Stegg Gerard Donato Giancola Gary Gianni Cory Godbey Nicholas Gregory Chuck Grieb Oleg Gritsak James Gurney Scott Gustafson Breanna Guthrie Arturo Gutierrez
H
Brian Haberlin Leesha Hannigan Wang Hao Alex Herrerias Ben Hill Sija Hong Alex Horley John Howe Te Hu Steven Hughes Risa Hulett Robert Hunt
I
Alina Ivanchenko
J
Tyler Jacobson
He Jie (Mona)
Romain Jouandeau
K
Jim and Ruth Keegan Edward Kinsella Tatsuro Kiuchi Ki Kline Bartosz Kosowski Sebastian Kowoll Maxim Kozhevnikov Thomas Kuebler Tami Kuo
L
Mathieu Lauffray Elizabeth Leggett Vanessa Lemen Shuxing Li Yangtian Li Kan Liu Jonah Lobe John Loren Travis Louie Ashly Lovett Howard Lyon
M
Felipe Machado Greg Manchess Finnian MacManus Michael MacRae Michael Manomivibul Patrick Masson Michihiro Matsuoka Ben Mauro Iain McCaig Chris McGrath Seb McKinnon Tara McPherson Miranda Meeks Petar Meseldzija Brynn Metheney Brett Mich Aaron Miller Mike Miller Christel Morvan Jason Mowry Reiko Murakami Sean Murray
N
John Nadeau Mark A. Nelson Daniel Newman Cliff Nielsen Tran Nguyen
O
Tim O’Brien Michael Avon Oeming James Ortega Pernille Orum
P
John Jude Palencar David Palumbo Dustin Panzino Andy Park Amirah Patel Angi Pauly Liam Peters John Picacio Lucas Pina Alessandra Pisano Colin Poole Kristine Poole Marc Potts April Prime Tim Probert Vincent Proce Magdalena Proszowska
Q
Wu Qinghao Queen Studios
R
Andrea Radeck Chris Rahn Henrique Rainha Omar Rayyan Red Nose Studio Rob Rey Wayne Reynolds Tooba Rezaei Olena Richards Paolo Rivera Virginie Ropars Feifei Ruan Steve Rude Greg Ruth Grzegorz Rutkowski James Ryman Entei Ryu
S
Karl Deen Sanders Leonardo Santamaria Mauro Santini Axel Sauerwald Steven Saunders Chris Seaman Arantza Sestayo Claudya Schmidt Cynthia Sheppard Allen Song Baiheng Song Dug Stanat Chase Stone William Stout Yuko Shimizu
T
Shaun Tan John Tedrick Thom Tenery Agnieszka Trojanowska
V
Olivier Villoingt Thomas von Kummant Timothy Von Rueden Johannes Voss
W
Sam Weber Jan Wessbecher Sam White Allen Williams Erica Williams Jeremy Wilson Bayard Wu Esther Wu
Y Lixin Yin Leif Yu
Z
Amir Zand James Zaraam Enzhe Zhao Fan Zhang David Zhou Daniel Zrom
The jury for Spectrum 27: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art has nominated the top five artworks in eight categories for consideration for either a silver and gold award. Judges Alice A. Carter, Craig Elliott, Anthony Francisco, Courtney Granner, Forest Rogers and Chie Yoshii debated the merits of hundreds of pieces of art before finalizing this list on Saturday, February 8, 2020 at the Flesk Publications offices in Santa Cruz, California.
Established in 1993 by Cathy and Arnie Fenner, the first Spectrum annual appeared in 1994 from Underwood Books; for over a quarter of a century it has attracted participants from around the world and has set the standards for excellence in fantasy and science fiction art. John Fleskes became the Director and Publisher of Spectrum in 2014 with volume 21.
The recipients will be announced at the Spectrum 27 Awards Ceremony that will be held at the Grand Ballroom of the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, MO on Friday evening, March 20, 2020. The 2020 Spectrum Grand Master Award honoree will also be announced during the ceremony.
Congratulations to all of the artists who have been nominated!
This text only list is followed by the list that includes the art.
ADVERTISING CATEGORY
Anna and Elena Balbusso Twins – The Magic Flute Backstage Brom – Lilith Bartosz Kosowski – The Shining Alessandra Pisano – The Part You Throw Away Bayard Wu – Fighting in the Harpy Nest
BOOK CATEGORY
Sam Araya – Arthur Jermyn Rovina Cai – Ivywood Dan dos Santos – Penric’s Progress Sija Hong – The Three Lords of Shambhala Yuko Shimizu – The Wind Up Bird Chronicle
COMIC CATEGORY
Thomas Campi – L’éveil, page 25 Jessica Dalva – The Dollhouse Family #1 Tim Probert – Lightfall 1: Walk in the Woods Claudya Schmidt – Myre: Flora Leif Yu – Rainforest
CONCEPT ART CATEGORY
Ian Jun Wei Chiew – Island Woodblock Te Hu – la Marcarena Finnian MacManus – Xulith Andy Park – Captain Marvel Binary Powers Concept Design Tooth Wu – Devourer of Ghosts
DIMENSIONAL CATEGORY
Michihiro Matsuoka – Philosopher From The Past Coelacanth Lucas Pina – Guardian of the Forest Colin and Kristine Poole – Spinner of Dreams Dug Stanat – Space Madness David Zhou – Harpy
EDITORIAL CATEGORY
Sam Araya – The Forest Yell Galen Dara – Many Hearted Dog Angi Pauly – Blue Moon Harvest Red Nose Studio – Truth, Lies & Uncertainty: Truth Tooba Rezaei – Blue Hope
INSTITUTIONAL CATEGORY
Tyler Jacobson – The Broken Sword/Throne of Eldraine Iain McCaig – Claim the Firstborn Mike Miller – Quest John Jude Palencar – The Stranger: The Seventh Faith Chase Stone – Tymaret Chosen From Death
UNPUBLISHED CATEGORY
Diego Fernandez – 492 Axel Sauerwald – Ascent Jan Wessbecher – Celsius 13: Junkyard Crew Allen Williams – Armaros Daniel Zrom – The Spoon Thief
ADVERTISING CATEGORY
Anna and Elena Balbusso Twins – The Magic Flute Backstage Brom – Lilith Bartosz Kosowski – The Shining Alessandra Pisano – The Part You Throw Away Bayard Wu – Fighting in the Harpy Nest
BOOK CATEGORY
Sam Araya – Arthur Jermyn Rovina Cai – Ivywood Dan dos Santos – Penric’s Progress Sija Hong – The Three Lords of Shambhala Yuko Shimizu – The Wind Up Bird Chronicle
COMIC CATEGORY
Thomas Campi – L’éveil, Page 25 Jessica Dalva – The Dollhouse Family #1 Tim Probert – Lightfall 1: Walk in the Woods Claudya Schmidt – Myre: Flora Leif Yu – Rainforest
CONCEPT ART CATEGORY
Ian Jun Wei Chiew – Island Woodblock Te Hu – la MarcarenaFinnian MacManus – Xulith Andy Park – Captain Marvel Binary Powers Concept Design Tooth Wu – Devourer of Ghosts
DIMENSIONAL CATEGORY
Michihiro Matsuoka – Philosopher From The Past CoelacanthLucas Pina – Guardian of the Forest Colin and Kristine Poole – Spinner of Dreams Dug Stanat – Space Madness David Zhou – Harpy
EDITORIAL CATEGORY
Sam Araya – The Forest Yell Galen Dara – Many Hearted Dog Angi Pauly – Blue Moon Harvest Red Nose Studio – Truth, Lies & Uncertainty: Truth Tooba Rezaei – Blue Hope
INSTITUTIONAL CATEGORY
Tyler Jacobson – The Broken Sword/Throne of Eldraine Iain McCaig – Claim the Firstborn Mike Miller – Quest John Jude Palencar – The Stranger: The Seventh Faith Chase Stone – Tymaret Chosen From Death
UNPUBLISHED CATEGORY
Diego Fernandez – 492 Axel Sauerwald – Ascent Jan Wessbecher – Celsius 13: Junkyard Crew Allen Williams – Armaros Daniel Zrom – The Spoon Thief
Congratulations again to all of the Spectrum 27 nominations!
