Our Franklin Booth expanded and revised edition in the works. Coming from Flesk in the spring of 2022.This release date will coincide with our 20th Anniversary.
Our original Franklin Booth: Painter with a Pen collection came out in the spring of 2002. This new book will feature all of the art found in the first edition, plus over 100 additional pieces. We are expanding it from 112 pages to nearly 300 pages. Plus, Bunny Carter is writing an extensive essay that will serve as the definitive look at the career and life of Booth.
The cover price, the formats, and other details will be announced next year. We’ll start to take pre-orders by March 2022. This is the book that we all have been waiting for. https://www.fleskpublications.com/
I’m not one to brag, but I can’t help myself. Who wouldn’t brag if they had the chance to meet with Richard and Wendy Pini? These are two of the kindest and smartest people who I know. It was a wonderful surprise when the Pini’s visited in Santa Cruz the day prior to their guest appearance at the Silicon show in San Jose.
I could rattle on for a while about what a delight it was to see them in person, especially given how few people I’ve seen in recent times. I’ll focus on a pair of quick points.
We may have talked about a new project, which I can not confirm or deny may turn into something really cool! How’s that for being vague? I’ve been itching to work with the Pini’s again for years. As I shared an idea with them I watched in amazement as Richard took my basic pitch and turned it into something far more exciting than I originally imagined. I don’t usually offer a tease so far in advance, but I really wanted to demonstrate how much I continue to learn from the Pini’s and how quick Richard’s business mind spins. They have been publishing and staying fresh for over 43 years and there is a reason why.
On another note, they were nice enough to listen to my ideas for the business over the next few years. I have a vision about where I want to take Flesk and how to navigate through all of the unknowns to get there. They encouraged me on my path while offering some very good insight into areas that I had not considered before. It was an enlightening visit for which I am grateful.
Over the last few months I have emailed five artists who I have never met or seen in person to inquire about the possibility of working with them on an art book collection. None of them replied.
In contrast, I emailed two artists earlier this year who I had met in person at events in the past. Both of them replied the same day with a positive note expressing their enthusiasm to work together.
This was a good experiment to run. In the past we would almost always meet someone in person before extending an invitation to create an art book of their work. Ever since the comic and art events came to a halt in March 2020, we haven’t had the opportunity to walk the shows and meet new people. While events are starting to reopen now, I suspect it will be a long while before everyone is fully comfortable going to them to take advantage of networking opportunities.
Meeting people in person still continues to be the best way for us to build new relationships as we focus on younger and emerging artists, as well as artists who have been in the industry for decades. We have no shortage of books to make, but I am eager to invite a few new people to our publishing company. Books can take a few years to make, so contacting people now for our 2023-2024 release schedule is something that I am looking into.
I know there are online opportunities to get your name out there and to build your reputation. But for how my brain works, I believe there is no better way to make new connections than to do it in person.
Our Art of Tyler Jacobson Kickstarter campaign ends on Thursday, August 5th.
All of the book and print pledges come with a free signed mini-print and access to a streaming time-lapse video of the book cover and slipcase painting. We have a deluxe signed edition and trade hardcover on offer, along with some beautiful signed premium prints.
This art featured today is a thesis piece done by Tyler while he was in college. This book will show examples of his earliest drawings all the way up to his most recent paintings.
Covenant by Allen Williams is coming in late August.
This book is currently shipping to our Flesk warehouse from the printer. We can’t wait to ship these to all of our Kickstarter supporteres and to those who pre-ordered the book direct from us. We appreciate your patience while we waited for the book to get reprinted due to a printer error.
We’re almost sold out of the paperback edition of Xenozoic by Mark Schultz. We are printing more copies for our distributor to restock the book stores. More copies are coming later this year.
We have just a few boxes left direct from our Flesk website, including some of the hardcover signed copies.
You can learn more about the book and see sample pages here:
A graphic novelization of Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by the celebrated illustrator and writer of books, comics, and comic strips, Gary Gianni. The classic Verne novel receives an exciting fresh visual approach allowing the reader to experience the story anew. Twelve years after its initial release, Gianni’s visual adaptation remains one of our favorite Flesk titles.
We have a few cases of the book left at a special price of $14.95. Learn more about the book here:
It has been quite the week! Here’s a breakdown of some of the things that we have accomplished this week.
Thanks to Kathy and Vicky, plus our summer helper Rachel, all of the Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm and Pencil and Ink by Frank Cho books have been packed. The last of the U.S. orders ships today. The international orders all go out early next week.
Vicky and I worked with Tyler Jacobson to build and launch his art book Kickstarter campaign that went live last Tuesday. It’s been amazing to see so much support for Tyler.
I’ve been working with an artist and writer to finish a new book that is going to the printer today. This is an unannounced project with two new people who I have never worked with before. I’ll share the news about who they are and what the book is in the coming months.
Kathy even managed to squeeze in some Arthur Adams scanning.
I’d say we have had a productive week!
Next week we will continue to work on Tyler’s book, plus we have another book that has not been announced that is almost done. I’m also starting to think about getting started on the next Al Williamson book. There’s plenty going on to keep us going throughout the summer.
This is a brief overview of our year and what you can expect to see from us.
I’ll start with the photo. It was taken during a visit to the Al Williamson studio a few years back. Being able to see the “Savage World!” original art was a special moment. Especially while the pages were resting on Al’s drawing table.
Here’s a shipping update on the Williamson and Mark Schultz books.
If all goes well, we will have Al Williamson: Strange World Adventures, Carbon 4 by Mark Schultz, Xenozoic by Mark Schultz and the Al Williamson and Mark Schultz Astounding Sketchbook next week. The books are still at the port waiting to be offloaded from the shipping vessel. We will begin shipping our Kickstarter pledges and Flesk online pre-orders just as soon as they arrive.
As for our next wave of Flesk books, we have five other books at the printer. These include The Drawings of Edwin Austin Abbey, Covenant: The Art of Allen Williams, new books with Frank Cho and Gary Gianni, and a new printing of the Bruce Timm Naughty and Nice collection. Once the books have been printed and are being shipped to us I’ll reveal more and open them all up for pre-orders. We would like to see how the shipping transit times are looking before we announce the release dates.
In the meantime, we are working on the new Franklin Booth book, two new Arthur Adams books, three new William Stout books, plus we are wrapping up two books by a pair of new artists. Then we have the J.A.W. Cooper book to start in June, plus two other new artists who we will start working with in the summer. Then we will have more books featuring Mark Schultz and Al Williamson to work on for 2022. There’s more, but this is what we can share to date.
For the rest of 2021 we do not have any plans to exhibit at any shows. This includes the San Diego November show that we will skip. We will start fresh with events in 2022. Until that time we will continue to make the best books that we can.
