John Fleskes

Flesk Publications will be exhibiting at Book Expo America, along with our distributor SCB Distributors. The show runs from May 29 to June 1, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We will be at booth #’s 2601-2614.

We will have sample copies of our new book The Prince Valiant Page by Gary Gianni available to view. Our latest titles will all also be on hand, including Steve Rude: Artist in Motion, James Bama: American Realist, and the Various Drawings series by Mark Schultz. We will also be eager to share details about our upcoming books Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea adapted by Gary Gianni, and William Stout: Prehistoric Life Murals.

William Stout will be making an appearance at our booth on Friday. This is a great opportunity to meet the artist who created the murals for both Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, and the San Diego Natural History Museum. These venues can both be enjoyed during your visit to the LA area for BEA.

In addition, Flesk has produced special posters for Mark Schultz’s Storms at Sea and Gary Gianni’s The Prince Valiant Page. Theses exclusive items are only available from our booth.

We look forward to your visit. Feel free to take a copy of our new Flesk 2008 catalog while you are there.

We hope to see you at the show!

Sincerely,

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

I have a few pieces of original art up on Ebay this week. The three pieces of art at auction are the original preliminary back cover artwork to Spasm by Jeffrey Jones, a cool pin-up by Michael Kaluta, and a color drawing of Uncle Scrooge by Don Rosa. These are all terrific pieces and worth checking out.

You can search for the auctions by our Ebay user name “fleskpublications” or by using the artists names in the keyword search. The proceeds will help to fund Flesk promotional material for our 2008 titles. By winning the auction you get a great piece of art, and help support Flesk.

Thanks!

John Fleskes

We will be exhibiting at Super-Con this weekend, May 17 and 18, 2008. Stop by to pick up our show specials and latest titles, as well as to see our previews of upcoming books. We’ll have Mark Schultz Storms at Sea and Gary Gianni The Prince Valiant Page posters for $5.00 each, or one free with any purchase. These posters are only available through us at events we exhibit at.

Super-Con has been gaining momentum in the Bay Area. Their guest list is impressive. Based on my artistic preferences, I think it is better than WonderCon’s 2008 guest list. Adam Hughes, Frank Cho, Sanjulian, Dan Brereton, Jim Silke, and many more will be there. Super-Con will be held at the San Jose Convention Center. For more details visit their website at: http://www.super-con.com.

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

April 2008 marks the sixth anniversary of Franklin Booth: Painter with a Pen, and along with it Flesk Publications. Interestingly enough the idea for the Booth book came before the notion of forming a publishing company. Flesk Publications came about as a way of self-publishing the Booth book. I never considered approaching another publisher. I always knew I would self-publish. The notion of doing more books, and publishing others books had not come to mind until after I put out the Booth book in April 2002.

Let me move back a few months to late 2001. My friend Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.’s first issue of his ImageS magazine, and Dan Zimmer’s Illustration Magazine #1, both come out in 2001. These were very inspirational to me as two people who decided to self-publish magazines on their passion. At the same time, I’ve always loved collecting books on illustrators, and was waiting for someone to put out a book on Franklin Booth. While talking to Jim about this, I decided to do my own book. I was naïve enough to think, if these guy’s can do it, so can I. During the course of six months I learned InDesign and Photoshop, and the details about how to scan and prep the art (Jim was a tremendous help in this area), compiled the art and information, and had the book printed. Both Diamond Comic Distributors and Bud’s Art Books (formerly Bud Plant Comic Art) took the book to get me started. Looking back, I had no idea what I was doing, but it didn’t seem to stop or discourage me.

I found that I absolutely loved publishing and haven’t stopped since.

We are always looking for high quality scans of superb examples of Mark Schultz artwork for upcoming Various Drawings books. Chances are, if the piece is four years old or less (2004 to today), Mark already has a scan. If it is older (pre-2004), he probably does not. If you own an original Schultz that falls into this category, and are willing to share, please let me know. If we use your piece, we will add your name in the acknowledgments section and provide you with one complimentary copy of the deluxe edition of the book.

Besides having the scans for future book projects, Mark appreciates them as a record of his work. Up until the last five years, or so, prior to the convenience of computers and scanning, much of the artwork was not permanently recorded for his records. For many pieces from the eighties and nineties, the best record he has is a simple photocopy. Again, if you are willing to help, we would greatly appreciate it.

Scanning requirements are full color (RGB), 400dpi, as TIF files, at the original size. FTP server, email, or mailing a CD are all options for delivery. Costs for items mailed will be reimbursed.

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Summer 2009 is our goal. Throughout this year, Mark Schultz is focusing entirely on his upcoming illustrated novella Storms at Sea. This leaves little room for producing new work for the Various Drawings series. When Mark and I first started talking about his Various Drawings collections, we always knew a quality collection came before getting out a collection each year. In both of our opinion, each volume should be an improvement on the previous collection, both in artwork and in the books production. The last thing either one of us wants to do is scrape around his studio for anything laying around to fill the pages for the sake of getting out another book in 2008. Quality comes first, always. If all goes according to plan, we will have Storms at Sea and Various Drawings Volume Four out in 2009. The wait will be worth it!

John Fleskes

Flesk Publications

I thought some people might find it interesting to know what I’m up to right now.

I sent Gary Gianni’s The Prince Valiant Page book to the printer last month. I’ve gone over all of the proofs, approving everything except for the dust jacket. I’m still not satisfied with how the colors are coming out. They’re a little too dark and flat. As soon as we wrap up this final proof, the book will go to press. The book is definitely on track for its June 15, 2008 release date.

I recently had to have all of our book covers and book descriptions for our 2008 titles delivered to SCB Distributors, who handles our book trade sales. It’s always a challenge to prepare this material so far in advance. But ultimately, I am happy to have this information prepared and available for advance solicitation. I’ll have the Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon, Gary Gianni’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea adaptation, and William Stout’s Prehistoric Life Murals book covers and details up on our Flesk website soon.

Randy Dahlk is designing Stout’s Murals book right now. He also designed the three Mark Schultz: Various Drawings books, and will also design the Williamson Flash Gordon book. I really love the work he does and I’m grateful he has the interest to work on these projects.

Jim Keegan has spent over a month, so far, coloring the pages to Gianni’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea adaptation. Along with his wife Ruth, they are doing a phenomenal job. Jim showed me his newly finished colors to page three; pointing out the top panel crowd scene took him eleven hours to color! Jim went in and colored all of the people individually. I’m looking far back into the art, and these miniature people have their hats and faces colored. Most colorists would just run a flat color in the background and be done with it. Jim’s a true artist. He’s never satisfied until the art looks as best as it can.

I received the first draft of Mark Schultz’s text for the Al Williamson Flash Gordon book recently. One thing I appreciate about Mark is his ability to be objective. His goal was to produce a piece that did not come across as written by a fan. It points out Williamson’s accomplishments as well as weaker moments. The history of Al’s association on the character is fascinating as well. Mark completely leaves his own opinion out of it, providing succinct and interesting facts, allowing the reader to form their own opinion. Mark is touching up the text for the book, and should be finished in the next week or two. Looks like we’ll have everything in place for Randy to start the designs as soon as he finishes Stout’s Murals book.

That’s what’s going on right now. Be sure to check out the website in a few weeks to see more news and future book updates.

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications