Hello, everyone,
We’re just one week away from launching our new Jeffrey Alan Love Kickstarter campaign. This event is to celebrate Jeff’s new graphic novel, The Last Battle at the End of the World. There will be a hardcover and a deluxe signed hardcover available. We are also releasing expanded editions of Notes From the Shadowed City and The Thousand Demon Tree. All three books will include a behind the scenes section that features sketches and commentary revealing how each book was made. The campaign will launch next Tuesday, February 4th at 9:00AM PST. We have a pre-launch page online where you can click on the “Notify me on launch” button. We’ll also send out a newsletter reminder that morning.
In other news, we returned from a short trip to the LA area last Sunday evening. It has been heartbreaking to see how the fires continue to affect people in certain areas. William Stout and his wife were evacuated at one point. They are safe and back in their house. We were glad to see the rain on Saturday and Sunday while we were there.
We had a nice get-together with Bruce Timm where we went over the second round of his new book together. Bruce’s original art is so valuable at this point that we stopped mailing packages years ago. Since we make a handful of trips to the LA area each year, we make a point to pick up and drop off material as we pass through. This is my favorite method since we can take our time photographing and scanning the art at home. Once the new material is organized, I drop the pieces into the appropriate book (we’re currently jugging three different themed books) and tighten up the book maps. Once I’m happy with the latest revision I print out a hard copy for Bruce and hand write or type any thoughts or notes that may be useful for him to see. I then mail this copy to Bruce. During our next visit I pick it back up from him. The printout will have his notes and sketch guides written and drawn all throughout to help guide the next revision. I have the second revision for one book in my hands. I will begin to make the appropriate improvements over the next few weeks. Bruce is an absolute joy to work with. He’s always pushing to improve the books, while being easygoing and thoughtful with his communication. We’ll keep going back and forth like this until a book is done. As soon as we are done with the first title, I’ll announce what it is. I’ll give you one themed book hint… HORROR.
On another topic, I had a few productive days working on the Daniel Warren Johnson book last week. I emailed and talked with Dan to fine tune the final art picks for his collection. There are a few recently completed pieces that we slipped into the book. I’m doing a little shuffling around to adjust the flow slightly. I tend to come up with new ideas often. It’s not unusual for me to make small or drastic changes all throughout the book map and design process. I’ve been having some recorded conversations with Dan to ask questions. I capture the relevant portions of our talks that I then transcribe into commentary. I send off the text to Dan who gives his words a final look to make sure his voice is captured correctly. I then insert the commentary on the relevant page. The artists like this method since they can draw while we talk, and they don’t have to write anything. I never plan my questions. Instead, we let the conversation go in any direction. In this way we get interesting and natural dialogue for the book.
I’m also working out some details with the printer for the two new Tran Nguyen books, Ambedo and Spectres. And I’m doing the same with the Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea revised art book by Mike Mignola and Gary Gianni. These details include obtaining the pricing, reviewing and ordering paper, and looking into some production options. This lets us review our budget, set the cover price for the books, fine tune the release schedules, and gather the final details for when we officially promote and offer the book to you all. This is typically a 2-3 week process depending on how much specialty work goes into the book. I have ongoing conversations with Tran, Gary and Mike to keep them up to date and to get their input and approval on everything. All our books are a collaboration and involve a lot of communication.
Besides the three Love books, the two Tran titles, the Gianni/Mignola collection, the DWJ and B.T. books, we still have the three-volume William Stout Comics set on the schedule to be released late this year. This Stout collection is stunning. I can’t wait to tell you more about it.
2025 will be our best year yet! We already have our 2026 and 2027 schedules mapped out as well. We are not considering taking on any new books or artists for the next five years. This is how long it will take for us to get fully caught up on all the upcoming books that are on our existing plate. I’m grateful that we are in this position. Thank you for supporting us so that we can continue.
Enjoy,
John
Flesk Publications
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Text copyright © 2025 John Fleskes. Photos by Vicky Lien and John Fleskes and © 2025 . Videos © 2025 Flesk Publications. Artwork © 2025 its respective artists. All rights reserved.
