As of this week, my first two books, Franklin Booth: Painter with a Pen and Joseph Clement Coll: The Art of Adventure, are both sold out. The last few copies were purchased this week. I don’t have any plans to reprint them.

The Franklin Booth book was my first title. It still has a lot of meaning to me, as at the time, I never suspected its completion would lead to my becoming a publisher. I had the simple goal in mind of putting out a collection on an artist I remain passionate about. I started Flesk Publications as a means to self-publish my own title, but didn’t really have a plan beyond the single book.

With the release of Painter with a Pen in April 2002, and the immediate and encouraging reception it received, it didn’t take me long to begin researching material on Joseph Clement Coll. I knew Coll was one of the stellar pen and ink adventure artists from the early 1900’s. Doing a book on his work was an obvious choice. I didn’t spend much time, if any, debating who I would focus on next. With the help of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr, Bud Plant, and Walt and Roger Reed at Illustration House, I didn’t foresee finding enough material to do two volumes. It just goes to show how quickly plans can change through the course of a project.

The Art of Adventure came out in the summer of 2003, following by A Legacy in Line in the summer of 2004. By the way, the paperback version of my second Coll book, A Legacy in Line, is sold out. The hardback is still available.

Thanks to everyone for making these three books a success. Your support has helped to produce our books on James Bama, Mark Schultz, Gary Gianni, Steve Rude, and William Stout!

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

William Stout

William Stout will show slides and give a lecture on his work, and be signing his new book, Prehistoric Life Murals, at Nucleus on Saturday, June 27, from 2PM-6PM. Original Stout artwork will be on display from June 27 - June 30.

The Nucleus gallery is located in Alhambra, CA. For directions, click here. To learn more about Nucleus, they have an informative page here. You can visit their website here for more information on the gallery, book store, and other events.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Spectrum

Arnie and Cathy Fenner have announced Spectrum Exhibition II on their Spectrum Fantastic Art website. The show will feature selected works from Spectrum volumes 12-15. The event is scheduled to open on September 1, 2009 and will run until October 17 at the carriage house headquarters of the Society of Illustrators in New York City.

More information, and photos from the first show in 2005, can be found here.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Welcome to the June installment of Flesk news. Information about our upcoming three titles, Comic-Con International in San Diego, and an upcoming book signing with William Stout follows.

Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic, Mark Schultz Various Drawings Volume Four, and Major Thrill’s Adventure Book by Gary Gianni will be available on August 1. All pre-orders direct from Flesk by July 15th receive free shipping.

You can also order our books through your local book and comic stores. Flesk titles are distributed to the book trade by SCB Distributors, and to the comic specialty market by Diamond Comic Distributors.

Both Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic and Mark Schultz Various Drawings Volume Four are available to order in the June 2009 issue of Previews. Comic shop owners and patrons can use the following DCD order numbers to obtain your copies.

JUN09 0912 Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic SB $29.95
JUN09 0913 Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic HB $44.95
JUN09 0914 Mark Schultz Various Drawings SC Vol 4 $19.95
JUN09 0915 Mark Schultz Various Drawings LTD HC Vol 4 $29.95

We also have the Flesk exclusive, Major Thrill’s Adventure Book by Gary Gianni, available direct through us only. You can order your copy by phone or mail, or pick it up at Comic-Con International in San Diego, Flesk Booth #5019. We will be debuting this book, along with the new Schultz and Flash Gordon titles at this show. Both Mark Schultz and Gary Gianni will be signing at our booth.

Fans of William Stout can meet him at the Nucleus Gallery “Prehistoric Life Murals” book signing event. Stout will be in the gallery Saturday, JUNE 27, from 2 - 6pm. He will be showing slides, speaking about his work, and upcoming projects. Development sketches and originals will be on exhibit from JUNE 27 - JUNE 30. This is an all-ages event for all dinosaur lovers. Nucleus is located in Alhambra, CA. More information can be found at their website here.

Full details on all of our books and the most recent news can be found on our website, and my blog. Thank you for your support. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Robert Greenberger has written a feature on our upcoming book, Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic. It is located on his Westfield Comics website here.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Flash Gordon

Both Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic and Mark Schultz Various Drawings Volume Four are available to order in the June 2009 issue of Previews. Comic shop owners and patrons can use the following DCD order numbers to obtain your copies.

JUN09 0912  Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic SB $29.95

JUN09 0913  Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic HB $44.95

JUN09 0914  Mark Schultz Various Drawings SC Vol 4 $19.95

JUN09 0915  Mark Schultz Various Drawings LTD HC Vol 4 $29.95

The books will be available for early August shipment to the Diamond Comics Distributors warehouses. You can expect the books to appear in the comic book stores shortly thereafter. The books have been printed and are en route to our warehouse.

The Flash Gordon book has been selected by Steve Leaf, of Diamond Comics, as his Staff Pick for the month. You can view his review here.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Michale C. Lorah has interviewed Mark Schultz for the Newsarama website. They discuss our upcoming book, Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifetime Vision of the Heroic. It’s a great read and can be found by clicking here.

The artwork above is a sample from the interior of the book.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

Gary Gianni

Marvel at the sumptuous delineations within Major Thrill’s Adventure Book! This collection provides a range of works spanning Gary Gianni’s entire career. His illustrations from newspapers, magazines, books, comics, and sketch material are represented. Discover the full scope of this talented artist. Many rare pieces have been culled from his personal archives, offering superior reproduction direct from his original art.

This unique collection has been produced especially for Gianni’s convention appearances and direct through Flesk only. We will debut the show at Comic-Con in San Diego at our Flesk booth.

The book is 32 pages, 8.5 x 11 in and contains 47 black and white illustrations. The price is $15.00. Full details and sample images can be found on our Flesk website here.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

29th May, 2009

Brad Kunkle contacted me with news of an upcoming exhibit if his work. His fine art gives me great pleasure. I would like to share his talent with the rest of you. His website is definitely worth the time to peruse.

Brad will be showing five new paintings at his first exhibit at the Arcadia Fine Arts Gallery in New York City from June 18th - July 2nd. Arcadia is a very distinguished gallery in New York, rooted in traditional and academic art. You can meet Brad during opening night on Thursday, June 18th, from 6-8pm.

You can visit Brad’s website here to view examples of his exquisite art. For further details about the show, visit the Arcadia Gallery website here.

Congratulations, Brad. Good luck at the show!

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

I have a few Ebay auctions going right now. There are originals by John Byrne, Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Smith, Sheldon Moldoff, Dave McKean, Shane Glines, Arthur Adams, Gray Morrow, and more. My Ebay ID is “fleskpublications.” You can click here to see everything I have available at the moment. I will be posting some fresh auctions next week.

Best,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

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