John Fleskes’ Blog

Flesk will be exhibiting at Comic-Con International in San Diego this July 21-25. We will be located at booth #5019.

This show will represent the debut of Al Williamson Archives Vol. 1! This collection features this beloved illustrator’s private work, revealed for the first time. It is packed with over 100 drawings. This book will be available to the general public in early August. All pre-orders through Flesk by August 1 get free media mail shipping in the U.S. Details on the book can be found here.

We will have copies of all of our titles including the recently released fantasy art collection Hallucinations by William Stout, James Bama Sketchbook, and the Flesk exclusive Blue Book by Mark Schultz featuring an assortment of Schultz’s preliminary drawings in blue pencil form for Storms at Sea and miscellaneous pieces culled from his personal sketchbook. Blue Book is signed and limited to 1000 copies and only $10.00.

Promotional fliers and pamphlets will be on hand for our fall releases. These include Jungle Girls by Jim Silke, The Legend of Steel Bashaw by Petar Meseldzija, Xenozoic by Mark Schultz and Inspirations by William Stout.

Five artists we have books on will be at the show. Mark Schultz will be signing at our booth each day as well as his own booth at 4901/4904, along with Gary Gianni. William Stout is just a few isles from us at booth # 4803/4805. Jim Silke is also nearby at booth # 4901/5000. Each of these fine gentlemen will be available to sign books and they will have original artwork for sale. Steve Rude is a guest this year. He will be doing a painting demonstration on Thursday from 1:00-3:00 in Room 18.

On Friday from 12:30-1:30 there will be a special panel celebrating the lives of Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson held in Room 3. “Remembering Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson” will be conducted by Arnie Fenner. He will be joined by Mark Schultz and William Stout.

We look forward to seeing you at the show! Please note the Flesk offices will be closed from July 20-26. All emails and messages will be replied to promptly as soon as we return.

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.

Best,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications
P.O. Box 3174
Santa Cruz, CA 95063
info@fleskpublications.com
www.fleskpublications.com
(408) 206-2346
Monday through Friday
11:00AM to 6:00PM PST

• Read More »

Harvey Dunn: Illustrator and Painter of the Pioneer West and The Legend of Steel Bashaw are listed in the July 2010 Previews Catalog. Orders are due by July 10. I appreciate all of your help by letting your local comic shops know about the availability of these books.

Here are the Previews order codes:

JUL10 1228 — Harvey Dunn: Illustrator and Painter of the Pioneer West (page 348)
JUL10 1275 – Legend of Steel Bashaw (page 355)

Click on the title names for full details on the books. Both are in full color. The denoted “PC” in Previews for partial color is incorrect.

Best,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

• Read More »

Hallucinations by William Stout is here! There are two editions for this fantasy art book collection. The paperbound edition is $19.95. The hardbound signed edition limited to 500 copies is available for $29.95. I have about 50 copies of the hardbound edition left. I have reserved this small batch for direct orders through Flesk. We will also have a few copies available at our booth at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Full details on the book can be found here. Click here for ordering information. Comic shops and book stores will receive their copies within the next week or two. Enjoy the interior sample images below!

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

• Read More »

Mark Schultz has drawn The Losers for the cover for the Our Fighting Forces September issue. Mark submitted a detailed pencil piece that could be used for advance solicitation. The next stage would have involved inking the approved artwork. But the editor, Joey Cavalieri, was impressed enough with the pencil art to run this version as the cover art. You can find both the pencil piece and the colored version below. For details on the upcoming comic, click here.

Enjoy,

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

• Read More »

The New York Times published an obituary on Al Williamson on June 20, 2010. You can read the article online by clicking here.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

• Read More »

A few days prior to Al Williamson passing away, Mark Schultz was interviewed by John Siuntres for Word Balloon Podcast. They happened to discuss Al Williamson during the interview, which has turned into a nice tribute. John also interviewed Steve Bryant specifically to cover more about Williamson’s career. You can listen to the podcast by clicking here.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

• Read More »

The following press release has been approved by the Williamson family.

Al Williamson, who for over fifty years drew for both comic books and comic strips, died June 12, 2010, at age 79. In recent years he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. He is survived by his wife of thirty-two years, Cori, his daughter Valerie and his son Victor.

Williamson was born in New York City in 1931, but spent his first thirteen years primarily in Bogotá, Colombia. In 1941, his mother took him to see the science fantasy movie serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, an experience which, combined with his love for comics storytelling, set his career course at an early age.

Williamson, who first and foremost considered himself a cartoonist, excelled at illustrative science fiction, adventure and western stories, pulling inspiration from both classic comic strips and motion pictures. He is highly regarded both popularly and critically for his excellent draftsmanship and dynamic storytelling. Most notably, Williamson was extraordinarily accomplished at rendering the human figure in motion. His classically proportioned characters twist and leap with a startlingly vivid illusion of movement in part evolved from his study of motion picture action choreography.

Williamson began his professional career in 1948 and achieved popular recognition in the early 1950s as the youngest and one of the most talented contributors to the legendary EC line of comics. Beyond EC, Williamson drew superior work for many comic publishers, including American Comics Group, Atlas/Marvel, Charlton, Classics Illustrated, Dark Horse, Dell, Harvey, King, Prize, Toby and Warren. From 1967 until 1980 he produced the art for the King Features Syndicate’s daily Secret Agent Corrigan newspaper strip, and from 1981 to 1984 drew the daily and Sunday Star Wars newspaper strip.

Beginning in the 1980s Williamson reintroduced himself to a new generation of comics readers as an inker for DC and then Marvel Comics, enjoying memorable stints finishing the work of other artists on Superman, Daredevil and Spidergirl.

The single comics character, however, with whom Williamson is most identified would be Flash Gordon. The science fiction adventurer, created in 1932 by Alex Raymond for King Features, engaged the lifelong imagination of Williamson. He produced a much beloved series of stories for King Comics’ Flash Gordon comic book in the 1960s. He returned to the character in 1980, drawing a comics adaptation of the contemporary Flash Gordon motion picture. In the 1990s, he produced a Flash Gordon mini-series for Marvel Comics and later contributing to the original Sunday strip. In addition to the stories, he produced countless other Flash Gordon images for uses in advertising, merchandising and the fan press.

He gradually retired from the professional ranks in the early years of the new century as one of comics’ most admired and influential creators. Over his career he received numerous professional awards, including multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards and the National Cartoonists Society’s 1967 Award for Best Comic Book Cartoonist.

Beyond his remarkable accomplishments as an artist—the works mentioned above represent only a sampling—Williamson deserves recognition as a veteran who often opened professional doors for many others starting their careers. An impressive number of comics contributors owe at least part of their success to Williamson’s willingness to recommend and promote new artists and writers to his editorial contacts.

Williamson was also an avid collector of comics and illustration art, valuing the beauty of original drawings produced for comic books and strips long before the physical art created by commercial artists was popularly appreciated. He will be fondly remembered by those you knew him for his generosity, his indefatigable sense of humor and his great enthusiasm in sharing his love of comics, illustration, movies and music.

Al Williamson took inspiration from a legion of cartoonists, illustrators and motion pictures from the first half of the twentieth century and created works of timeless appeal—and then he passed that inspiration on to new generations of comics creators.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, a donation in Al’s memory be made to either:

The Joe Kubert School
37 Myrtle Avenue
Dover, NJ 07801
Attn: Al Williamson Scholarship Fund

or

Yesteryears Day Program
2801 Wayne Street
Endwell, NY 13760

• Read More »

Al Williamson passed away the night of Saturday, June 12, with his wife, Cori and son, Victor by his side. The family will release a statement when they are able. I will post further details shortly.

Here’s to a great man, a brilliant cartoonist and a generous friend! He will be sorely missed.

John

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

• Read More »

At the moment I am wrapping up The Legend of Steel Bashaw with Petar Meseldžija. We’re fine-tuning the remaining details, then it will be off to the printer in a week or two. I’ve included a few sample pages of the “Making of” section. There are 20 pages of sketches and notes chronicling the 15-year process of the conception of this book.

Enjoy,

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

• Read More »

William Stout’s fantasy art book collection, Hallucinations, will be arriving in the comic shop and bookstores on or around July 1. Outside of the 50 copies of the hardbound signed deluxe edition I have held back for Flesk direct orders and the San Diego Comic-Con International, the rest of them are already reserved. Between the store orders and pre-orders, this is all I have left. This edition is limited to just 500 copies. I have no doubt they will be sold out by the time the San Diego show is over. You can reserve your copy now to guarantee you get one. Visit our website for details.

If you are in the Los Angeles area, Stout will be signing at the George C. Page Museum (La Brea Tar Pits) on June 19, 2010. He will also appear at the Famous Monsters Convention in Indianapolis from July 9-11, followed by Comic-Con International from July 21-25.

And speaking of Comic-Con International, we’ll be set up again this year. Same spot with two booths and right across from Stuart Ng Books. Mark Schultz will be making signing appearances each day. There will be some other artists making appearances, too. I’ll post the schedule as we near show time. I will have copies of Al Williamson Archives for the show. This will be the debut for the book!

Charley Parker wrote up a nice book review of our James Bama Sketchbook on his Lines and Colors blog. He writes, “Underlying both phases of his career is Bama’s skill as a draftsman, and that aspect of his art is brought out beautifully in a new book from Flesk Publications.” You can read the entire book review by clicking here.

Enjoy,

John Fleskes
Flesk Publications

• Read More »