Our fourth Jim Flora anthology is officially available today. Our first book, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (2004), featured Flora’s known album covers. Since that book’s publication, more vintage covers have been found, as well as the artist’s rough drafts and rejected illustrations. The Mischievous Art went through two editions, but is now out of print, highly sought and available only at high prices through rare-book sellers. So we decided to compile a complete collection of Flora record…

The JimFlora.com homepage, long overdue for an update, finally got one. Besides our forthcoming book, The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora (due September 7 from Fantagraphics), you’ll find a first announcement about a Flora centennial exhibit at Silvermine Arts Center in September 2014. We’ve also added Amazon.com links for our two Flora children’s books reprinted by Enchanted Lion. In the coming weeks we will post information about several additions to our fine art prints catalog.

Gary Groth (left) and Kim Thompson On Wednesday we noted the death at age 56 of Kim Thompson, co-publisher (with Gary Groth) of Fantagraphics Books, under whose imprint we’ve graced the world with three Flora anthologies. (A fourth, The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora, arrives in September.) Kim served as the company’s editor and point person for my (and Barb Economon‘s) Flora books. He conferred with us and designer Laura Lindgren during development and production, ensured…

Fantagraphics Books co-publisher Kim Thompson passed away this morning at age 56 after a four-month bout with lung cancer. Kim served as editor and point-person on our three Flora anthologies, and we missed working with him on our soon-to-be-published book #4. I’ll post a detailed personal perspective on Kim tomorrow—which means I’ll devote 50 times as many words explaining what a great guy he was to work with and how much we’ll miss him. Our…

Untitled pen & ink drawing, 1942 (reproduced in our  second book, The Curiously Sinister Art of  Jim Flora)

More current activity in the Florasphere (see Part 1 here): We’re preparing several new fine art prints for release, including a Mambo For Cats giclée (the oversized screen print sold out last year, but the Mambo mini remains available). Above is a mockup of a proposed print that might make it into 2013’s release queue. Our Tokyo-based Floraphile friend Takashi Okada has compiled and designed The Raymond Scott Songbook, a magnificent two-CD set of vintage and rare Scott recordings…

One of our representatives will be with you shortly. Your visit is very important to us, and we look forward to answering your questions. Such as: What’s up with the Flora blog, the website, and Jim Flora art in general? The paucity of new posts in recent months does not connote inactivity in the Florasphere. Here’s breaking news—and news which has previously broken: Flora co-archivist Barbara Economon and I have completed a new book—our fourth— for Fantagraphics:…

… a Cugat conga line, to pre-order the new Flora anthology, The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora. It features all of Flora’s known album and EP covers (including back cover illustrations) from 1947 to 1961 for Columbia, RCA Victor, and their affiliated labels, along with music-themed fine art works, illustrations, and sketches. The book was completed last week and will head shortly to the printer. (Despite what it says at Amazon, the publication date…

There’s been little Florablogging in recent months. Not for lack of interest, certainly not for lack of fresh material. We could post something new every day for the next five years and still retain a cache of surprises. A few years ago we discovered a sketch album that contained 225 (artist-clipped and glued-in) pencil and ink drawings from the 1940s, very few of which were subsequently published or posted. That album alone could carry us…

We received a photo of this festive tableau from our good friend (and devoted Floraphile) in Japan, Takashi Okada. The greeting card, a vintage artifact ca. 1944, was purchased by Takashi from the Flora collection a few years ago. Behind the card sits a demo of Takashi’s forthcoming Raymond Scott Songbook, a 2-cd collection of rare Scott archival recordings and new cover versions by a variety of artists. Positioned to the right is a figurine…