About Ian Kennedy Art

Ian Kennedy (born 22 September 1932 - , Dundee, Scotland) was a UK comic-book legend! He passed away 6th February 2022.  

Growing up in Dundee in the Forties, Ian was enchanted by aircraft. An ear infection ended his dream of becoming a pilot, but a trip to Dundee Royal Infirmary led to meeting his wife to be, Gladys, who was a nurse and he pursued a career that involved drawing aircraft rather than flying them.

Ian started at D. C. Thomson & Co. in 1949 as a trainee illustrator, and in 1954, with a wife and son to support, took the decision to leave D.C. Thomson and go freelance. He has had a career in illustration and comic books ever since, continuing with cover art and private commission work right up to February 2022 - a career of 73 years!
Ian has produced many covers for different comics and annuals over the years (probably in excess of 2,000 published covers), as well as many interior strips ad illustrations. Ian works mainly in acrylic paint and particularly has a passion for aviation art.

In recent years, Ian continued to draw covers and features for Commando, other projects and commissions for fans.

This site was created to help provide some information on original art and commissions from Ian.

We are not currently actively selling Ian's art but may help the Kennedy family in the future when they are ready to do so,.

Blog

Link to Detailed bibliography at Comicsvine 

With over 70 years work it's tricky to list everything, but a few highlights are below.

During the 1950s Ian turned his hand to illustrating anything and everything. His work appeared in Hotspur, Rover, Adventure, Sun, Buck Jones and many other comics. In fact, it may be easier to list the comics Ian did not work for rather than the ones he did.

In the 1960s the Picture Library became a popular format and Ian worked on Air Ace, Bunty, Battle and War Picture Libraries. That's not to neglect the work he did for many of the weeklies such as Adventure, Hotspur and Bunty.

From the 1970s onward, Ian began to specialise in science fiction comics, regularly producing work for IPC's 2000AD and Star Lord. He also worked for Battle Picture Weekly, Buddy, Blake's 7, Eagle (Dan Dare), M.A.S.K., Victor Summer Special, Wildcat and D. C. Thomson's pocket books (including Commando).

Comics work is too numerous to easily list comprehensively here but interior sequential work includes:
Covers
  • 2000 AD #96, 446
  • Starlord #20
  • Tornado #5-6, 10, 13, 16 and 18
  • Eagle #42, 47, 50-83
Commando / DC Thomson
Ian Kennedy’s first cover for Commando was No. 453 ‘SEEK AND STRIKE’ January 1970. Since then, Ian has created over 1300 original covers  (including annuals) - continuing on to this day! List of covers here http://www.britishcomics.20m.com/kennedy2.htm
He also provided interiors for several; Jack's Private War, The Sand-DevilsCougar Squadron , Fury Strike , Bombs on Target.
Commando covers:

DCT Cover Galleries: 
Football Picture Story Monthly https://www.comics.org/series/74340/covers/
Warlord Book For boys (Annual) https://www.comics.org/series/73605/covers/

The Art Of Ian Kennedy book is now out - https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/the-art-of-ian-kennedy
Celebrating 70 years of Ian Kennedy’s artwork for DC Thomson. Rarely seen original pages and sketches from Kennedy’s illustrious career at DC Thomson are represented here in a way they’ve never been seen before. A celebration of seventy years of true comics genius from the pages of publications as diverse as The Topper to Warlord, Lucky Charm to Starblazer, set out chronologically from 1950s to the present day.

More Links to Ian's works:
Colin Noble's nothingbutafan website has lots of Ian Kennedy content as does downthetubes

Interviews:
Ian discusses his long career in the ComicScene podcast interview here

Obituary

Video

Commissions

Full Commissions
Examples as below are of some of the cover quality detailed commissions which Ian produced. More examples were posted to Ian's Instagram / Twitter/ Facebook group as they were done if you want to see more.

Aviation Sketches

Aircraft vignettes 
Ian also works in pen & ink. Examples here; Johnny Red Blank , Westland Whirlwind fighter
Many more of the charcoal aviation sketches on the blog posting here: https://iankennedyart.blogspot.com/2019/12/thought-bubble-2019-aviation-art.html . 

Contact Us

Contact Us

You can contact us via the form or direct via email on iankennedyart@gmail.com
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