Ken Kelly
Kenneth William "Ken" Kelly (May 19, 1946 – June 2, 2022) was an American fantasy artist. Over his 50-year career, he focused in particular on paintings in the sword and sorcery and heroic fantasy subgenres.
Ken Kelly
- Born
- 1946
- Died
- 2022
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- painter · illustrator
- Fields
- speculative fiction
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Kenneth William "Ken" Kelly (May 19, 1946 – June 2, 2022) was an American fantasy artist. Over his 50-year career, he focused in particular on paintings in the sword and sorcery and heroic fantasy subgenres.
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In this article
Biography
Biography
Kelly was born May 19, 1946 in New London, Connecticut. Kelly was the nephew of Frank Frazetta's wife Eleanor "Ellie" Frazetta (Kelly; 1935–2009). Early in his career he was able to study the paintings by Frank Frazetta in the latter's studio.. He served in the Marines until 1968, and soon after became a professional artist. In the early 1970s he did a couple of cover paintings for Castle of Frankenstein magazine. Throughout the 1970s he was one of the foremost cover artists on Warren Publishing's Creepy and Eerie magazines. He depicted Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and the rock acts Kiss, Manowar, Sleepy Hollow, Rainbow, and Ace Frehley. His work often portrays exotic, enchanted locales and primal battlefields. He developed the artwork for Coheed and Cambria's album Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, and a painting of his was used as the cover art for Alabama Thunderpussy's 2007 release, Open Fire. In 2012, one of Kelly's paintings was used for the cover of Electric Magma's 12" vinyl release Canadian Samurai II. Kelly was a guest at the Kiss by Monster Mini Golf course in Las Vegas, Nevada, doing autograph signings of prints for the classic Kiss albums he drew cover artwork for. Ken Kelly died on June 2, 2022, at the age of 76.
Notable album artwork
Notable album artwork
• Destroyer (1976) by Kiss • Rising (1976) by Rainbow • Love Gun (1977) by Kiss • Fighting the World (1987) by Manowar • Kings of Metal (1988) by Manowar • The Triumph of Steel (1992) by Manowar • Louder than Hell (1996) by Manowar • Gods of War (2007) by Manowar • Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow (2007) by Coheed and Cambria • The Lord of Steel (2012) by Manowar • Space Invader (2014) by Ace Frehley
Games
Games
• Witchaven (1995, cover illustration) (video game) • Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance (1996, cover illustration) (video game) • Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of (2016, Modiphius Entertainment, inner pages illustrations by Ken Kelly, among others) (tabletop roleplaying game)
Toys
Toys
• Micronauts (1979 packaging art) by MEGO • Micronauts (2016, packaging art) by Hasbro • Roboskull MKII (2021, 2022, packaging art) by SKELETRON
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1946
Ken Kelly born at New London.
2022
Ken Kelly died.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Illustration
5,224 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Kelsey MataIllustrator
- Kelsey MontagueIllustrator
- Ken BaldIllustrator
- Ken IshikawaIllustrator
- Ken NiimuraIllustrator
- Ken SearleIllustrator
- Ken SugimoriIllustrator
- Ken WakuiIllustrator
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