At home with legendary comics artist Ian Kennedy

In a village on the edge of Dundee lives a very gentle, softly-spoken man. Ian is 78 now, and lives in a nice cottage with Gladys, his wife of 58 years, just yards from a view made famous by James McIntosh Patrick.

Ian in his studio and (below) some of his iconic artwork.

He keeps himself to himself and enjoys a quiet life, with occasional trips to the doctor — he is recovering well from prostate cancer — and a regular pub lunch with old friends. He's also one of the most revered illustrators of the post-war period, with a 61-year career that reads like a Who's Who of comics.

The name Ian Kennedy isn't well-known to the public, but his talent is legendary in the publishing industry. His most famous work is for Commando, DC Thomson's pocket-sized war comic, especially his breathtaking depictions of aircraft. But his CV also includes magic words like Hotspur, Buster, Wizard, Warlord, Air Ace, Dan Dare — for the 1980s relaunch of the famous Eagle comic — 2000AD's Judge Dredd, Blake's 7, even Bunty and the other girls' titles.

Gone now are the heroes of Wizard's Typhoon Tennyson and Buster's Jeff Craig, Detective — but there's still a lot of hero worship out there.

"I don't have a computer but it doesn't stop people getting in touch with me," he says, almost sheepishly. "The number of websites about me — it's actually a wee bit embarrassing."

The modest artist, settled comfortably into his conservatory, is a reluctant interviewee but it doesn't take much to coax him into sharing his memories. Born in 1932, he was too young for war service but old enough to begin a lifelong obsession with aircraft.

"There was always something flying overhead in those days," he grins, and suddenly there's a hint of the small boy of 70 years ago. "We had Tealing aerodrome, we had Leuchars over the way, the Catalinas would come down on the Tay, as well as Walruses and Kingfishers. There were always Spitfires and Hurricanes around, too.

"I grew up wanting to fly. That was my ambition. I was going to be one of the daredevils."

Sadly, an ear infection, which persisted throughout Ian's youth and ended with a mastoid operation, put paid to his hopes of flying and excluded him from National Service, too. The silver lining was he met Gladys, then a nurse, while he was being treated. They married in 1953. By that time, Ian was already an artist, having gone straight from Dundee's Morgan Academy to DC Thomson as a trainee illustrator in 1949.

"It was like an apprenticeship and, in my own mind, I can put it no higher than it was like the medieval artist's workshop. You had the Michelangelo or whoever and he had his minions around doing fill-in jobs or whatever.

"You just sat and sucked all this in. You were learning and you didn't know it. It was just a wonderful place to be and the guys were always very helpful."

Filling-in was correct — Ian's first job was inking the black boxes in the Sunday Post crossword. But the intensive nature of the drawing school — his only training other than a brief period of night classes at Dundee College of Art — served him well.

Asked about his influences as a young artist, he cites Spanish and Italian creators, especially Italy's Ferdinando Tacconi, and another talent closer to home.

"My icon was George Ramsbottom in the DC Thomson art department. He was quite a magnificent artist among quite a few others but he was the one that I benefited most from."

But, with his responsibilities as a married man and a father growing, Ian decided to switch to more lucrative freelancing in 1954, picking up jobs with Amalgamated Press — later IPC — through an agent, but keeping in touch with DC Thomson, who continued to use his work.

Continued...

Click for more on these topics:

People: Ian Kennedy | Organisations: Dundee College of Art, DC Thomson | Concepts: Comics, Artist, Illustrator, Aircraft, Commando, Drawing, Prostate cancer

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