IAN
KENNEDY INTERVIEW
by
Chris Weston
He’s
the best-kept secret in British comics, and although his name isn’t
universally recognised, his style would be instantly familiar to
anyone who picked up a British boy’s comic during the sixties
and seventies. His work has appeared in any classic British comic
you’d care to mention: Lion, Warlord, Knockout, Valiant, 2000ad
and the eighties revival of the Eagle.He’s mainly associated
with aviation-themed war stories, and he enjoyed a prolific run
on the ‘Air Ace’ title…but his talents don’t
end there. His fully-painted art on the ‘new’ Dan Dare
really is something special to behold. He brought a real sense of
authenticity to his depiction of sci-fi hardware and landscapes.
Ian Kennedy has long been one of my all-time favourite artists,
and I was seriously referencing him on my work for ‘Ministry
of Space’. I’ve recently had the good fortune to spend
an afternoon in Ian’s company, interviewing him for this article
and seizing the chance to gawp at his stunning originals.
Our conversation went as follows:
THE PULSE: First of all, Ian: thank you for agreeing to take time
to answer these questions. Shall we start at the beginning? You
are a native of Dundee, Scotland?
KENNEDY:
Yes. Dundee born and bred. Born in 1932.
THE
PULSE: So the majority of your childhood was spent during World
War Two.
KENNEDY:
That is correct, yes. I grew up watching all the aircraft flying
around. That's where my love of aviation sparked off; there was
always something in the sky over the town.
THE
PULSE: So you were a bit of a ‘plane spotter as a kid?
KENNEDY:
Oh very much so! Aircraft recognition was my hobby at that time,
I suppose. We had two or three RAF stations in the area: R.A.F.
Leuchars, R.A.F. Tealing, and there was a secondary airbase further
on along the river, and they used to have Walruses (one of the early
flying-boat-style aircraft) landing on the Tay. And, of course,
there was the Fleet Air Arm base at Arbroath. As I boy, I used to
enjoy watching all the planes take to the sky. I’ve enjoyed
a long association with Leuchars: I painted the covers to their
annual Air Show’s programme for quite a few years.
THE
PULSE: You were too young to serve during the war... but, after,
I suppose you would have done your compulsory National Service,
right?
KENNEDY:
Unfortunately not. I was a very keen swimmer, but I picked up an
ear infection at the swimming baths that caused me great problems.
They had no antibiotics in those days, so I just had to live with
the pain from the abscesses. Eventually, I had to have a mastoid
operation… that’s where they cut away the infected part
of the bone at the back of the inner ear. Because of that, my intended
career in the RAF was pretty much knocked on the head. I didn't
have to do National Service either. So, my hopes for a flying career…
well, that was it, end of story! Whether I would have made it or
not, I don't know. I’m not sure if I was quite the right psychological
type; conditions in the forces were very strict.
On the plus side, I met my wife Gladys at the hospital where I was
being treated!
THE
PULSE: You couldn't do your National Service. Did you go to Art
College instead?
KENNEDY:
No I went straight to D.C. Thomson’s.
THE
PULSE: The famous Scottish publishers, based in your hometown of
Dundee. They’ve been responsible for dozens of long-running
titles over the years… and they’re still going strong
today. Did you avidly read comics as a kid?
KENNEDY:
Oh very much so. I read all the regular ones that D.C. Thomson’s
published: The Rover, Wizard and Adventure. I started off with The
Dandy and Beano, of course, when I was much younger. Probably towards
the end my favourite comic was The Champion.
THE
PULSE: Did you have any particular favourite artists?
KENNEDY:
I wasn't really aware of the artists. I liked certain pictures,
certain images could be attractive... but as far as knowing the
artists, well they tended to be anonymous. It wasn’t customary
to give the creators any credit, a policy that lasted right up to
the seventies. The publisher wouldn’t have wanted an artist
getting any acclaim!
THE
PULSE: So how did you get your first job with Thomson’s?
KENNEDY:
I took my ‘highers’, (which is roughly equivalent to
today’s ‘A’ Levels) and left school in 1949. Basically,
an artist I had the good fortune to know, David Ogilvie, had already
mapped out my career for me. He was a friend of the family who was
one of the many unsung staff artists at DC Thomson’s. (Many
of their artists were excellent and could have, given ten or twelve
years later, made it big on the strip-art scene. However, in those
pre-Eagle days, comics hadn't really taken off yet, and it was only
companies around the country, like D.C. Thomson’s, that gave
these men a job).
David Ogilvie introduced me and I went straight from school into
DC Thompson’s as an apprentice staff artist. I taught myself
to draw by borrowing pages of artwork that I admired from the DC
Thomson archive, and then copying them, line for line. That is the
best way to learn: copy, copy, copy! I always recommend this to
aspiring artists. Examine the work of your favourite artists, take
what you like most and combine it to produce something that will
eventually evolve into your own style.
THE
PULSE: How much were you earning in those days?
KENNEDY:
The pay for my first job was 35 shillings a week.
THE
PULSE: You were on a fixed wage rather than a page rate? That’s
unusual nowadays!
KENNEDY:
Yes it was a weekly wage.
THE
PULSE: And was that enough to survive on?
KENNEDY:
For a laddie, I suppose it was. It was my first pay and 35 shillings
at that time wasn't so bad for a young boy of eighteen. I never
really gave it a thought.
THE
PULSE: You worked for IPC/Fleetway as well... how did you make the
transition to them?
KENNEDY:
That was after I went freelance, I worked for DC Thomson until 1954.
I got married in the previous year, Coronation year, and our young
son, Neil arrived, only ten months after the wedding; a bit too
quickly! We had the relations counting on their fingers! So then
I had all these extra responsibilities ...
THE
PULSE: And that prompted you to go freelance.
KENNEDY:
It was a good time to go. About that time I would have been earning
about Seven pounds & ten shillings a week, tops... and that
really wasn't enough. I knew someone who had connections with Amalgamated
Press (as IPC/Fleetway was known in those days). He was a talented
artist from Dundee who had been with DC Thomson. He’d left
there some time before, and was then acting as an agent as well.
He put me in touch with his contacts at Amalgamated Press and my
freelance career took off from there.
THE
PULSE: You began with stint drawing Westerns.
KENNEDY:
That’s what was popular at the time; so it was just what you
were called on to do. Quite honestly, I didn't particularly enjoy
westerns. But it was a job, after all.
THE
PULSE: You seemed to share a similar career trajectory to Don Lawrence.
He was drawing westerns at the same time, as well. In fact, you
were working on the same titles.
KENNEDY:
I would imagine so; we were obviously very contemporary. Why we
didn't meet more than the once, I don't know... the only reason
I could put it down to was because I was up here in Scotland and
he was down there. I would only go down to the offices at London
when we were on holiday in the South. We'd take the kids to a caravan
site in Surrey and I'd pop into The City to see the guys while I
was there. My visits to London were fairly irregular.
All my work was arranged over the phone and by post… but,
I built up a tremendous rapport with the guys. I developed a reputation
for being reliable and consistent.
THE
PULSE: Highly underrated qualities, these days! Who did you work
with at IPC/Fleetway?
KENNEDY:
The first editor I worked with was Arthur Bouchier. Then there was
Colin Thomas. I met one or two of them while I was down south. The
earlier ones do tend to escape me... Ted Bensberg was the War Picture
Library editor, and I think that, actually, Arthur Bouchier did
take over those books, and that was how I got my regular gig illustrating
‘Air Ace’. And then there was a lady who took over ‘Air
Ace’ for a while, believe it or not. Her name escapes me.
It was strange to have a lady editor on a Boy's War Comic. She was
a very good at her job, though.
THE
PULSE: Were the ‘Air Ace’ covers your first ever colour
work?
KENNEDY:
Not quite. I did one or two before that. But they were my first
ever regular colour work, those ‘Air Ace’ covers. Stanley
Stamper, an editor at D.C. Thomson’s gave me my very first
colour cover job, on the Judy Library. Pure, fully painted colour,
rather than doing black and white and then having it given to someone
else colour it up... that was the normal procedure. Stan ended up
being a very good friend; sadly, he died earlier this year.
THE
PULSE: What was your output of work like in the peak of the sixties?
Were you a quick artist or a slow artist?
KENNEDY:
Fairly slow and methodical. My pencils are always fairly precise
because I like to work out any problems ahead of time, so then I
don't have the trouble of whiting out mistakes and working over
the top; all that sort of thing. When I was working on ‘Air
Ace’ it took me about six weeks to do one book.
THE
PULSE: That's about sixty pages of artwork, every six weeks... pencils
and inks. That must have been hard going!
KENNEDY:
Yes. And I would have had other jobs on at the same time.
THE
PULSE: How much time would be spent on research?
KENNEDY:
It depends, it can be quite a long time but I have a very good reference
collection for the aircraft.... tons and tons of William Green publications
collected over the years, Observer books etc. So when it comes to
aircraft, especially the war years and just after, I've got plenty.
I always paid particular attention to keep the details as accurate
as possible. Making sure I drew the correct markings on the aircraft,
the correct costume details etcetera. I believed that it was an
important part of the job.
THE
PULSE: Did you make airfix model kits at all?
KENNEDY:
Yes, I did from time to time. In fact there are still some on top
of the cupboard in the studio. But, I would seldom draw from the
model. I would prefer a photo or a three-view drawing, something
flat on my desk. The act of making the models can give you a sense
of the dimensions and the various shapes, but generally speaking,
if you give me one or two good photographs, and a good three-view
drawing... that's generally enough for me. I can work from that.
THE
PULSE: Really? Wow! You must have an incredible three-dimensional
imagination.
KENNEDY:
Yes, I think I'm lucky to be blessed with the ability to envisage
objects three-dimensionally from two-dimensional plans or photographs.
I never felt I had to use a light-box or a projector to copy images...
but what I did use occaisionally was a pantograph, which was this
mechanical device that allowed you to trace round a drawing or photo
and reproduce it on an adjacent sheet of art-board at whatever scale
you required. It was quite primitive!
THE
PULSE: Your technical ability is astonishing. What tools did you
use to produce those precise, clean curves and lines?
KENNEDY:
Eye and hand. The only time I would use a ruler was to draw the
black frames around the panels! It was the way I’d been taught:
the older guys on the staff at D.C. Thomson’s would have come
down on you like a ton of bricks if they caught you using technical
equipment! “You’re supposed to be an ARTIST, aren’t
you?” they’d say… “ Rather than a technical
designer or an engineer! Eye and hand, they’re the tools of
our trade!”
THE
PULSE: What about the figure work? Because you’re not just
good at aircraft; you can draw great people too!
KENNEDY:
Oh, that is always difficult. I liked to pay particular attention
to clothes, the way they wrinkle and fold. Alex Raymond was an enormous
influence. I would often refer back to his art if there were certain
poses that were troubling. He was brilliant at capturing the way
material moves and folds, depending on the position of the characters.
I unashamedly copied Alex Raymond; he was the best. I used to cut
out his Rip Kirby strips from the newspapers and paste them into
a bound book. I still have that book, and I don’t hesitate
to refer to it whenever I run into a figure-drawing problem. Milton
Caniff’s ‘Steve Canyon’ strip was also one of
my favourites.
THE
PULSE: What did you work on in the seventies?
KENNEDY:
Oh the usual: Battle, Warlord, Commando covers. I eventually did
some work for 2000ad: ‘Invasion’, ‘M.A.C.H 1’
and a ‘Future Shock’. ‘Judge Dredd’ as well,
but only the once. I actually have the originals for that, somewhere;
they kindly sent that back to me. That 2000ad stuff was probably
some of my best work. I look at it now and I think, "My god,
did I do that?”. I enjoyed drawing that episode of ‘M.A.C.H
1’ in particular, as it involved aeroplanes again. I can guarantee
that those scripts were sparking me off like nobody's business!
You can see the results. I also did a comic-strip for the ‘Blake’s
7’ magazine... until it died a death, unfortunately.
THE
PULSE: ‘Judge Dredd’ is very much a character with a
‘modern’ sensibility. Did the violence in the strip
bother you?
KENNEDY:
No it didn't bother me. But I have turned down jobs in the past
that I didn't approve of. I had one recently, which was so full
of bad language that I said no, sorry, that's not the sort of magazine
I want to get involved with.
THE
PULSE: I was talking with Dave Gibbons about your work on ‘Blake’s
7’, a comic-strip adaptation of a famous British T.V. series.
(Coincidentally, Dave was adapting ‘Doctor Who’ at the
same time). He told me you had an unusual approach when it came
to capturing the actors’ likeness.
KENNEDY:
I wouldn't have made a terribly good portrait painter, lets put
it that way! I was very fortunate, though, to be invited onto the
set and I took a whole lot of photos of the cast. I then copied
these photos over and over again, in order to memorise their features.
Once I felt I had captured their essential character, rather than
be sidelined by the photo reference, I'd discard it completely.
I believe Dave had a similar sort of approach.
I had trouble making one or two of the characters resemble the actors
who played them, so I took the photo reference to a friend who was
a good caricaturist. He then produced a caricature, emphasising
those certain aspects of the face that made the actors’ faces
recognisable and I worked from that.
THE
PULSE: Where do you start with a typical page of comic-strip art?
Do you do loads of thumbnails?
KENNEDY:
I start at the top and then work my way down! Pencil it all in,
from top to bottom, and then ink it from the bottom up... to avoid
smudging the pencil line... because you have to remember, I'm dealing
with fairly precise, delicate pencil lines. I traditionally inked
using a normal dip pen and brushes, but more recently I have got
into using a Rotring.
THE
PULSE: What kind of pencils, soft or hard?
KENNEDY:
Mid range... a B probably. Definitely a 3B when I'm doing a cover,
as I don't want to score or indent the board in anyway, as that
will affect the way the colour lays onto the paper.
THE
PULSE: What medium did you use for your colour work?
KENNEDY:
Acrylics. I gravitated from using inks, originally, to the acrylics.
Watercolours were an absolute no-no, because I didn't have the delicacy
of touch, I suppose. The great stroke of luck, as far as I was concerned
was when acrylics came on the scene, in the late sixties and early
seventies. I preferred the acrylic colours because if you do make
a mistake, you can alter it, which is difficult with watercolours,
(or with inks, for that matter). You can wash in the colours and
make them really vibrant, or dilute them and push the backgrounds
back... and if you do make a mistake, just mix them up a bit thicker,
and paint over the top. They are marvellously forgiving. As for
the board, I just use a good watercolour paper... especially for
the Commando covers.
THE
PULSE: Looking at your work, I assumed it was gouache. Did you ever
use that?
KENNEDY:
I never used Gouache. Well, maybe I experimented, now and then…
but never actually used it professionally.
THE
PULSE: What about airbrush... did you ever use that?
KENNEDY:
No, never used an airbrush. Always the acrylics, watered down to
create just straightforward washes.
THE
PULSE: You must have been one of the first comic-strip artists to
use acrylics.
KENNEDY:
I think I probably was, actually. There weren't many of us using
it at that time.
THE
PULSE: Did you prefer doing a fully painted piece of artwork…
or do you prefer to, merely, 'colour' a black and white line drawing?
KENNEDY:
It depends very much, because painting in full colour is much more
time consuming than the other. Now that I'm semi-retired, I only
do about an hour a day; I've had to streamline procedures. My covers
for Commando, generally speaking, are black and white, dry brush
drawings, washed over the top with acrylic paints. It works very
well. On those covers, I usually work ‘twice-up’ (twice
the size of the published piece).
THE
PULSE: They’re beautiful, Ian. Do they return the originals?
I’d love to buy one from you.
KENNEDY:
No. I don't have many of my original pages. Hardly ever have they
been returned to me.
THE
PULSE: That's a shame. Are they legally yours?
KENNEDY:
Oh, that’s the question, and we are entering deep and murky
waters! I’m not sure what the current law is regarding the
ownership of artwork. For instance, what the true meaning of the
term “Copyright for all purposes” really amounts to
at the end of the day. Suffice to say, I am now just a little too
long in the tooth to contemplate a crusade in that direction. In
any case. I know for a fact that a great deal of artwork was quite
deliberately destroyed over the years, so taking on a fight of this
nature could well prove totally fruitless.
THE
PULSE: I'm sure you could have made a lot of money selling your
originals.
KENNEDY:
You can say that again. When I survey the extremely meager collection
of my originals I possess, it is somewhat disappointing to know
that so many examples of my artwork (along with material by other
artists) were pilfered from the archives of the various companies
and then quite frequently they sold them on to the financial gain
of the individuals involved. I’m afraid this sort of behaviour
was not uncommon- I am reliably informed that a fair amount of my
work on Dan dare, Warlord etc. was lost in this way!
THE
PULSE: You had a terrific run on Dan Dare in the eighties revival
of Eagle...
KENNEDY:
I love inventing new aircraft and hardware. That's why I loved doing
Dan Dare because it gave me so much freedom to be creative. It was
such a shame the stories didn't feature the 'real' Dan Dare, rather
than the adventures of his grandson. Yeah, I think we were caught
between two stools there. Younger readers would have been unaware
of the connection, and older readers would have resented missing
the 1950's character. Personally, I would much rather have re-continued
the adventures of the original Dan Dare. I did one that featured
him, in a Summer Special, but that was all. I modernised him slightly,
but overall I tried to stay faithful to the official imagery.
I enjoyed drawing the Mekon. He was fun.
THE
PULSE: So, summing up, would you say D.C. Thomson’s have been
your favourite employer?
KENNEDY:
[laughs] Well, it has been the company which has kept me supplied
me with the bulk of my work, over these past fifty years. And I've
enjoyed working with the editors of the numerous titles, and with
various colleagues. We've always had a good time and it's been handy
having them on my doorstep. We still meet occasionally when something
crops up like the annual Christmas bash.
I’ve been lucky to have a relationship with the IPC/Fleetway
lot, too. That made all the difference, financially. Among others
I’m still in touch with Dave Hunt and with Barry Tomlinson,
both former ‘Eagle’ editors.
THE
PULSE: Finally, what can you tell me about that sign you have above
your desk, the one that reads: "It doesn't have to be a bloody
masterpiece!"
KENNEDY:
I put that there about 35 years ago. One day I was working on a
cover and I struggled and struggled, and still nothing went right.
I laboured away until, eventually, I just flung my brush down, grabbed
a pen and wrote down those words. I hung it above my drawing board,
to catch my eye and remind myself that as long as you are doing
a good job, competently, professionally, the fact that it hasn't
turned out the way you had hoped doesn't matter. As long as it satisfies
the requirements, then the editor is happy and the customer is happy…
and that's all that's important. You can flog yourself to death,
Chris, (you've probably done it already), and get nowhere. You'll
actually be taking steps backward, rather than forward.
THE
PULSE: The ironic fact is, Ian, most of your artworks ARE masterpieces!
Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions!
