Ken Kelly, with one of his Manowar covers behind him.

If he were still with us, Ken Kelly would’ve celebrated his eightieth birthday yesterday. Unfortunately, Mr. Kelly left us in 2022. I felt compelled to write up a blog entry in his honor, because Ken has been a part of my artistic landscape for well-nigh fifty years.

As I've related elsewhere, I was barely ten when I saw the cover of KISS' Destroyer album at my cousin's house in Texas. It blew me away. Being as I am, I immediately looked for the cover artist. The back cover said 'Art by Ken W. Kelly' or something to that effect. I was a fan from then on.

Not long after, I saw an issue of Eerie magazine at the grocery store. The art-style of the cover looked familiar. It was Ken Kelly, illustrating one of Eerie's series characters, Hunter, a post-apocalyptic demon-slayer. It totally rocked and I had to buy it.

Not long after that, my home-town March of Dimes held a poster contest. I shamelessly copied Ken's cover, with Hunter commanding one and all to contribute to the March of Dimes. I won second place, which was the first time I'd ever made a dime off something I'd drawn. Just one thing among many that I owe Mr. Kelly.

Also around that time, I picked up the Berkley paperback of Conan: The Hour of the Dragon. That is still my favorite Kelly Conan cover. Conan in the midst of battle with that spiked flail adding just a little bit of extra dynamism.

The DMR Books blog is very much Kelly-friendly, so feel free to check out some of the many other blog posts devoted to him. Both D.M. Ritzlin and myself have written blog entries covering Ken’s many heavy metal album covers. There is also my birthday tribute from five years ago and Brian Murphy’s memorial post from 2022.

Below you'll find a short Ken Kelly gallery that repeats few, if any, of the images from previous blog entries.