Monday, 22 June 2009
Morgan's Mob
Ian Kennedy does some lovely pen-work in this strip from The Crunch, May 12th 1979. I think Kennedy really went to town on this one. It's interesting to see how he's drawn the backgrounds. See how he uses a thin line to push things into the distance like the soldiers watching from the river bank in frame 3 on page one? Observe the minimal way of rendering of the jungle as a series of squiggles. I've included some close-ups at the end for you to look at. I like the cross hatching technique that IK uses on the soldiers. Another nice example is on the Dakota as it takes off.
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I love The Crunch! I know DC Thomsaon has a rep for not being as rough and tough as IPC, but I always felt The Crunch was a well-balanced, hard-boiled boys' paper - as were Champ and Buddy, and in the same way that humour/mixed titles like Nutty and Spike were the equal of many a top IPC comic.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, like you say, Ian Kennedy gives great art, and it's good to see his raw inky draughtmanship as well as the cover painting he's perhaps more famous for. As you point out, there's a real impressionistic way to how he hints at backgrounds in a way that you don't even notice they're not fully drawn. Masterful!
PS Great blog - I only came across it via a reply to a question I posted on Aardvark (vark.com), through which I got a reply from someone I don't know which linked to a page here (some Mike Dorey artwork...)
I'd love to own some original Kennedy art. Anything from the 70's would be great.
ReplyDeleteNice to know that people are starting to notice the blog. It'd be disappointing to put this stuff out there and find no-one's interested...
Thanks for looking!
:)
It seems even Ian Kennedy himself would like to own some of his original artwork!
ReplyDelete"Speaking during the exhibition's opening, Ian Kennedy voiced the thoughts of many of those around him when he looked at his paintings, owned by DC Thomson, and said that he would like to take some of them home with him."
Yeah, I saw that article. It must be weird, looking at the work behind glass. You created it and yet someone else owns it. There's actually no real reason for them to hold onto the originals now is there? All they need is a high rez scan and they can do away with the art.
ReplyDeleteIt's an emotional thing really isn't it? They paid for it, he provided a service and now they own the work. Say you had a house built? You wouldn't expect a bricklayer to come knocking at your door asking for all his bricks back would you?
I'm just playing devil's advocate. I'd like them to do the 'right thing' and return the art too. I reckon there'd be a few people out there (including me) who'd love to buy some of his art. They might be sitting on a little goldmine if they decided to sell the art. Be nice if he had a cut of the proceeds though.
Compal Comics sell a heck of a lot of Dudley Watkins art. I'm wondering where it comes from?