Ken Kelly - Legends of Fantasy Art vol.2

A tribute to the great fantasy artist Ken Kelly.

Ken Kelly was born in New London, Connecticut in 1946. He was interested in drawing from a very young age and at school, aged 9, he was taught the principles of art. After high school Kelly joined the Marines, he served in Guantanamo and Vietnam, completing his 4-year term in 1968.

He moved to New York where he visited the studio of legendary artist Frank Frazetta, presenting him with examples of his work. Frazetta liked what he saw and invited Kelly to study under him.

Guided by Frazetta, Kelly fine-tuned his skills and before long was receiving his first professional assignment, a cover for Warren Magazines, entitled The Lurking Terror.

Kelly produced over 150 horror and fantasy covers for Warren Magazines, including Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. He also worked on covers for Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and Skywald Publications.

Later on he began working on paperback covers, contributing artwork for the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard and the Horseclan novels by Robert Adams amongst many others.

He has also painted album covers, including artwork for the rock band Kiss.

Working exclusively in oil, Kelly completed more than 700 paintings over the years and has continued to fire the imagination with his depictions of primal battlefields, strange beasts, alien worlds and barbaric heroes. His work has been exhibited at private galleries and come under the hammer at auction houses like Christies and Sotheby’s.

Selected paperback covers:


Survival World (1971)
Champion of the Gods (1976)
Fade-Out (1977)
The Torian Pearls (1977)
The Dragons of Englor (1977)
Empire of Blood (1977)
Almuric (1977)
Revenge of the Horseclans (1977)
Son of the White Wolf (1978)
Swords of Shahrazar (1978)
Black Vulmea's Vengeance (1979)
The Alien (1979)
A Cat of Silvery Hue (1979)
Red Nails (1979)
The People of the Black Circle (1979)
The Hour of the Dragon (1979)
The Lost Valley of Iskander (1979)
The Savage Mountains (1980)
Killer Plants of Binaark (1980)
Frankenstein Lives Again! (1981)
Swords of the Horseclans (1981)
The Death of a Legend (1981)
Flight to Opar (1982)
Castaways in Time (1982)
Moongather (1982)
Horseclans #01Coming of Horse (1982)
The Witch Goddess (1982)
Bili the Axe (1983)
Champion of the Last Battle (1983)
A Woman of the Horseclans (1983)
Barbarians (1985)
Horses of the North (1985)
Of Kings and Quests (1986)
Horseclans #16Trumpets of War (1987)
Conan the Champion (1987)
Horseclans #17Madman's Army (1987)
Lady Blade, Lord Fighter (1987)
Conan the Warlord (1988)
Magicians of Gor (1988)
The Clan of the Cats (1988)
Conan the Valiant (1988)
Masters of the Fist (1989)
Friends Of The Horseclans II (1989)
Of Beginnings and Endings (1989)
Phantom Regiments (1990)
Star Bright (1990)
Conan the Great (1990)
Dark Messiah (1990)
The Islander (1990)
Conan the Guardian (1991)
Beyond the Gate of Worlds (1991)
Conan the Outcast (1991)
Conan the Formidable (1991)
Conan the Hero (1991)
Conan the Rogue (1991)
Conan the Relentless (1992)
The Poisoned Lands (1992)
Conan the Savage (1992)
Conan and the Gods of the Mountain (1993)
Conan of the Red Brotherhood (1993)
The Steel Kings (1993)
Conan at the Demon's Gate (1994)
Conan, Scourge of the Bloody Coast (1994)
Queens of Land and Sea (1994)
Conan and the Manhunters (1994)
Conan the Gladiator (1995)
Warriors of the Way (1995)
Legends of the Drenai (1995)
Conan and the Shaman's Curse (1996)
Conan the Bold (1997)
Merlin's Gift (1997)
Conan and the Emerald Lotus (1999)
Conan and the Amazon (1999)
Gods in Darkness (2002)