The latest edition of the International Journal of Comic Art (Vol. 11, no.1) carries an interview I conducted with Ian Kennedy, who is well known for his aerial dogfight / aircraft scenes, and science fiction artwork.
Here's an excerpt:
Kennedy: I had a car accident and it was just after I recovered from that, when Barry Tomlinson came at me and said, “We’re looking for someone to take over Dan.” They’d resurrected him, but I don’t think they were too happy at the way things were going. And he said, “Can you take it on?” That was ‘82, I think.
Robertson: Gerry Embleton had brought it back.
Kennedy: I think Gerry was involved.
Robertson: So he obviously wasn’t going to be doing it any more.
Kennedy: I don’t know who it was they were unhappy with, but they just felt it was lacking something, and they had hopes I might be able to, with my Air Ace experience, etc, the mechanical stuff, they thought, and hopefully they were right, that I could inject the sort of thing they wanted. They must have been successful, because I think we did it for about ten years before Eagle folded again.
Robertson: You did actually draw the original Dan Dare character in some stories, didn’t you? Most of the time it was the grandson.
Kennedy: That’s right. We had to, now and again, have a flashback. That’s right, yes, yes…
Robertson: You actually had Dan Dare being a pilot in the war, I remember that.
Kennedy: Yeah? You’ve got a better memory than me. (Laughs)
Kennedy is an interesting fellow, and after sixty years in comics, is still working away on Commando for D.C. Thomson. Above is his painted cover for the latest issue.
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