Destroyer, Love Gun Cover Artist Passes Away
On June 3, 2022, the art world and the rock world lost one of its most iconic creators. Ken Kelly, a sword and sorcery artist who KISS fans know as the cover artist for two of KISS’ most iconic albums: Destroyer and Love Gun. Kelly produced artwork for other bands as well including Coheed and Cambria, Rainbow, Thunderpussy, and Manowar, among others. He also created artwork for magazines such as Creepy and Eerie.
Kelly’s work is often compared to fellow sword and sorcery artist Frank Frazetta. That’s no surprise since Frazetta is Kelly’s uncle by marriage and Kelly studied his work. In fact, Frazetta is the primary reason that Kelly was chosen to do KISS’ Destroyer cover. Casablanca Records initially wanted Frazetta to paint the cover for KISS’ new album at the time but they couldn’t afford him. According to Kelly, the record company’s art director brought in a bunch of art magazines and Gene Simmons tapped on one of the covers done by Kelly, impressed with the emotional misery of the robot that Kelly had painted. The rest is history.
The original artwork done by Kelly for Destroyer was rejected. Casablanca felt that it was too violent. After some alterations and changing KISS’ costumes to match up with the eventual Destroyer Tour costumes, the cover was approved. In 2012, Destroyer: Resurrected was released in celebration of the original album’s thirty-five year anniversary. It featured the original album artwork that was rejected by the record company. Kelly would be called upon by the band again to do the cover for Love Gun.
Kelly also teamed up with Ace Frehley in 2014 to do the cover work for Frehley’s Space Invader album.
Kelly’s work will live on so long as there are fans of fantasy, sword and sorcery, and iconic album artwork. Rest in peace, Ken Kelly, your work was and will remain amazing in my opinion.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 