Ken W. Kelly (born 1946, New London, Connecticut) is a fantasy artist. Over his 30-year career, he has focused in particular on paintings in the sword and sorcery and heroic fantasy subgenres.
Ken Kelly is the nephew of Frank Frazetta's wife Eleanor “Ellie†Frazetta (1935-2009), whose maiden name was Kelly. Early in his career he was able to study the paintings of Frank Frazetta in Frank's studio, however Frank never let out his trade secrets. In the early 1970s he did a couple of cover paintings for Castle of Frankenstein magazine.
He has depicted Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and the rock groups KISS, Manowar, Sleepy Hollow and Rainbow.
His work often portrays exotic, enchanted locales and primal battlefields. He recently developed the album artwork for Coheed and Cambria's album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, and a painting of his was used as the cover art for Alabama Thunderpussy's 2007 release, Open Fire. In 2012, one of Ken's paintings was used for the cover of Electric Magma's 12" vinyl release: Canadian Samurai II.
Kelly has been a guest at the KISS by Monster Mini Golf course in Las Vegas, Nevada, doing autograph signings of prints for the classic KISS albums he has drawn cover artwork for.