Cam Kennedy artwork question

[Dr Feeley Good]

If you bought it about 5 years ago of ebay I bet it must be 10 years since I bought it from Cam

[SIP]

Well, definitely pen marks all over the page, black has been applied, razor scratches everywhere (presumably to remove inking mistakes). No whiteout used (not conclusive though as may have been having a very good day!). But then it has this faded special quality on a lot of the line work that almost makes it look like a printout. I guess this could be an effect caused by inking onto gloss paper then erasing, taking the top layer of the ink off.

I would have to agree that it would be an awful lot of effort to create this at a time when the original wouldn't have been worth a enough to justify the work. Just wouldn't be worth the effort would it? I'm feeling slightly happier now  :-)

Now, just the oddity of the lettering issue to investigate!

[Greg M.]

This may not be directly relevant, but I have several pages of John Ridgway's art from 'The Dead Man', and quite a few pieces of the lettering have just been directly written / drawn by Jack Potter onto Ridgway's panels, instead of being stuck on - so it does happen.

[TordelBack]

This is the kind of thread that keeps me addicted to this forum after so many years. Keep digging, all.

[Spikes]

A strange one this.
Though i suspect (due to the lettering - the image that Jim posted is of a page from the same prog as this one, and yet has pasted up lettering. Plus the lack of any IPC stickers etc) that this is production art instead of original art. Any additional work on this may be just to tidy up before the next step in the process?

[ming]

From Cam:  The way I worked Rogue was always the same,  pencil page then ink it then send it off to 2000. so, as far as I know all my Rogues were lettered after art was inked. Ask your friend to have a really good look at his page.  i'd probably be safe in saying that if the lettering's actually on the artwork it's a different page from that which left my studio.   to all intents and purposes it IS my artwork. tell him to take a real good look at it.  Hope this helps

The more I read that, the more confused I get.  However, I think Cam's saying that pasted-on lettering was the norm for his work on Rogue.  Personally, I have no clue whether your page is legit or not - a few close-up, angled shots of the art (and a pic of the back of the page) would be interesting to look at, though.

[ming]

Also, here's a pic of the back of one of my Cam pages (not Rogue):



The size of the page itself may vary (at least the Rogue page I have is on art board rather than the more usual thick card) but if there's no publication / reproduction info on the back of the page I'd be a bit suspicious (I'm not sure whether the IPC stamp is always there, though).

[SIP]

I think I am more confused now.   The back of the page is definitely blank, no writing or markings at all. From what cam is saying this can't be the original drawing as the lettering is 100% part of the artwork itself, not pasted on.

There is a lot of ink on the page, brush and pen, over the base artwork. Too much for it to be touchups to the original page......if I can get some better shots this evening I will post then up.

[Recrewt]

I'm certainly no expert in this but like Judge Jack, my money would be on this being Production art - a photocopy of the original artwork that had the lettering added, hence why it is not stuck on this piece.  This was a lot more common with colour work - I have one myself where the copy is then coloured by another artist and is what made it into the Prog. 

I think this also explains why some linework is faded but you can clearly see parts that have been inked.  The only reason I can think of doing it here would be to change something - is there anything at all that is stuck on?  I can't see anything from the picture but this could even be a complete panel.

[ming]

Yeah, I'm leaning towards the 'not the real deal' myself, mainly due to the comparison with the page that Jim posted from very the same episode.  That has the obvious and expected characteristics of the original art, especially the pasted-on balloons with tails applied with whiteout.  It seems far from likely that the text would have been dealt with in a different way on pages within the same episode.  If Wake could have a look at his page (the second page from this episode) and report whether the usual sizing / publication / repro info is there, I guess that would be conclusive.

Anyway, nice of Cam to try and clear this up

[SIP]

Yeah, it was. I really appreciate everyones help on this one!

Still, as Steve remembers this page as not having pasted on word balloons, its extremely odd that cam would sell this directly to him as the original art?

[Recrewt]

Quite, can't help but think it must be legit if you can trace it back to Cam.  I would also have a look at the signature tonight and see if it looks copied or inked. 

[SIP]

Right, some images for you all.  As mentioned, there are no markings on the back of the page. Have tried to shine the light on the page so you can see where ink has been applied.

[Teivion]

Ive got three pages of Dan Dare from Lion very similar to this, although my speech bubbles are drawn on like you have here, the text is def Spray-mounted on type strips of paper....most of which is yellowed and falling off!
They've also got some reworked blacks, and crosshatching adjustments, with white -out paint over some areas.
There are also pencil marks stating dates, crop marks, printer notes etc.

If I saw this for sale in person Id think it was the same thing- a proffesionally done blown up copy of an original page, hand cleaned up/ re-inked to get the blacks and depth back into the original print method this page was produced with, and posibly to be used as a master to pull new prints from ?

[Recrewt]

According to Barney, Mill-Com Memories was reprinted in Best of 2000AD Monthly 10 and Titan's Rogue Trooper Book 4, both in 1986.  It's also in some Rebellion books but I think they are too recent. 

It would be interesting to see if there is any difference between whats in the prog and the reprints.