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I didn't know that Ken Kelly was Frank Frazetta's nephew until I started researching his work in earnest a couple of years ago. I was watching or listening to an interview with Kelly and he told a story about how he sought advice about a career in fantasy illustration from his successful uncle. Frazetta told him that he, Kelly, needed to do his own thing. Frank was basically telling his nephew not to copy his style. Kelly's work, while certainly under the same mantle of fantasy illustration is indeed distinct and very much his own. While Frazetta's work is like that of Zeus, Kelly's is that of Dionysius. Kelly's paintings are an indulgence of excess. All men a muscled, tanned, well-oiled, and capable. The women are tanned, taught, lithe, soft, and seductive. It's no wonder his work is the perfect pairing for hair metal bands of the 80s, notably Manowar. It's not redundant to say the paring is too perfect. There's an underlying feel of amateurism across Kelly's images. I mean this in no way to be an insult. Just the opposite in fact. I prefer intensely sincere amateurism to pompous, facile mastery. It's a feeling I hope to achieve in my own work. I'd rather sit at a table and study an art book of Kelly's work than most any other similar fantasy illustrator, his uncle included.