Cam Kennedy's Commandos

Scottish artist Cam Kennedy has had a long and distinguished career in comics having drawn British characters as well known as Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper while also covering Star Wars for Dark Horse and The Punisher for Marvel in America.

As well as using his Scottish heritage in John Wagner's Punisher - Blood On The Moors, and of course in the Kenny Who? stories in Judge Dredd, he also was the artist on the two Alan Grant adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's novels, Kidnapped and the Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. Indeed his entire set of painted art boards for Kidnapped, as well as his preparatory sketches, were purchased by the National Library Of Scotland in Edinburgh and were displayed to the public during their 2008 exhibition Local Heroes: The Art Of The Graphic Novel.

Amongst his earliest work were the Commando comics that he drew some forty years ago. This weekend Cam Kennedy is appearing at the Dundee Comics Day where he will be giving a talk on his career as well as being reunited with some of the pages of his original artwork from his very first issue of Commando, number 448 Come Out Fighting, which was originally published in December 1969 almost ten years before his art first appeared in 2000AD.

With thanks to Commando editor Calum Laird, downthetubes presents a list of Cam Kennedy's 25 issues of Commando taken from the original Commando office records.

448 - COME OUT FIGHTING (December 1969)
469 - DEATH OF A WIMPEY (April 1970, reprinted as 1335)
471 - MIGHTY MIKE (April 1970, reprinted as 1355 and 4368)
491 - LAST LAUGH (August 1970, reprinted as 1427)
504 - STORM OF STEEL (October 1970)
522 - BIG MIKE (January 1971, reprinted as 1507 and 4439)
545 - DIARY OF A HERO (April 1971, reprinted as 1555 and 4375)
556 - TWO MEN WENT TO WAR ... (June 1971)
568 - BOSS OF THE BARBARY APES (July 1971, reprinted as 4433)
590 - REVENGE OF THE VIPER (October 1971)
604 - DESERT DOUBLE-CROSS (December 1971, reprinted as 1780)
613 - HERO ON HORSEBACK (January 1972, reprinted as 1739)
629 - THE BLACK EAGLE (March 1972, reprinted as 1732)
642 - THE WAR-DEVIL (April 1972, reprinted as 1748)
652 - CHARIOT OF WAR (June 1972, reprinted as 1788)
666 - WHERE THE ACTION IS (July 1972, reprinted as 1827)
676 - ACTION STATIONS (September 1972, reprinted as 1811)
702 - VALLEY OF THE LOST (December 1972, reprinted as 1876)
729 - BRING ON THE TANKS! (March 1973, reprinted as 1924)
750 - HURRI TO THE RESCUE (June 1973, reprinted as 1940)
765 - TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SAILOR (August 1973, reprinted as 1987)
785 - LET BATTLE COMMENCE! (October 1973, reprinted as 1996)
804 - GAS-BAG GUNMEN (January 1974, reprinted as 2036)
825 - FROM OUT OF THE SEA ... (March 1974, reprinted as 2099)
860 - MASSACRE AT MENDHI PASS (August 1974, reprinted as 2155)

There are more details of Commando on the official DC Thomson Commando website.

There are more details of Cam Kennedy's career on his website.