Jay Kennedy
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Jay Malcolm Kennedy (April 18, 1956 - March 15, 2007) joined King Features Syndicate in 1988 as deputy comics editor and became comics editor one year later. He was named editor-in-chief in 1997.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Kennedy grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey. After studying sculpting and conceptual art in New York at the School of Visual Arts, Kennedy graduated with a sociology degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison he was an active member of the Pail & Shovel Party, a student group dedicated to bringing humor to student government via absurdist and playful pranks. Kennedy drew posters and flyers for the group and took part in many activities including the famous Pink Flamingo planting.[1] From 1983 to 1988, he served as cartoon editor of Esquire where he edited and co-wrote Lynda Barry's Modern Romance.[2] At the same time, Kennedy was a humor book agent as well as a cartoon consultant and editor for magazines and publishers, including People and Whittle Communications. In 1985 he was a guest editor for the “European Humor” issue released by the National Lampoon.
Kennedy wrote articles about the history of cartooning, and profiled cartoonists and contemporary comics for magazines including New Age Journal, Heavy Metal, New York and Escape Magazine, an English bi-monthly. His interest in cartooning, he once explained, was because:
- In the fine arts, artists generally comment on the world only obliquely; and sadly, only those people who have the leisure to study art history can fully appreciate their comments. By contrast, cartoons are an art form accessible to all people. They can simply laugh at the jokes or look beyond them to see the artist's view of the world. Cartoons are multileveled art accessible to everyone at whatever level they choose to enjoy.
[edit] Book
He was the author of The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide (Boatner Norton Press, 1982), the definitive guide to underground comics of the 1960s and 1970s. Much of the information in that book was based on Kennedy's personal collection of alternative comics.
Kennedy, who lived in New York City and Orient Point, Long Island, died March 15, 2007 while vacationing in Costa Rica.[3] He drowned after having been caught in a riptide. His wife, Sarah Jewler, the managing editor of New York magazine, died in 2005. King Features appointed associate editor Brendan Burford to the position of comics editor on April 23, 2007.
