The death of Archie Andrews, from 'Life With Archie' #36 (September 2014), artwork by The Kennedy Bros.
The twin brothers Tim and Pat Kennedy are American comic book artists with a longtime association with Archie Comics. Since 1989, and Tim until his death in 2022, they have worked for the several titles and digests starring the main teenage Archie characters, doing either solo stories or sharing pencil duties. Nicknamed "The K. Bros.", the two brothers have notably collaborated on popular spin-off titles like 'Life With Archie' (2011-2014), 'Jughead: The Hunger' (2017-2018) and 'Archie Meets Riverdale' (2022).
Early life
Not much is known about the early life of Tim and Pat Kennedy, except that they were born in Bloomington, Indiana. Between 1981 and 1985, both brothers attended the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Design. Four years later, they were hired by Archie Comics editor Victor Gorelick, although their first stories didn't appear in print until the following year. For decades, they remained two of the company's top artists, drawing countless stories with the teenage cast of the main Archie Comics line, originally created by Bob Montana.
'Pin-Up Hangup' (Archie's Double Digest Magazine #115, May 2000), drawn by Tim Kennedy.
Archie Comics
Early stories penciled by Tim Kennedy appeared in the spin-off series 'Archie's R/C Racers', 'Archie's Pals 'n' Gals' and 'Betty and Me', followed by a prominent spot in the 'Veronica' title during the 1990s. Pat started out as an inker for Doug Crane, Dan Parent, Samm Schwartz or his brother Tim. For over three decades, Tim and Pat Kennedy have worked on stories with nearly all of the characters, including Archie, Betty, Jughead, Veronica and the other students at Riverdale High, appearing in almost all of the company's comic books, digest magazines and specials.
Jughead - 'The Intruder' (Jughead's Double Digest #147, March 2009), drawn by Pat Kennedy.
The Kennedy Bros
While Tim and Pat Kennedy mostly worked separately on their own stories, scripted by several company writers, they shared pencil duties on several stories as "The Kennedy Bros", "The K. Bros" or "The Fab K-Bros". Their main inker was Bob Smith. One of their notable joint efforts was drawing the 'Archie: The Married Life' storyline (2011-2014) for the alternate realities spin-off series 'Life With Archie', written by Paul Kupperberg. In September 2014, the creative team concluded the 'Life With Archie' series with a widely publicized issue in which Archie Andrews dies (#36) and its follow-up set one year later (#37, co-drawn by Fernando Ruiz).
Their work on this more dramatic rendition of the classic characters landed the Kennedys their stint on the horror spin-off 'Jughead: The Hunger' (2017-2018), which delved into the sinister origins of the unstoppable hunger of comic relief character Jughead Jones. Written by Frank Tieri, the brothers drew half of each issue, the other half was penciled by Joe Eisma. In 2019, they also drew the mini-series 'Jughead: The Hunger vs. Vampironica', a cross-over between 'Jughead: The Hunger' and 'Vampironica' (by Meg and Greg Smallwood), written by Frank Tieri. In 2022, the Kennedy Bros. drew 'Archie Meets Riverdale', a one-shot comic crossover between the classic Archie comic book characters and their modern versions from the 'Riverdale' TV series.
Non-Archie work
Although they have worked almost exclusively for Archie Comics, Tim and Pat Kennedy have sporadically worked for other publishers. In 2017, they joined their regular scriptwriter Paul Kupperberg in the Charlton Neo comic book line, which revived several of the old Charlton Comics titles. In 2015, the Kennedy brothers drew a couple of romance stories for 'Paul Kupperberg's Secret Romances', and two years later they also appeared in 'The Charlton Arrow'. In addition, Pat and Tim Kennedy drew two stories for the 2020 space adventure one-shot 'Jetty Raya Adventures' by Totally Galactic Comics.
Death of Tim Kennedy
On 3 December 2022, it was announced that Tim Kennedy had died at an unspecified, but relatively young age. In his obituary, the publisher praised the brothers as "two creative forces whose output showed a rich understanding of Archie history that wasn't afraid to recontextualize the traditional look of the Archie characters for contemporary audiences."
'Jughead: The Hunger' #1 (2017), artwork by The Kennedy Bros.