In New York Jim quickly found success as a magazine illustrator and brought along his wife and son to an apartment on the east side of Manhattan. Among the magazines that used Kelly’s illustrations were the Saturday Evening Post, The Herald Tribune, Better Homes and Gardens, The New Yorker, True Adventure Magazine, Reader’s Digest and the many specialized adventure magazines of Fawcett publications. In a more fine-arts category, woodcut and watercolor were two mediums in which Jim Kelly excelled. Many of his paintings were shown in the annual exhibitions of The National Watercolor Society. By the time Jim’s son Tony, had turned 10 years old, his wife, Angela, had given birth to a daughter they named Cinda. Continuing the family's artistic hereitage, Jim's daughter Cinda is now a painter/sculptor, while his son Tony is a journalist and artist/photographer. One grandson, Mike Kelly, is a photographer and younger grandson, Max Kelly, is a graphic designer.