Black Diamond 2: Excerpts

Chapter Seventeen: "Comics"

June 28, 1977 saw the release of the first full-length KISS comic on the newsstands. The comic was a huge success for Marvel Comics, selling out several hundred thousands and is a sought-after collectable by fans. However, it was not the first nor last appearance of the band in comic-book form; nor was the band's success in comics a singular triumph in the field of rock and roll.

Comic book companies presenting real-life personalities in comic-book form has been around since the early days of the medium (and even going back to the beginning of the medium in newspaper comic strips). Such personalities as Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and many others had all have comics based on their personas, with some extending into adventure tales and even superhero stories (though certainly not heroic in the cases of Bob Hope or Jerry Lewis). In fact, 1977 (the year the saw the first KISS comic) saw the release of a regular series from Marvel called THE HUMAN FLY, which was a superhero adventure series based on a real-life stuntman.

Real life rock bands also made appearances in the comics, with the Beatles appearing in several one-shot comics over the years, other pop bands appearing (usually in article form only) in several of the teen comics of the late '60s and early 70s, and The Monkees had a series published by Dell Publishing that lasted 17 issues. The Monkees series is worth mentioning as it also featured the band in superhero form (as The MonkeeMen) in some issues. In fact, Alice Cooper's management had turned to Marvel Comics back in 1975 with the idea of adapting Alice's WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE album to comic book form. The idea was nixed by Marvel at the time as being too outrageous for the time (although, ironically, Marvel would work with Cooper in 1993 in producing a short series based around Cooper's album, THE LAST TEMPTATION), but it certainly sparked a notion in the mind of Marvel about the future prospect of rock music in the comic book format. So, KISS' debut in this form was not as outrageous in the context of the history of comics as some KISS fans may which to believe. Nor did the decision to do a KISS comic come completely out of the blue.

One of the earliest statements concerning a KISS comic actually came from Marvel itself. Issue 15 of their in-house fan-publication, FOOM, (appearing in the summer of 1976) issued an announcement about the proposed comic with the usual hyper-enthusiasm typical of the Stan Lee period of the company:

"Kiss Comix? Could be! Blood-spurting stage-vampire Gene Simmons and his fellow rock fanatics are Marvel freaks, and Smilin' Stan [Stan Lee, publisher of MARVEL and co-creator of many of the Marvel superheroes] himself has been cooped up with Strange Steve Gerber in a secret conference that could change comics history--but so far nothing's for certain, FOOM fans, so stay tuned for further development!"

What remained uncertain at the time of the announcement was problems dealing with copyrights. One must keep in mind that most comic book creators at the time were employees of the publishing companies and paid solely on the quantity and popularity of their work. All creative rights to their work became the property of the publishing companies and if an artist or writer left a series he created, then some other person could always fill their shoes. It was not until the Underground and Alternative movement in comics of the late '60s and '70s that creators began to flex their muscles in keeping the rights to their creations. Most importantly, the major comic book publishers were beginning to see copyrights becoming a major battleground when dealing with creators in the late 1970s, especially in light of the landmark court battle between the creators of Superman and DC comics. This court battle dealt with the two creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, and their attempt to gain some type of compensation and creative acknowledgment for literally handing the biggest comic book character of all time to DC comics. The case was landmark in establishing some creative rights to the persons behind the creation of a character, although legal rights of the character still belonged to the company itself. Nowadays, most artists and writers negotiate to keep some type of right to their characters, but that was still to come when KISS started negotiating with Marvel over the possibilities of a KISS comic.

By 1977, Marvel had become one of the most popular comic book companies in America due to its strong lineup of super heroes, including Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Captain America and others. It also owned the rights to all of these characters, and published rarely few comics or magazines outside of these copyrights (although there would be exceptions, such as movie adaptations and series based on literary heroes such as Tarzan and John Carter of Mars). The members of KISS and their management was by this time possibly over-protective of their copyright not only to the logo, but to the faces, personas and stage act of the band. No doubt when the idea was presented, they were bound to collide on the issue of copyrights.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's ongoing battle with DC comics over acknowledgment and some type of royalty rights were certainly fresh on Gene Simmons' mind during the ongoing negotiations with Marvel. This can be seen during Robert Duncan's interview with Gene in CREEM (February 1977, page 46), as Gene tempers his enthusiasm over the project with the following: "Basically the problem is that the comic company wants to own everything they do. But people don't own their own inventions. You've heard about the guys who created Superman?" It is quite clear that both sides knew where the other stood over the copyright issue, and it was not until December of 1976 that Marvel and Aucoin Management reached a tentative agreement over the book that would now encompass a magazine-size special in full-color. On December 29, 1976, writer Steve Gerber delivered the first six pages of the plot synopsis to Aucoin Management for approval. In this synopsis, along with a mention in the KISS ARMY NEWSLETTER (Spring 1977, Volume 2, Issue 1), the band is referred to as KISS-Men in their super-hero personas. This name was dropped over time, along with any mention of the characters' ages which remained nondisclosed in the finished product, but was listed as 15 years old in the original synopsis. While it is quite clear from Gerber's letter that he was concerned by Aucoin Management's reaction to the plot as being slow in developing, no changes besides the above were made.

Agreements were made for a publication of May 1, 1977 and a release date of May 12, 1977. In the meantime, okays were given for a guest appearance (and the band's first true appearance in a Marvel comic) in the March, 1977 release of HOWARD THE DUCK #12. This one panel appearance was expanded_upon in HOWARD THE DUCK #13 for an additional three pages and was a very incidental and irrelevant additional to the storyline, although it did give Steve Gerber (the creator and writer of HOWARD THE DUCK) a chance to showcase the superhero (or, to be more precise, an other-worldly) version of the band.

January-February, 1977 saw some disagreements occur between Marvel and Aucoin in two areas: advertising and scheduling. Scheduling conflict occurred when Marvel realized that they could not have the comic finished in time for the May 12th release deadline. Upon notification of the delay, Alan Miller at Aucoin Management was not pleased, figuring sales would be lost if the release was delayed until Summer when teenagers and college students would be out of school. Steve Gerber, while acknowledging that sales of albums are usually up in the Spring, made the point that sales in book and magazines are down due to school finals; and with the release of LOVE GUN to occur just a week before the revised release date for the comic, it just made better sense all around. Aucoin Management finally agreed and contracts were signed in March, 1977 for the release in June of the full-color magazine by Marvel.

While not readily apparent to those working for the band, problems occurred inside the Marvel production team when the project gained world-wide coverage. As Gerber pointed out in his interview with Gary Groth in COMICS JOURNAL (August, 1978, #41, page 42), "The KISS project was viewed with horror around the office for a long time. It was felt to be a pollution of the Marvel mythos." Also demolishing to support in the Marvel circle was a vicious attack of the comic before it ever appeared by writer Bob Gruen (who, surprisingly enough, wrote the excellent and now out-of-print book on Alice Cooper, BILLION DOLLAR BABY) which appeared in the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. The article was syndicated to dozens of newspapers around the country, and with it negative opinions came an avalanche of mail from parents who threaten boycotts against Marvel if the magazine was published. While the article did help to spur the anti-social appeal of the comic to KISS and rock fans, it disturbed the publicity department of Marvel so much that the initial trade-off of ads that were to occur between Marvel and Aucoin with rock magazines never took place. While Aucoin Management would place several ads in rock magazines to promote the magazine, not one ad appeared for the product in any of the Marvel line of color comics.

With the success of the comic, which went into a second printing of 100,000 before the first print run had even been completely distributed, Marvel became seriously interested in continuing the line of rock music-oriented comic books. Rumors abound of Marvel attempting to sign other groups to base comic books on, including Led Zepplin and a promised appearance of Parliament-Funkadelic in their own comic book soon after the initial KISS appearance. In a short article on the comic in ROLLING STONE ("Rock & Roll Stars In Comic Books" by James Simon, August 10, 1978, page 18), Stan Lee also mentioned deals in the works with such performers as the Bee Gees, Shaun Cassidy, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Elton John. However, it was not to be. With the exception of the second KISS appearance in MARVEL COMIC S SUPER SPECIAL #5, an unauthorized Beatles biography in MARVEL COMICS SUPER SPECIAL #4 and Alice Cooper's debut in MARVEL PREMIERE #50, Marvel would leave the rock and roll genre behind for the rest of the 1970s. However, Marvel would attempt to combine music with comics with such offerings as the DAZZLER comic book series created in March, 1981 (about a roller-skating disco singer who could "dazzle" people through her mutant power created through her singing voice), a series that was supposed to be the basis for a theatrical film; NIGHTCAT #1 from early 1991, based on an album released through RCA records with singer Jacqueline Tavarez (about a rock singer who gains cat-like powers after being injected by a cat-serum by an evil doctor . . .no, I'm not making it up); and the proposed Skid Row comic which was to have been released sometime in 1994.

At the end of 1994, word reached fandom that KISS had signed on with Marvel to once again to a KISS comic, this time under the title of KISSNATION. Each issue of the proposed three-part series would feature artwork, stories and articles from fans along with a full 48-page comic book of the superhero KISS in action with Marvel characters such as Dr. Strange and Wolverine. These were to come out sometime soon after the completion and release of the hardback book, KISSTORY, and under Marvel's line of music-oriented comics entitled Marvel Music. The new line of comics began in 1994 with titles such as the already mentioned Alice Cooper title, and some others on Bob Marley and the Beatles. However, none sold very well and Marvel quickly pulled the plug on the line. In doing so, and with the dismal sales of the reprint released in 1995 of the original Marvel KISS comics, Marvel had second thoughts of being involved with KISSNATION.

Other problems have arose on KISSNATION, mainly due to Marvel's lack of interest after the demise of Marvel Music. The original penciler on the book, Nathanial Palent had fallen behind and a new artist, Dave Chlystek was brought in by Gene Simmons to help out. Dave Chlystek also contributed a cover for the book that has will replace the already-finished (and used in advertising) artwork done by Ken Kelley. In the meantime, rumors abound in fandom that KISS and Marvel were having problems dealing with copyrights on the characters, but if such is true, it could have only been minor or else the band would not have gotten involved with the project in the first place (having faced it before in 1978).

KISSNATION was finally released in November 1996 to comic book stores and to dismal sales. Shops either did not order many or were stuck with several due to lack of interest on the part of the comic book buying public. With this, Marvel decided to drop completely out of the picture, but did allow the band to take the finished text to another company to be released in a different form in April 1997. To be fair, it was no problem to Marvel as they certainly received a percentage for allowing their characters to be used in such a reprint.

With the demise of KISSNATION and the linking of the band to artist Todd McFarlane (former Spider-Man artist and creator of his own character named Spawn); thanks to McFarlane landing the rights to do new KISS dolls in 1996; KISS has okayed a new superhero comic to be entitled KISS: PSYCHO CIRCUS. As of July 1997, this series is to be a four-part mini-series and was originally to feature the return of Steve Gerber to the writing of the KISS tales. However, this was not to be. Work was progressing without him, however; and the books should be out by Fall of 1997.

Getting back to the Marvel comics of the 1970s: While Marvel stopped doing the KISS comics, this is not to say that no other attempts were made to publish a KISS comic until the late 1980s. DC comics invested a fair amount of time in 1979 in attempting to interest the band on the idea of a continuing comic book series based on the super-hero personas of the band. Also, Neil Adams (one of the most popular artists of the 1970s, who was attempting to start his own comic book company in the early 1980s) out of Randem Art, was in contact with the band in 1979 as to a new comic book based on the band done independently of the two major comic book companies (Marvel and DC). Neither ideas advanced beyond the initial negotiating stages, though it is hard to see why at first. Sean Delaney was given full creative credit in MARVEL COMICS SUPER SPECIAL #5, and it is quite obvious that the band/Aucoin Management owned the conceptual personas of the superheroes, especially in light of the KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK film which featured all the elements of the comics (i.e. Ace's hitch-hiking transportations, Paul's laser-eye, the Talismans). KISS and Aucoin Management could have went with these other companies with their super-heroes, but there were a couple of outstanding obstacles: KISS was contractually bound to first offer such concepts to Marvel within the two years after the publication of MARVEL COMICS SUPER SPECIAL #5 (in 1978) for their counter-offers; and, while Sean Delaney had sole creative control on the super-heroes personas over Marvel, Steve Gerber had been listed as co-creative consultant in the first KISS comic, thus confusing outside negotiators of what to expect from such an contractual outcome. No doubt if some other comic-book publisher had used the characters in the same way as presented in the Marvel comics, whether legally justified or not, Marvel would had not taken it lying down. Yet, these creative rights to the characters being lost to Marvel quite clearly explain why one has never seen these comics reissued (that is, until 1995 after Marvel and the band had patched up their differences), especially in today's marketplace where reprints are so profitable for comic book companies.

With this in mind, it cannot be said that the band (or at least one member of the band) never again appeared in a Marvel comic. Issue #29 (January, 1978) of HOWARD THE DUCK saw a beautifully drawn rendition of Howard as Gene (including the DESTROYER armor) by letter writer Mark Williams; while Issue #4 (March, 1980) of the HOWARD THE DUCK? black and white magazine was a continuation of the original storyline in which the band appeared in Issues #12 and #13 of the color comic book. This featured a one-panel appearance by Gene, along with Devo, Elvis, John Lennon, Paul McCarthy and Marlon Brando, among others.

January, 1990 saw the release of another full-length KISS comic, this time from an alternative publisher called Revolutionary Comics, Inc. This company gained notorious fame with their ROCK N' ROLL COMICS, which depicted a real-life performer or band's history in each issue of the series. What made these notorious was the resistance of the company to gain any type of authorization from the performers to do such pictorial biographies, and when The New Kids On The Block sued and lost in a court battle over such rights, it gained the company additional publicity and popularity.

Unfortunately, it did not gain them any writing and/or artistic talent, nor did they achieve any level of accuracy when dealing with a band's history. Still, Revolutionary was one of the few company to ride out the wave of black and white comics which became popular for a brief time in the early 1990s, and their first published KISS comic sold well enough to warrant additional printings and an expanded magazine version of the issue over time. This success would lead to a sequel in Issue #5 of Revolutionary's series called HARD ROCK COMICS (July, 1992). While the artwork was somewhat better, the writing continued on the inept glossy overture of the original. More surprisingly, was the support of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley to the comic, especially in light of the band's usual overprotectiveness of the band's logo, make-up and personas. After years of threatened lawsuits at individuals from faulty merchandising to use of the KISS logo in fanzines, the band's okay for an unauthorized comic (and series of comics) without respect to royalties and legalities was very astonishing to some fans. Upon closer reflection, it made perfect sense for the band from Gene and Paul's point of view. Revolutionary was renown for reporting information (whether correct or not) that could be damaging to a person's or band's career. To assist in the making of the KISS comics, Gene and Paul could avoid such damning information being present. It was a safe-guard, and also presented ample opportunity for the two band members to continue their recent preoccupation with badmouthing other former members and associates of the band.

With the success of Revolutionary's first KISS comic, perhaps the band saw the floodgates opening in the field and wished to gain some type of control over at least one company's output about them. Oddly enough, by the time of the reconciliation between the band and Marvel in 1994-95, Gene had withdrawn his enthusiasm for the Revolutionary comics. As he told Robert Conte (who, as of 1996 is working as a consultant with KISS and was the writer of the first Revolutionary comic) in an interview in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1111 (March 3, 1995), "Just because we may look at illegal product and say we like it, that doesn't authorize those companies to make it. Some of the bootleg comics were OK, but most of them were garbage." As it stands, several other comics have come out about the band over the years, most of poor quality, with bad artwork and mediocre writing. Even so, the books continue to sell well and, with parodies of the band in comic book form now appearing, no end seems in sight. No doubt some comics will be skipped due to this abundance in print runs and companies, yet the best known of these will be listed below.

As with the dates of most publications, one must keep in mind an old rule of magazine and comic book publications: the month listed on the cover or inside in the copyright notice is usually two months ahead of the actual month of release. This practice was started back in the 1930s when publishers realized that newsstand operators always pulled comics and magazines off the racks when the month listed on the covers were over, thus the advancement of the month in order to keep the publications on the racks for longer periods of time. Since in most cases, especially in light of the small-time alternative companies, it would be impossible to list an exact day and month of publication, only the months and years found within the comics themselves will be listed here.