My vision on the Marvel Kiss comics....

[derkje1971]

As some of you know, I recently FINALLY got my hands on those notorious Marvel Kiss comics. I am very happy about that so I decided to take a look at them from a "I am Not a Kiss Fan Anymore" point of view.....

Memories memories.... I still remember getting the first Kiss record on my 7th birthday. My brother gave it to me and I was instantly hooked.

The last record I bought was Dynasty, and after that I think the band sold their soul to the mainstream masses and I never bought anything from them again. Nontheless, through all the years I am collecting comics, I allways wanted to have the Kiss comics from Marvel. Years have passed ever since, and I nearly gave up the hope ever getting them. Until a couple of weeks I couldn´t believe it...there they were!!!!!

The artwork in the first Kiss comic is ok, nothing special but decent. The story lines are also ok. The comic contains some articles on different subjects. One about Kiss spending their blood in the printing plant (some insiders claim later on there was a mix up and the red ink was used for an issue of Sports Illustrated) and some coverage on the history of Kiss. Also there is a story about the life of Doctor Doom... Of course it´s cool Kiss encounters him and Mephisto, but it´s no revolutionary comic. Reading the Kiss book is great in a different way. It´s like stepping into a time machine and beeing back in the time when Kiss really WAS a cool band.

The second Kiss comic (Marvel super special #5) was clearly released for two reasons. First of all, the first one was one of the best selling Marvel Comics ever (500,000 copies) and secondly to promote their upcoming "film" (ahem) "Kiss Meets the Phantom". Kiss was transformed into a money making merchandise machine, rather than a music band.
I liked the artwork better than in the first Kiss comic. Romita done a good job. In the comic the Kiss members get their power amulets, the same you will later see in their film. Furthermore, there´s some articles mainly on how great it was to make the film...blah blah. This comic is a nice memory, a piece of history. Shortly after this comic and the film, Kiss would suffer a huge decline in popularity as they were clearly flirting with the pop loving mainstream public. So I could clearly put this thread into the one in which we were asked which comic makes us depressive....well this one did. It was the end of an era...

Forget about the other Kiss comics. Psycho Circus and Kiss4k were crap. If you want the real thing try to get these two. They´re as good a Kiss comic can get.

How do you feel about these comics?

[CromagnonMan]

The artwork in the first Kiss comic is ok, nothing special but decent. The story lines are also ok.


i feel the first part of the comic is the best, where its shown how they become Kiss. Strangely, it doesnt seem to have anything to do with music. the 3 geeks (or is it 4?) gain strange powers and a WACKY new look through a box given to them from a gypsy wizard who is being attacked by Dr Dooms thugs. The transformation takes place in a photobooth, where they are hiding from the thugs, and boom! the booth explodes and there is KISS in the place of the 3 former geeks. Just great. The artwork in this first part is fantastic IMO.

The remainder of the comic is pretty mediocre, however. The first part is what has given it a rep and pushed its value up IMO.

[zryson]

as a kid KISS terrified me. absolutely terrified me. i had a cousin who was into them, as well as marvel (spider-man, hulk, etc) whereas i was into dc superheroes so we were poles apart. and i remember looking at his kiss things and every time i would get a shudder because i felt it was like looking at evil. that's how i felt about it back then.

now?

i think the comics are okay. i can appreciate them on a different level to when i was a child, and there is also a heavy retro feel to them, which i find interesting.

[CromagnonMan]

I don't even remember Kiss being mainstream or popular at all when i was a kid. Maybe i'm too young, or maybe they weren't that popular in England. They were pretty stupid.

[zryson]

I don't even remember Kiss being mainstream or popular at all when i was a kid. Maybe i'm too young, or maybe they weren't that popular in England. They were pretty stupid.

kiss were hugely popular. the merchandising pretty much eclipsed all forms of entertainment, there were kiss video games, pinball machines, dolls, trading cards, books, comics, figurines, stuffed toys, kids makeup paint/masks, etc. at one point, the merchandising got out of hand and i remember seeing an interview with one of the members of the group who said they knew they were in trouble when they had young kids coming to their concerts carrying kiss dolls and their parents saying what a nice band they were.

even now kiss have an extremely devoted loyal fanbase, playing to packed concerts around the world and its probably why they are going to release more kiss comics. they werent my thing because its hard to reconcile my feelings about them as a kid but i appreciate some of the stuff (a couple of the comics, songs, etc). though i dont think i would ever collect any of the kiss toys.

[derkje1971]

I don't even remember Kiss being mainstream or popular at all when i was a kid. Maybe i'm too young, or maybe they weren't that popular in England. They were pretty stupid.

I am from Holland myself, and I do know they didn´t get that much of a hype band in Europe in general. Only in Japan and the U.S. they were huge. I think Europeans are a bit more down to earth when it comes to things like that. We had the Beatles, The Who and The Stones. Kiss were merely followers of those. Nontheless I liked them. It was the mystery and the shows that fascinated me.Nowadays when I hear Simmons and his hypocritical talk, and how they do it only for the fans and stuff, I think they are plain stupid. They are making a mockery out of themselves nowadays. Purely greed.