Saturday, February 19, 2011

the Kiss comic

this is how you make a comic book reader a KISS fan.  at least in my case.  this was issued in 1977, though it used the "Destroyer" costumes from 1976 or so.  later in '77 the "Love Gun" outfits appeared.

anyway, this turned KISS into superheroes in the Marvel Universe proper, and had them fight that other fantastic foursome's main villain, Dr. Doom.

it's a pretty good story, with loads of cameos from many of Marvel's roster of heroes, plus a lot of action.  the story is by Steve Gerber and the art by Alan Weiss (the cover, I think), John and Sal Buscema and Rich Buckler.  I love the cover (and the cover for the Destroyer LP as well).  these are my favorite KISS costumes, probably due to this comic book. 

the inside art is good as well. 

before this comic, I was determined not to like the band.  but after it, and a listen to KISS Alive! I was hooked.  there was a second comic book, but it wasn't quite as good, for a variety of reasons.  now I wanna read the comic again.  wonder if there's a cheap reprint out there?

3 comments:

joecab said...

Plus remember the original run of the book had Kiss' actual blood in the red ink used for the cover. Ooooh!

Danny Coffin said...

I first heard that Marvel was going to put this comic out not long after becoming a KISS fan(it was mentioned in the ''Bullpen Bulletins'' section in Marvel's February '77 releases as I recall,though I'd missed out on the band's 2 issue appearance in ''HOWARD THE DUCK'' a couple of months earlier...)
Funny how things seemed to be coming together at that time in terms of my fanboy interests:I'd been a Godzilla/kaiju fan for about a year,then in late '76 also became a KISS fan;KISS toured Japan in March/April '77;Marvels's KISS comic came out in May'77 which was also the month Marvel debuted their ongoing Godzilla title.Now,had Marvel done a book featuring KISS,Marvel's superheroes AND Godzilla I think my head would've exploded...!

X7 said...

was the blood just in the cover ink? I thought it was throughout the comic. either way it's cool.

I missed that appearance in Howard as well (never have read that book) so this was just great. hadn't realized Marvel's great Godzilla was started about then.