Kiss (comics)

Comic books have been an integral and popular part of the American rock group Kiss' merchandising since 1977, beginning with their appearance in Marvel Comics' ''Howard the Duck'' #12. Over their career of nearly four decades, Kiss has licensed their name to "more than 3,000 product(s) . . . to become nearly a one-billion-dollar brand."

Licensed Kiss stories and adventures have been published by Marvel Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Platinum Studios, Archie Comics; unlicensed stories have been published by Revolutionary Comics, among others. Ironically, according to frontman Gene Simmons, all the band members except himself "hate comic books."

Publishers

Marvel Comics

KISS's first comic book appearance was in issue #12 of Marvel's ''Howard the Duck'' in May 1977, titled "Mind Mush!". The group also appeared in issue #13 of the series, titled "Rock, Roll Over and Writhe!".

In 1977 Marvel Comics published a magazine-format full-color comic book, titled ''A Marvel Comics Super Special!: Kiss'' presenting the band KISS as superheroes. It was the first in the Marvel Comics Super Special series which featured other musicians such as The Beatles. Blood from each band member was drawn by a registered nurse, witnessed by a notary public, and poured into the vats of red ink used for printing the comic at Marvel's Borden Ink plant in Depew, New York. Marvel also published a second KISS comic magazine, issue #5 in the ''Super Special'' series, in 1978, with much less fanfare.

In 1995 Marvel printed a trade paperback issue compiling issue #1 and #5 of the Super Special series, titled ''KISS Klassics''. A year later Marvel released the magazine ''KISSnation'', which featured interviews and photographs concerning the band's reunion and subsequent Alive/Worldwide Tour. ''KISSnation'' also came with the ''KISS Meets the X-Men'' comic.

Title list

* ''Howard the Duck'' #12: "Mind-Mush!" (May 1977)
* ''Howard the Duck'' #13: "Rock, Roll Over and Writhe!" (June 1977)
* ''A Marvel Comics Super Special'' #1: A Marvel Comics Super Special!: Kiss (1977)
* ''A Marvel Comics Super Special'' #5: A Marvel Comics Super Special!: Kiss (1978)
* ''Kiss Classics'' (1995)
* ''Kissnation'' (1996)

Revolutionary Comics

Ever since the phenomenon created around the first Kiss comic in 1977, many unlicensed comics featuring the Kiss characters have been published. The most notable of these were published by Revolutionary Comics, known for their titles '' Rock N' Roll Comics'' and ''Hard Rock Comics''. Although Revolutionary's comics were not sanctioned by Kiss or the group's lawyers, Gene Simmons was especially vocal in his support of the company, seen wearing a Hard Rock Comics T-shirt in videos for ''Alive III'' and on the back cover of the album itself. Both Simmons and Stanley granted interviews for the Revolutionary Kiss comics, and the same Hard Rock Comics creative team also did the comic bio section of Kiss' own ''KISStory'' hardcover book, as well as a comic adaptation of ''The Elder'' which has so far only been published in ''Metal Edge Magazine.''

Title list

* ''Rock 'N' Roll Comics'' #9 (March 1990) — by Robert Conte and Greg Fox
* ''Hard Rock Comics'' #5: "Kiss: Tales from the Tours" (June 1992) — by Spike Steffenhagen and Scott Pentzer
* ''Kiss Pre-History'' #1–3 (Spring 1993) — by Spike Steffenhagen, Jay Allen Sanford, and Scott Pentzer

Image Comics

''Psycho Circus''

In 1997 Image began printing the first officially licensed non-Marvel Kiss comic, Todd McFarlane's '' Kiss: Psycho Circus''. It lasted for 31 issues and was compiled into four trade paperback issues. The series was based on a tour theme that Kiss were working on at the time, and spawned five magazines that focused on the comic series. '' Wizard'' also printed a special edition magazine detailing the characters that appeared throughout the comic series. The series was completed in the year 2000.

''Kiss Special Wizard Edition''

* 1 promo Issue (Wizard, 1998)

''Kiss: Psycho Circus Comic Magazine''

* 5 issues (published by McFarlane/Medina/Image, 1999)

Trade paperbacks

# ''Psycho Circus''
# ''Destroyer''
# ''Whispered Scream''
# ''Legends & Night''

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics began the next Kiss comic series, simply titled ''Kiss'', in 2002, with X-Men writer Joe Casey. The series lasted for unnamed 13 issues, with each issue having a variant photograph cover (with the exception of issues #1 and #7 which each had a third variant cover) and was compiled into four trade paperback issues. Dark Horse completed the ''Kiss'' series in 2004.

Trade paperbacks

* volume #1: Rediscovery
* volume #2: Return of the Phantom
* volume #3: Men and Monsters
* volume #4: Unholy War

Platinum Studios

In 2007 th
KISS Comics Group
launched a joint venture with Platinum Studios to publish a new Kiss comic, ''Kiss 4K''. The series was launched at the Los Angeles Wizard World Convention in March 2007 with the unveiling of the oversized ''Destroyer Edition'', which measured 20 "x 30" and was released in five variant editions. The series was written by Ricky Sprague and the art was by Daniel Campos, Kevin Crossley & Thomas Ruppert.

Kiss 4K

''Kiss 4K'' released six print issues and four digital issues, in addition to the over-sized ''Destroyer Edition'' of Issue #1, a limited edition preview issue, and the ''Kissmas'' special issue. A webcomic series was also produced in conjunction with the print issues, telling stories about previous holders of the Kiss powers. In 2009, a lithograph boxed set of exclusive art from the ''Kiss 4K'' series was released.

* ''4K Preview Issue'' (Limited Edition)
* ''Legends Never Die'' Story Arc:
** Issue #1
*** Over-sized ''Destroyer Edition'' variants: black & white, yellow bar, white bar, black bar, "Scott's Vault" yellow bar
*** Standard-sized variants: "Scott's Vault" silver foil edition, red foil, gold foil, sketch cover, untrimmed version
** Issues #2–6 — Standard-sized retail issues
** Issues #7–10 — "Online Edition" digital-only issues
* ''Kissmas'' Special (Christmas 2007) — Available in a "Scott's Vault" silver foil variant
* Webcomics:
** Casanova/Starchild: "Tonight You Belong To Me", "Love's A Deadly Weapon" & "Partners In Crime"
** Yoshiee/Chikara: "Almost Human" & "Lonely Is The Hunter"
** Constantine/Celestial: "War Machine" & "Strange Ways"
** Shaka/The Demon: "Childhood's End" & "I Walk Alone"
** Christmas Special: "Let It Snow, Rock & Roll!"
* ''The Art of Kiss 4K'' — lithograph box set

Archie Comics

In 2011 Kiss announced the release of ''Archie Meets Kiss'', a new four-issue comic book series in conjunction with Archie Comics, written by Chris Ryall and illustrated by Jamal Igle