Today in 1977 the rock band KISS, which portrayed themselves onstage as something close to superheroes, became actual superheroes in the pages of a Marvel comic book.
The KISS Super Special pitted Starchild, the Demon, the Spaceman and the Catman against Doctor Doom, but the real stunner was a line written on the bottom of the front page that said, “Printed in real KISS blood.”
As Marvel prepared the special comic, someone in the KISS entourage suggested the band each give a little blood to add to the ink ahead of printing, as a marketing gimmick.
And so, in February of that year, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss each had their blood drawn at the Nassau Coliseum in New York, where they were performing.
Later, they flew to Buffalo, where, with TV news cameras rolling, the band members pulled their vials of blood out of a small white box and dumped them into a vat of red ink at the Marvel printing plant.
They had a notary public certify that the blood was actually from KISS and that it was actually put into the ink that was used to actually print the comics.
Though of course later a rumor started that there’d been a mix-up and the KISS ink had accidentally been used to print Sports Illustrated.
Even so, talk about doing anything for the fans and/or publicity.
One of the big moments in a KISS show is when Gene Simmons breathes fire.
Well, at a recent show in St. Louis, Tom BetGeorge played some Bach on a pipe organ, and as he pressed the keys, fire came out of the pipes.
There’s a performance that should definitely end up on the Hot 100 countdown.
Did KISS Mix Their Blood in the Ink of Their Comic Book? (Snopes)
Flamethrower Pipe Organ (The Awesomer)
