Villordsutch reviews KISS Kids #1…
“Presenting the adventures of Li’l Demon, Starchild, Catkid, and Spacey… The KISS Kids gang! This rockin’ new comic offers adventures for all ages (and many in-jokes and familiar characters for the Kiss faithful, too). No blood or fire here, just laughs and fun tales of the little costumed maniacs and the crazy trown in which they live.“
Back in 1996 I went to Donington “Monsters of Rock” and had the chance to watch the mighty KISS perform as they were co-headlining with the Dark Prince himself, Ozzy Osbourne. I wasn’t a huge KISS fan but I knew the classics to be right royally drunk to and to be able to sing away with the KISS Army without being shamed out of the race park.
When KISS finally decided to grace us with their presence, the lasers beamed, the flames roared and after 15 minutes of their opening guitar solo my wifey and I made our way back to the coach and we went to sleep. They were that ruddy well dull.
This comic is, in my humble opinion, aimed at the people that are to be considered the “Money Stream” that keeps Gene Simmons and Co. in ivory back-scratchers and gold plated Walls Vienetta until the day they leave this world and rock on in Heaven. The same people that have every tour CD and Best of CD produced and enjoy telling you the funny moment when Ace Frehley sung Cold Gin wrong as he repeated the fourth line in third verse twice back on the Japan tour of 1986. If it says KISS (official) on the front then they are handing over their hard cash.
This comic is rather pointless. Even for a casual reader who wants a bit of a chuckle from a comic this doesn’t provide it. You could argue that this is a comic for children, but I’d still insist 1) it isn’t and 2) children wouldn’t find this funny either. The writers Chris Ryall (Road Rage, Transformers) and Tom Waltz (After the Fire, Dead Rising) seem to have just looked at a song title and barely attempted to make this it into a humorous cartoon strip. Some tales run on just a single page or two and don’t even raise a smile… It has the feel of the newspaper cartoon strips that you’ve caught midweek and you’re left wondering where the joke is.
The art by Jose Holder (Incorruptible, Mars Attacks the Real Ghostbusters) looks rather great and it has a striking appearance to the Animaniacs from a good few years back, with a dash of the cartoon band from Gorillaz. This isn’t me having a swipe at the Jose – it’s just the first thing that struck me, and there is nothing wrong at all with this as the comic is great to look at. The colouring too by Jeremy Colwell (Awakenings, Grimm Fairy Tales) looks good and suits the look of the comic. A shame really – if we had the right story and the humour raised considerably I could possibly ignore the Cash Cow element of it all and enjoy it.
So KISS fans save your money for that KISS endorsed swimming goggles plastic holder you’ve seen; that way your money will be well spent.
Villordsutch is married with kids and pets. He looks like a tubby Viking and enjoys science fiction. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published August 20, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
