The year was 1977. Punk was on the rise, ‘Star Wars’ hit the screens, and the rock band KISS were busy stirring up controversy.
How? By adding their blood to the ink of a Marvel Comic book in which they graced the cover as heroes, of course.
I mean, you wouldn’t really expect anything less from a band as outlandish as them.
The hard rockers - decked out in their leather, chains, sky-high boots and theatrical face paint - already had that superhero look down, so turning their alter egos into comic form just made sense.
Adding blood to the ink of the print does seem rather anti-hero or villainous, but you can't deny it was a bloody brilliant marketing move.
It was definitely a rebellious and hellish move at the time, which had news reporters sceptical.
“It would be nice to think people won’t be sucked in by this type of thing, but then maybe KISS knows something, or reflects something about us that we don’t see,” one reporter said.
While the ink wasn’t entirely made of KISS blood, each member did legitimately donate a vial of their own to mix in.
On the cover of the issue, titled ‘KISS Marvel Comics Super Special’, a line proudly claimed: “Printed in real KISS blood”.
They even turned the whole thing into a bit of a stunt, too. Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss flew into Marvel’s Buffalo studio and had the blood-drawing certified by a public witness.
Simmons once recalled: “As the KISS comic book project moved along, someone came up with the idea of putting real blood in the ink… we got into a DC3, one of those big prop planes, and flew up to Marvel’s printing plant, where they pour the ink and make comic books. A notary public actually witnessed the blood being drawn.”
The comic book itself was a longer magazine-style format (the very first ‘Super Special’ issue to be published), and also included a scan of the ‘KISS comic book contract' that certified the donation of blood from the band.
To any onlooker, that’s a lot of effort for a few drops of blood. But, we’re still talking about it nearly 50 years later - so the spectacle was worth it for the sake of history.
Talk about putting yourself into your work. It may be gross, but it was certainly very KISS.
