What to make of the "new" KISSNATION
Or, a review of KISS ROCKS THE WORLD
by Dale Sherman

When Marvel Comics finally released KISSNATION in November 1996, after months and months of promised delivery, the cover stated that it was the "First Issue!!" and a "Collectors Edition!!" Well, it certainly turned out to be a collector's item -- no one seemed to be able to find it!

There's a reason why. Even though KISS was just finishing up a successful tour in America, Marvel quietly released the comic to comic book stores in November without much fanfare (certainly no ads or exposure for the comic inside Marvel's stable of comics at least). Orders in stores were rather lack-luster, as the reprint from a year before had very few orders as well, and those did not sell well to the average comic book fans either. Plus, Marvel's earlier attempt at music comics during 1995 and early 1996 had bottomed out so quickly that a lot of the proposed series (the Skid Row one among others) never even hit the shelves.

Stores were not selling any of the ones that were available anyway. If the Alice Cooper comic, The Last Temptation, could not sell with both an album connection and Neil Gaiman's involvement in the writing, then why should any of the others be successful? At the most, shops were picking up five or six copies of KISSNATION and having trouble selling even these.

So, KISS finally took matters into their own hands and convinced Marvel to allowed the band to reprint the comic on their own terms. Don't think, however, that Marvel isn't getting anything out of the reprint in KISS ROCKS THE WORLD; they're bound to be making a nice slice of the royalties on the reprint, so don't feel bad for them.

Instead, what we have now is a reprint of KISSNATION under a different size format, much better color, more interesting articles and the same sales price ($10).

Same crummy comic as well.

But, before we get into the comic itself, let's take a look at the differences between the two magazines and what works and doesn't work.

KRTW features several more articles than KN, including a rather good one from Gerri Miller with the four members of the band. Although it sometimes slips into the generic "what is the tour like" type of questions, Miller does ask some questions that many fans have had on their minds for quite some time (i.e. will new songs be added to the set list, etc.). Certainly more to the point than several of the other interviews that I have seen recently with the band members. The technical articles dealing with the stage technicians was also more interesting than the one about the boot designer, which also appeared in KN. Some of the other articles had a bit of a 16 Magazine feel about them and really did not have much to say, such as the Australia and Japanese tour articles. Nice pictures, though.

And there are a lot of pictures from the new tour. If you enjoy photos, then you've come to the right place. Several you've seen before, no doubt; but there are a few fresh ones as well. As to the fans with KISS tattoos, I've always had a problem with this as the only tattoos artists I know consider such tattoo portraying rock bands as about as artistic and creative as putting a McDonald's sign on your shoulder. But that's a personal opinion and if your views differ then you may enjoy this section of the magazine as well.

As to the comic -- they didn't change a thing. Not even the captions that state ". . .continues on page 80." Fine for the original KN when the "excitement" did continue on page 80; wrong for KRTW when the "excitement" continued on the very next page. A few months back I reviewed the comic for The KISS Asylum and, frankly, my opinion has not changed. Poor storytelling, bad script and extremely uneven artwork is still here to see. Still, the other material makes KRTW much, much more appealing than KN. If you are interested at all in the comic, pick up KRTW. At least it's available, and you're not wasting a ten spot like you would be on KN. But, before I go, can someone explain something to me? On page 35 there is an ad for Ace's new guitar from Gibson. Now look at Ace in the ad. Has Ace ever had hair like that? Or a face like that? Did some computer enhancement occur here? And by whom? Just something to wonder about as you shift through the pages of this magazine.