Books about Kiss
By Nils Brekke Svensson |
I have tried to go through every Kiss book I
have read/looked at an given a my opinion on each book.
The grades are from 0 points (Crap, don't buy) to 10 points
(A Kiss fans wet dream). |
KISS
by: Duncan, Robert
  
Published 1978
Out of print
Second edition
Kiss (A Savoy Rock'n'roll Book)
Published: March 1980
ISBN: 0861300408
Out of print
KISS: Headliners
by: Swenson, John
Published 1978, 186 pages
Out
of print
Second edition
Published January 1979
ASIN: 0441319408
Out of print |
 About:
These two books are really quite difficult to say much about.
They are more or less cool collectibles. if your looking for
real information about Kiss then you have to go somewhere
else. The books are a mix between fact and fiction. Some of
the content are very dramatized by the writer.
Most of the pictures are really cool and have not been seen
many other places. The first time I read the "Headliners"
book in 1981 I could not remember anything afterwards. I re-read
both when I bought them on ebay a couple of years ago and
they did not do much impact then either. But they are both
cool collectibles. |
KISS: On Fire
Published 1984
Out of print |
 About:
Not really a book. But a cool swedish collectable from
the Animalize area. A lot of cool B/W pictures from the swedish
part of the Animalize tour. There are not that many good shots
of the available so just that makes the "book" quite
interesting.
I know there were a Finnish edition of "On Fire"
and maybe an English on also?
This "book" I believe was made by the Swedish fan-club
at the time? If you have any information about this please
let me know. |
KISS: Shout it out
Published 1985
Out of print |
 About:
A lot like "On fire" but thicker and a little
more content. I really liked the book when it came out. There
are quite a few photos of the european version of the Animalize
stage. A stage that it's pretty difficult to find pictures
of elsewhere.
The book was a collaboration between Kiss Fan-Club and Melody
Line (a store in Gothenburg). |
KISS: Still on fire
Published 1988
Out of print |
 About:
Another book published by Melody Line. It was the most
informative Kiss book released at the time. The first time
we got a book with the good version of the Kisstory up until
that time. There are also a lot of nice pictures in the book.
The last part of the book is about most vinyl bootlegs that
existed at the time with great color shots of most of the
covers.
There is also a hilarious photo of Johan Falk (Johan Johansson)
at the time at his first Kiss concert. Johan has also taken
most of the photos from the Asylum period in this book. |
KISS Collectibles Identification And Price
Guide
By: Lesniewski, John & Karen
Published June 1993, 176 pages
ASIN: 0380771667
Out of print |
 About:
It was a great book when it came out and can still be
used as a reference book for some stuff today. But most of
the content is quite outdated. Anyway the book is a nice addition
to a Kiss collection. |
Kissed
Published June 1993(?)
Out
of print |
 About:
This is the only book featured there that I haven't managed
to get hold of yet. But I borrowed it a couple of times in
the early 90's from a guy I used to trade videos with.
From what I remember its compiled from interviews from the
"Kiss this" fanzine and some other sources. At the
time I thought the book was pretty damn cool. But then again
there were not that many books about Kiss out at the time.
So I could be wrong.
|
KISS & Tell
By: Gebert, Gordon G. G. & McAdams, Bobby
Published May 1997, 215 pages
ISBN: 0965879402 |
 About:
Poor little Gordon that got screwed by Ace. I'm almost
ashamed that I find this book amusing. But first of all It's
the Bobby McAdams stories that really make this book worth
buying. All his stories from the 60's and 70's are really
cool stuff to read. Specially from a historical point of view.
The Gordon Gerbert stories reminds me of dumb and dumber.
Of course Ace behaves like the creep he is. But at the end
of it all I really wonder how much Gordon gained by telling
everybody how dumb he was hanging around with "the addict".
But the book is pretty cool. A lot of funny stories. But
the book is really poorly written. |
KISS And Sell: The Making Of A Supergroup
By: Lendt, C.K
Published April 1997, 352 pages
ISBN: 0823075516 |
 About:
Great book from a "insider" in the 70's and
80's. We get a great look at the business called Kiss. All
the ups and downs. This is probably the best historical testament
of the band besides Julian's Album Focus book. I believe his
view of the guys are quite objective even after han gung around
them for many years. the only problem with the book as most
other great books is that it should have been longer. Just
from listening to the interviews that at one time was posted
on Kiss Otaku you know Lendt has much more to tell than he
does in this book. One can just hope that Bill Aucoin writes
a similar book in the future or the Sean Delaney "Hellbox"
comes out at one point. |
KISS And Sell: The Making Of A Supergroup
By: Lendt, C.K (Japanese edition)
|
About: Same book as above but in Japanese. I can't
really say much about the text content. But I believe that
it is the same as the american edition. But the cover and
all the rare color and bw pictures makes the book so much
better than the american edition. The Japanese edition is
worth buying only for the pictures. |
Black Diamond
By: Sherman, Dale
Published April 1997, 248 pages
ISBN: 1896522351 |
 About:
In really should have given Dale a ten points just for
the effort. It really feels like a labor of love when one
reads it. The problem is that if you have read a lot about
Kiss there is really not that much you didn't know. But then
again it's fun to read. So I would say it's worth buying specially
if you don't know that much about Kiss. His foreword in the
books is also great. And it tells much about how difficult
research and getting help can be.
The book also features a great interview disc with Eric Carr.
And the books get an extra point just for that. |
The KISS Years
By: Levine, Barry
Published April 1997, 144 pages
ASIN: 1890313009 |
 About:
Barry is in my mind "the KISS photographer".
The book and CD is really cool. All the pictures are what
I remember as classic shots. But what really bothers me about
the book is that it is really to short. Barry would have no
trouble filling a book the size of Kisstory with great shots.
When you have looked through the book it just feels like a
little taste and you really want a lot more, a lot more.
Please give us a coffee table book!
The books also features an interview disc with Barry Levine,
where he tells about his work with Kiss over the years. Cool
idea. But the problem is that it is mostly the same stuff
that is featured inside the book. |
Outtakes
By: Chip Rock Dayton
Published October, 1999, 160 pages.
ISBN: 1890313041 |
 About:
A cool photo book. It is not in the same class as Barry
Levine's "The Kiss Years". But all the classic shots
are great. The photos are quite untraditional when it comes
to live shots of Kiss, but that makes the book just even more
interesting. The text also make Chip sound more like a fan
than a professional artist.
The only thing really I don't like are his shots from the
reunion tour looks really bad . He should have featured a
lot more vintage photos instead. And there is also the issue
of size. It should have been much larger. |
KISS Live!
By: St. Michael, Mick
Published: August 1996, 32 pages
ISBN: 0711960089 |
About: I have decided to take these 4
as one. There were a couple of these books released around
the reunion tour. All of them are crap in my mind. A cheap
shot at earning some money while Kiss where at their height
popularity wise.
Mostly uninteresting text and pictures. There are even pictures
of tribute bands in some of them. So if you see them don't
buy them. Even if it's just to make money people could at
least made some effort to release something worthwhile.
The only positive thing about these books are that some of
them contains some cool photos. But crap is crap in my book.
|
Revenge Is Sweet: An Illustrated Discography
By: Stevens, Joe
Published: March 1997, 88 pages
ISBN: 0711958203 |
Virgin Modern Icons: KISS
Published: September 1997
ISBN: 1852276886 |
Kiss: the Hottest Band in the Land
By: Michael Heatley
Published: November 1996
ISBN: 1873884745 |
Black Diamond 2
By: Sherman, Dale
Published October 1997, 400 pages
ISBN: 189652236X |
 About:
This was the best collectors book for a while (until
Ingo's book came out) . The only flaws it has are the later
part of the book. He wasted a lot of space on a very incomplete
bootleg list. He should have used all this space on more foreign
releases and merchandise. But its a great book anyway.
This book was really supposed to come out with the first Black
Diamond book as an appendix. But Dale and the publisher decided
that It would have become to extensive for one publication.
It is a cool book if you collect books but not the collectibles
book if I had to choose just one. |
" Guitar World" Presents: Kiss
By: Shimon Braun
Published February 1998, 129 pages
ISBN: 0793580781 |
 About:
A collection of all the great Kiss articles from "Guitar
World". Most interviews are from around 92-93. It's a
great read. But I'm not really sure what I think of the book
as a book. It did not feel like a big deal when it came out
and I had read all of the articles before. Anyway its not
a bad collection. |
KISS & Tell More!
By: Gebert, Gordon G. G
Published April 1999, 304 pages
|
 About:
Gordons discussions on rec.music.artists.kiss was quite
entertaining, but there is no way It's entertaining in book
form. Neither is the stuff about his promo tour for "Kiss
and Tell". So 90% of this book is crap. There are a couple
of entertaining chapters about vintage Peter and Ace stories
but not much to write home about. So even if Gordon seems
like a cool guy there is no reason to buy this book. |
KISStory II: Toys, Games, and Girls
By Susan McEowen (Designer), Kisstory Limited Staff
Published March, 2000 , 435 pages
ISBN: 0964486415
|
 About:
I can't understand why this book was ever released. The
content is really weak. It seems like it was rushed and just
put together to release a new Kisstory book. The pictures
are mostly bad and there are no real structure of the book.
Both KISS Collectibles Identification And Price Guide, Black
Diamond II and Goldmine KISS Collectibles Price Guide have
done this much better without blurry pictures and are a lot
cheaper. |
KISS, The Auction
190 pages..
A catalogue of some of the coolest KISS items ever seen |
About: This book is much better than Kisstory II and it
is a Auction catalogue! A lot of cool and interesting pictures
of cool Kiss stuff. You don't get much more but then again
it's really not a book. |
KISS And Makeup
By: Simmons, Gene
Published Dec. 2001, 288 pages..
ISBN: 0609810022 |
 About:
Oh Geno, Geno... You don't remember much do you. This
book could have been great but its not. The most interesting
part is really about his childhood. The parts about Kiss is
filled with some many faults that one must wonder how much
he remembers or if he did any research before this book was
written at all.
One thing I like is his honesty about his relationship with
Ace and Peter. And I really belive Gene is honest in most of his reflections. But otherwise for a fact freak like me the
book is not very good.
Updated 2006: After listening to the audiobook a couple of times I have upgraded the grade a little. It's actually better than my first impression. But the facts are still all over the place. |
The KISS Album Focus
(First edition)
By: Gill, Julian
Published May 2002, 561 pages...
(Extremely limited edition private publication of 500 copies).
Out of print |
 About:
I really love this book. There is so much information
and detail. You will probably never get as much information
about the band as you do her (except in Julian's never editions
of the book). It is a "brick" and there are no photos.
So it can become a little heavy and Julian is no professional
writer. But don't let that scare you. This is the real Kisstory
book together with "Kiss Alive forever" and should
be in every Kiss fans collection.
An extremely difficult book to find and it has been selling
for over $130 on Ebay. |
Goldmine KISS Collectibles Price Guide
By: Shannon, Thomas
176 pages
ASIN: 0873418549 . |
 About:
I like this one probably more than I really should. The
layout is and pictures are good. But content wise it can't
stand up to Black Diamond II. In one way I prefer looking
at these two books as fulfilling each other. I'm not saying
that the content in this book are not any good it's just that
BD is much better. But then again BD has not the pictures. |
Kiss: Hotter than Hell, the stories behind
every song
By: Paul Elliot
Published October 2002, 144 pages
ISBN: 1560254181 |
About: This book isn't even worth calling bad. It's
just a run trough of the songs from the author without even
becoming interesting once. I could have done this ten times
better myself. There are also comments on Kiss by a lot of
uninteresting people that have no place in "Kisstory".
The research is also very bad. When the author manages to
put Peter Criss's name in the text under a make-up picture
of Eric Singer, he really should not be writing a book about
Kiss.
The book just irritates me every time I pick it up. Save your
money. |
The KISS Album Focus
(Second edition)
By: Gill, Julian
Published December 2002, 364 pages...
(Extremely limited edition private publication of 752 copies). |
About:
This is the second edition of the Kiss Album Focus book.
It's not really much to say about it than on the first edition.
There is some new content and the format is bigger. |
Sex, Money, Kiss
By: Simmons, Gene
Published June 2003, 264 pages
ISBN: 1893224864 |
 About:
Gene's second attempt in the world of books. Not really
a Kiss book, but better than the first attempt anyway. The
chapters about Kiss are better than anything in Kiss and Makeup
anyway. The book is also a fascinating look at how Gene thinks.
Even if he comes out looking mostly like a very insecure guy
in my eyes in many ways. His life philosophy is quite extreme
to me and in many ways quite childish. If think more or less
think like Gene you will probably love this book.
But then again it is his life not mine. So the book is interesting
look "inside his brain"... but not much more. |
Kiss Alive forver: The complete touring history
By: Curt Cooch and Jeff Suhs
Published September 2002, 288 pages
ISBN: 0823083225 |
 About:
The holy grail of Kiss books. Listings of every tour date
1973 to 2001. Lot's of great pictures and stories. I must
admit that I didn't expect much from this book when I first
heard about it. But Curt and Jeff's mixing of listings of
tour dates, short stories and great pictures has made this
book just magical. This with no doubt the best Kiss book ever
released. If you haven't already bought it you should be ashamed.
Run to the bookstore and buy it!!!!!!!!! |
Kiss: The early years
By: Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Waring Abbott
Published November 2002, 207 pages
ISBN: 0609810286 |
 About:
Cool picture book with a lot of great early pictures.
Most of them are not before published. The weak points of
the book is that it is too small. Just as the "Barry
Levine book" this should have been a coffee table book.
Books like this could really have been part of the Kisstory
series, instead of releasing crap like Kisstory II. The text
in the book is not really much to talk about either. Mostly
the same routine as we have gotten to expect from Gene and
Paul in later years. Not very entertaining. But the pictures
are great. |
Behind the Mask: The Official Authorized
Biography
Leaf, David & Sharp, Ken
Published November 200, 576 pages
ISBN: 0446530735 |
 About:
A good book that could have been great. I really like
the first part (a interview from 1980) and the third part
of the book. The middle section I really don't understand
or like. If Ken Sharp had included his complete interviews
from Goldmine and more pictures instead this book could have
been as good as "Kiss Alive Forever": The third
part of the book is the real gem. A complete run through of
all the albums and songs with comments by Kiss and other people
who were involved with the recording of the albums. There
were a lot of surprises for me when I read Paul and Gene's
comments about the different albums. This part of the book
is really worth the price of the book alone. |
Kiss
By: Didi Zill
Published December 2003, 400 pages
ISBN: 3896024612 |
 About:
A really great photo book. Not much to read but all the
pictures are great. It seems like all the pictures are "outtakes"
from the sessions he did for BRAVO. I have never seen any
of the pictures before, just others in the same series. I
really love that they have made the book so extensive. Not
much to complain about really. If I should mention some small
flaws its that the pictures would have looked better on even
glossier paper. Some of the pictures are a little un sharp
and some could have been replaced with pictures already published
in BRAVO.
It's easy to see that I love the book. But some other fans
has not been that crazy about it. The book is quite expensive
so you should really check it out before you buy it.
But I think it's a MUST in a real Kiss collection. |
KISS & Related Recordings Focus
By: Julian Gill
Published March 2004, 228 pages |
 About:
Another great book from Julian. This is the real story
behind all the songs. The official Kiss magazine said in it's
review of the book that 'Behind The Mask' were better when
it came to the story behind the songs. Maybe if your after
Gene and Paul's view on the songs. But this is a better book
in my opinion.
As with all Julian's books the only thing I can put my finger
on is that there are no pictures. |
Rock and Roll war stories
By: Gebert, Gordon G. G and Ramagé Lynn
Published 2004, 228 pages |
 About:
I'm not really sure what Gordon is trying to do with this
book. It is not shocking. It's not entertaining and it's not
that well written. Most of the stories are about rock stars
that nobody really cares about anymore. The best story is
probably about Nikki Sixx. But it's a story that wouldn't
have made it into 'The Dirt' (MC bio) because it's not entertaining
enough. And there is also a story about Marilyn Manson that
could have been entertaining. But it's not.
There are some stuff in the book about Kiss but that's also
in the book 'Into the void...with Ace Frehley'. So there is
absolutely no reason to buy this if your a Kiss fan.
(btw: What is it with 'The girls with guns' pictures? I can't
really see anything cool or erotic about girls with guns stuffed
down their mouth.) |
The Official Price Guide to Kiss Collectibles
By: Ingo Floren
Published 2004, 480 pages |
 About:
Easily the best book about collectibles. This book is
great if you need to check out prices etc. Ingo has really
done an incredible amount of work on this book. Some of the
merchandise is probably valued a little to high compared to
what one can expect to pay but if you use the book to find
max prices it's great.
The book mainly focuses on official records and other merchandise.
There is also a small interview with Michael Doret who designed
the RARO cover. And great comments by Dennis Woloch on all
the covers he was responsible for the design on.
The only problem with guides like this is that they will never
be complete. There are always merchandise you want the writer
to write more about. |
Sean Delaneys Hell Box
By: Bryan Kinnaird
Published 2005, 118 pages |
 About:
I must admit I was very disappointed when I got this book.
This was a book that I had really been looking forward to
for many years. The reason I was disappointed was not because
the book was bad but because it was so thin. It's just over
100 pages and it could have been so much more. So when you
read the book it feels like we only get a little peak of what
this should have been. There should also have been some pictures.
On the positive side stories are good and Kinnaird's writing
is great. It's just that the book is so damn short. |
Into the Void...
with Ace Frehley
By: Wendy Moore
Published 2005, 220 pages |
 About:
This is a book I have really ambivalent feelings against.
I read it and found it interesting but afterwards it felt
like I just didn't need to know most of the content in the
book.
The book more or less tells me the same things about Ace a
person as the 'Kiss & Tell' book does. But it also gives
me many personal details about Ace that I really don't want
to know. That Ace really can be an asshole I have understood
ages ago.
As a Kiss fan there are not very much interesting to find
in this book. Wendy's impressions of the rest of the band
during the few encounters she has had with them are interesting
though. |
KISS & Related Recordings Focus (2nd Edition)
By: Julian Gill
Published November 2005, 602 pages |
 About: Second edition of the first The KISS & Related Recordings Focus. Even better than the first edition. Comes as both hardcover and paperback. |
Warman's Kiss Collectibles Field Guide
By: Shannon, Thomas
512 pages |
 About: "Updated" edition of Shannon's Goldmine KISS Collectibles Price Guide book. In one way It's a cool book. But I really don't like the format. It's so tiny that It's not easy to read and not easy finding your way when your looking for something special. I really feel that it could have been so much better than it is. On the positive side there is a really cool interview with Bill Aucoin in the book. |
Sealed With A Kiss
By: Criss, Lydia
Published Oct 2006.
|
 About: Julian's Album Focus books just gets better. This time
he has so much new contet that he has decided to divide his
book into three editions. There are still no pictures but
the book has a new great cover design by Christopher Franchi. |
|
About:
As the first two books I have really problems viewing
this as a book. To me it's more or less a collectable. A really
cool collectable by the way. It's the first real Kisstory
we ever got. Even if the layout isn't that great the story
is quite cool. So if your abel to get your hands on the book,
then buy it. It's worth having in your collection.
About:
This was supposed to be the "Kiss bible" but
It is not (Kiss Alive Forever is). When it comes to the
pictures it gets full points. The story in the book isn't
that good or well written.
