Consequence Of Sound has issued a new interview with KISS bassist/vocalist GENE SIMMONS, in which he discusses the comic book industry, marriage, and why the band CHICAGO has a leg up on THE RAMONES. An excerpt follows:

Q: You’ve always been a pretty huge comics fan, right?

A: "I actually lived it and breathed it. You know, when I first came to America, I was eight and a half years old, and I remember one of the first books was The Brave And The Bold, and that was introducing the new Flash, the Silver Age Flash. You have to remember names like Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino. I just devoured it. And, of course, the Atlas Group, the Kirby era monsters, and the Ditko off-world things. I bought the Harvey books… there are lines of comic books that I collected all the way from A to Z, from Charlton publications all the way to Dell and Gold Key. I mean, I had thousands and thousands.

And when I was… oh I don’t know, about 12 or 13 years old, I actually printed up one-page handouts, leaflets…”Buying comic books, a dollar a pound.” And everybody had attics full of comic books. And I used to go there, because I knew what the Golden Age comics were worth. At the beginning of the model, comics weren’t worth anything. I was looking for the original Human Torch and Sub-Mariner things, and actually found some. So, a buck here, a buck there, and every once in a while, I’d get an Action Comics #38 or #40. I made a small fortune."

Q: So, you were a pretty business-minded gentleman from the very beginning?

A: "Yes, I’m Jewish. Above and beyond all the other guys that talk, I have actually been and continue to be a superhero myself. From the late ’70s, in the KISS books that Marvel put out, Gene Simmons actually fought Doctor Doom with The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man."

Q: What’s it like being in an Archie comic? Is it a different experience from being in the traditional superhero comic?

A: "It’s not different. It just goes to our mandate, which is self-imposed, which is to rule this planet, to make it Planet KISS, the world where we own the trademark. But it started off with myself picking up the phone and calling Jon Goldwater, who heads up the Archie guys. I was a fan of the early books of the Bob Montana days. You know, for over half a century, thousands and thousands of stories, and the characters still stayed vibrant and still remain an essence, living in that small town with the big ideas that affect everybody.

And Archie, other than just being a kids’ book for the younger audiences, actually dealt with some very big-game issues: homosexuality, and being outcasts, and different, and what that means. Just some really cool stuff in the same way that the Denny O’Neil Green Arrow and Green Lantern books dealt with drug addiction… those groundbreaking stories. This may be before your time. Do you know what I’m talking about?"

Read the full interview at this location.

The second issue of Archie Meets KISS is now available at retail and online stores.

Archie Meets KISS Part 2: Creatures Of The Night. A crew of uninvited monsters have invaded Riverdale, and they're close to taking over the town! Can the mysterious members of KISS stop them with some help from the Archie gang? What will they order at the Chok'lit Shoppe? Featuring guest star Sabrina, The Teenage Witch!

Features a regular cover by Dan Parent (on left) and a variant cover by Francesco Francavilla (on right).