With a number of artists recently selling off their music catalogs (David Bowie’s estate sold his publishing catalog to Warner Chappell Music for upwards of $250 million; BMG and KKR acquired the “entire music interests” of ZZ Top for around $50 million; BMG acquired the entire recorded catalog of Mötley Crüe for approximately $150 million), Gene Simmons was asked by journalist Alan Cross if he'd be willing to part with the KISS catalog.

Says Gene: "How much have you got? Bob Dylan sold his stuff for $300-400 million. The problem - and I love the guy and worship the ground he walks on - but [his music] isn’t going to mean a lot to a 20-year-old. They don’t care about 'The Times They Are A-Changin’', 'Maggie’s Farm' - they just don’t. Very few pieces of music stand the test of time. What KISS has that no other musical entity has is trademarks. Our faces are bigger than the music, bigger than anything. Springsteen just sold for $500 million and what you get is the music, not the imagery. I’ve never seen a Springsteen cartoon, comic book, or action figures. KISS is the only one. So what you’re buying into - if anyone does the right price - you’re into buying the imagery that has stood the test of time. Our analogy is Santa Claus/Superman: Imagery that is trademarked so that no one can reproduce. And no other musical act has that."

Read Simmons' full interview with Alan Cross at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Dynamite Comics will issue KISS comic Phantom Obsession #5 on January 19. The comic will be available in seven different cover variants.

A description reads: “KISS has faced it all: megalomaniacs, giant monsters and robots, killer android... and that's all be in the first 4 issues of this series! Now, as it all comes to a cymbal-smashing conclusion, can the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world survive the final showdown the mastermind behind it all?”

Purchase at Dynamite.com.