Gene breathes fire into some old tomes
By Gene Simmons – Stranger in a Strange Land. Robert Heinlein certainly had a big impact on me. I must have read this when I was in my early teens.
Being a foreigner myself, I knew just how it felt being from a different place and never quite fitting in. The fact that a serious film of this book has never been done (despite The Man Who Fell to Earth, which was very psychedelic and missed the point) is something I never understood. Forrest Gump isn’t too far away from Stranger in a Strange Land. Read it.
• The Great American Bathroom Book series. This is really a sort of condensed Encyclopedia Britannica. We all do it…read on the pot, that is. These books are designed for it. Each page is either a condensed synopsis/overview of a classic book or a page-long “book of facts” or art/literature/history. You can pick it up and put it down anywhere. Read it.
• The Bible. Actually, despite some of the groans out there, it’s quite an interesting book. Very much in line with superhero/comic book concepts. Think of it—Asgard/ Heaven. Odin/God. Thor/ Jesus. And on and on. See the Red Sea split under the staff of Moses. (Very Magneto/X-Men, don’t you think?) See the Burning Bush!!! I can just see it…it’s actually some foliage covering the entranceway to the Lava Men, or perhaps it’s a tear that fell from Ego The Living Planet… See the Behemoth (Jonah and the Whale). I can see it now—it’s actually Fin Fang Foom!
It’s a terrific book, though I’m not crazy about The New Testament. It only takes place in a 35-year period (approximately), and then he dies, and then he lives, and then he’s gone, but he’s coming back. Make up your mind. Both books depict Jewish superheroes—from Noah and his Ark to Moses to Jesus/Mary/Joseph. Good reading, whether you’re Jewish or simply worship one.
• The Encyclopedia Britannica. Don’t laugh, it’s got lots of pictures. The books can be picked up and read and then put down, without ever losing anything. I remember as a kid picking up EB letter A and not putting it down for an entire afternoon. Forget all the trivia games that are out there on the market. Try this one. Amaze your friends. Actually learn something!!!
• I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you, quite honestly, that Kisstory has changed my life. It weighs in at nine pounds of Kiss history. It measures about 1 1⁄4’ × 1’. It has over 440 pages. It comes in a hard cover. It is individually signed and numbered by each member of the band. It is not available in bookstores. It is a limited first edition. It is only available by dialing (800) 905-KISS (5477). It costs $158.95; $218.95 overseas.
The book started as a dream—you know, put the book you’ve always wanted to read out yourself…a sort of fanzine/book. A book that had multi-layered graphics on each and every page. A book that actually has an oversize 30-page comic book within the book (computer colored, on highest quality glossy paper). KISS designed it, had it printed, and is responsible for mailing out the copies directly. No stores. No warehouses. No middlemen.
As a youth, I published, edited, and wrote my own fanzines (Cosmos, a ’zine on sf, film, and comics; Tinderbox, a comix ’zine; Faul, a chatzine that covered sf, comics, and others), and certainly Kisstory is the culmination of everything I have ever learned about “doing it yourself.”
It’s no different than publishing/writing/drawing/distributing your own comic.
Only this one weighs more than nine pounds!!!
