{"id":360,"date":"1995-09-01T12:00:08","date_gmt":"1995-09-01T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/?p=360"},"modified":"2016-01-30T17:52:45","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T22:52:45","slug":"gene-breathes-fire-into-some-old-tomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/gene-breathes-fire-into-some-old-tomes\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene breathes fire into some old tomes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gene Simmons \u2013 Stranger in a Strange Land.<\/strong> Robert Heinlein certainly had a big impact on me. I must have read this when I was in my early teens.<\/p>\n

Being a foreigner myself, I knew just how it felt being from a different place and never quite \ufb01tting in. The fact that a serious \ufb01lm of this book has never been done (despite The Man Who Fell to Earth<\/em>, which was very psychedelic and missed the point) is something I never understood. Forrest Gump<\/em> isn\u2019t too far away from Stranger in a Strange Land<\/em>. Read it.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Great Amer\u00adican Bath\u00adroom Book series<\/strong>. This is really a sort of condensed Ency\u00adclopedia Britannica<\/em>. We all do it\u2026read on the pot, that is. These books are de\u00adsigned for it. Each page is either a condensed synop\u00adsis\/over\u00ad\u00adview of a classic book or a page-long \u201cbook of facts\u201d or art\/literature\/history. You can pick it up and put it down anywhere. Read it.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Bible.<\/strong> Actually, despite some of the groans out there, it\u2019s quite an interesting book. Very much in line with superhero\/comic book concepts. Think of it\u2014Asgard\/ Heaven. Odin\/God. Thor\/ Jesus. And on and on. See the Red Sea split under the staff of Moses. (Very Magneto\/X-Men, don\u2019t you think?) See the Burning Bush!!! I can just see it\u2026it\u2019s actually some foliage covering the entranceway to the Lava Men, or perhaps it\u2019s a tear that fell from Ego The Living Planet\u2026 See the Behemoth (Jonah and the Whale). I can see it now\u2014it\u2019s actually Fin Fang Foom!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a terrific book, though I\u2019m not crazy about The New Testament<\/em>. It only takes place in a 35-year period (approximately), and then he dies, and then he lives, and then he\u2019s gone, but he\u2019s coming back. Make up your mind. Both books depict Jewish superheroes\u2014from Noah and his Ark to Moses to Jesus\/Mary\/Jo\u00adseph. Good reading, whether you\u2019re Jewish or simply worship one.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Encyclo\u00adpedia Britan\u00adnica.<\/strong> Don\u2019t laugh, it\u2019s 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!!!<\/p>\n

\u2022 I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t tell you, quite honestly, that Kisstory<\/strong> has changed my life. It weighs in at nine pounds of Kiss history. It measures about 1 1\u20444\u2019 \u00d7 1\u2019. 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 \ufb01rst edition. It is only available by dialing (800) 905-KISS (5477). It costs $158.95; $218.95 overseas.<\/p>\n

The book started as a dream\u2014you know, put the book you\u2019ve always wanted to read out yourself\u2026a 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.<\/p>\n

As a youth, I published, edited, and wrote my own fanzines (Cosmos<\/em>, a \u2019zine on sf, \ufb01lm, and comics; Tinderbox<\/em>, a comix \u2019zine; Faul<\/em>, a chatzine that covered sf, comics, and others), and certainly Kisstory<\/em> is the culmination of everything I have ever learned about \u201cdoing it yourself.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s no different than publishing\/writing\/drawing\/distributing your own comic.<\/p>\n

Only this one weighs more than nine pounds!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gene Simmons \u2013 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 \ufb01tting in. The fact that a serious \ufb01lm 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\u2019t too far away from Stranger in a Strange Land. Read it. \u2022 The Great Amer\u00adican Bath\u00adroom Book series. This is really a sort of condensed Ency\u00adclopedia Britannica. We all do it\u2026read on the pot, that is. These books are de\u00adsigned for it. Each page is either a condensed synop\u00adsis\/over\u00ad\u00adview of a classic book or a page-long \u201cbook of facts\u201d or art\/literature\/history. You can pick it up and put it down anywhere. Read it. \u2022 The Bible. Actually, despite some of the groans out there, it\u2019s quite an interesting book. Very much in line with superhero\/comic book concepts. Think of it\u2014Asgard\/ Heaven. Odin\/God. Thor\/ Jesus. And on and on. See the Red Sea split under the staff of Moses. (Very Magneto\/X-Men, don\u2019t you think?) See the Burning Bush!!! I can just see it\u2026it\u2019s actually some foliage covering the entranceway to the Lava Men, or perhaps it\u2019s a tear that fell from Ego The Living Planet\u2026 See the Behemoth (Jonah and the Whale). I can see it now\u2014it\u2019s actually Fin Fang Foom! It\u2019s a terrific book, though I\u2019m 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\u2019s gone, but he\u2019s coming back. Make up your mind. Both books depict Jewish superheroes\u2014from Noah and his Ark to Moses to Jesus\/Mary\/Jo\u00adseph. Good reading, whether you\u2019re Jewish or simply worship one. \u2022 The Encyclo\u00adpedia Britan\u00adnica. Don\u2019t laugh, it\u2019s 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!!! \u2022 I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t tell you, quite honestly, that Kisstory has changed my life. It weighs in at nine pounds of Kiss history. It measures about 1 1\u20444\u2019 \u00d7 1\u2019. 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 \ufb01rst edition. It is only available by dialing (800) 905-KISS (5477). It costs $158.95; $218.95 overseas. The book started as a dream\u2014you know, put the book you\u2019ve always wanted to read out yourself\u2026a 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 \u2019zine on sf, \ufb01lm, and comics; Tinderbox, a comix \u2019zine; Faul, a chatzine that covered sf, comics, and others), and certainly Kisstory is the culmination of everything I have ever learned about \u201cdoing it yourself.\u201d It\u2019s no different than publishing\/writing\/drawing\/distributing your own comic. Only this one weighs more than nine pounds!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43,42,41],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recommended-reading","tag-gene-simmons","tag-issue-8","tag-september-1995"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}