A KISS Army Marching Into Darkness

The world famous face-painted rock and roll band, KISS, once again cuts loose in comics, but this time against the threat of deadites! Read this interview about the upcoming KISS/Army of Darkness #1 (DEC171397) from Dynamite Entertainment which hits comic shops February 28.

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D.E.: What drew you to taking on this project, and what's been your favorite part of working on it thus far?

Chris Sims: When we did our first Army of Darkness comic, I talked in interviews about how ADO was the only thing that I ever wrote fan-fiction about when I was a kid. I never posted it anywhere -- and I'm old enough that I wrote it on a computer without a modem to even connect to the Internet, so it's been lost to the ages -- but it happened, and it won't surprise you that

I spent a lot of time wondering what would happen if I could throw Ash into a crossover, too. Dynamite has done some really great ones in the past, but this one is shaping up to be one of the wildest, if only because we get to put our own spin on the idea of KISS as a kickass interdi­ mensional supernatural strike-force. Get it?

As for my favorite part, it's gotta be seeing the ideas that Chad cooked up when we were plotting it. Sometimes, talking this stuff out is as fun as writing it, and seeing him go even bigger than I was expecting when we were first bouncing around ideas was fantastic . Believe me, you would've thought the stuff we were going to do was wild before we went three steps beyond it. What we're actually doing? It's not just killer, it's a destroyer!

Chad Bowers: With Ash vs. The Army or Darkness, Chris and I were given kind of carte blanche to do whatever we wanted to the world of AOD, and we went for broke. We introduced some new characters and concepts, and built a legacy for Ash's comics adventures that I'm immensely proud of, but not in a million years could I have guessed we'd get to continue that momentum with the added bonus of tossing the world’s greatest rock n' roll band into the mix! I've been in the tank for KISS since I was in middle school. I remember buying the KISS tribute album, "KISS My Ass" for the Lemonheads (they covered "Plaster Caster"), which lead to me picking up "Greatest Hits" and so on. But when I found out there was a KISS comic with blood in it, I signed up for life! Of course I adore the songs (literally listening to "Do You Love Me" right now), but I'm just as obsessed with the way KISS transcends just the music to become something of a genre themselves. It's something I think about a lot, honestly, so no surprise, it's a big part of our story too!

Ruairi Coleman: Having done some work for Dynamite in the past, I've really been wanting to get my foot in the door here for a long time so I can play in the sandbox of amazing licences that Dynamite have. Chief among those, and high up on my bucket list, is Army of Darkness: Hail to the king, baby.

So, when I was offered the job of drawing the Army of Darkness/Kiss crossover, I couldn't be­ lieve my luck! The concept is totally bonkers, but in a way that would make complete sense in the world of AOD. Thinking about it, I'm surprised it hasn't been done already and I'm honored (and more than a little intimidated) to be the guy who draws it.

So far I've just been trying to get familiar with drawing the characters so my favorite part has been re-watching Army of Darkness and reading KISS comics in preparation for this wild adventure. Tough day at the office!