''Kiss: Psycho Circus'' is a comic book series published by American companies

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

and

Todd McFarlane Todd McFarlane (; born March 16, 1961) is a Canadian comic-book creator, best known for his work as an artist on ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and as the creator, writer, and artist on the superhero horror-fantasy series '' Spawn,'' as well as bein ...

Productions. It was written by

Brian Holguin Brian Holguin () is an American comic book writer. Work Holguin is known for his work on ''Aria'' and Todd McFarlane's ''Spawn''. He also wrote '' Spawn: Godslayer'', a dark fantasy re-imagining of Spawn. Partial bibliography ''Aria'' (1999) * ...

and illustrated by various artists, including

penciller A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations. In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step ...

s Angel Medina and

Clayton Crain Clayton Crain (born 1975) is an American comic book artist known for his digital painted work on Marvel Comics books such as ''Ghost Rider'', ''X-Force'', and ''Carnage (character), Carnage'', and also on the Valiant Comics series ''Rai (comics) ...

with

inker The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production. After the penciller creates a drawing with pencil, the inker interprets this drawing by outlining and embellishing ...

br>Kevin Conrad
It portrays the members of the rock band

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

as supernatural beings known as the Four-Who-Are-One or The Elder: the Demon (

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; ; born August 25, 1949) also known by his stage persona "The Demon", is an Israeli-born American musician. He was the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss (band), Kiss, which he co-founded wit ...

), the Starbearer (

Paul Stanley Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who was the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss (band), Kiss from the band's inception in 1973 to their retireme ...

), the King of Beasts or Beastking (

Peter Criss George Peter John Criscuola (born December 20, 1945), better known by his stage name Peter Criss, is an American musician, best known as a co-founder, original drummer, and an occasional vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. Criss established th ...

) and the Celestial (

Ace Frehley Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley (, ; born April 27, 1951) is an American musician who was the original lead guitarist, occasional lead vocalist and founding member of the rock band Kiss (band), Kiss. He invented the persona of The Spaceman (a.k.a. ...

Background and creation

For over two decades, comics featuring Kiss were published exclusively by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. Kiss decided to switch to Todd McFarlane Productions out of admiration for their series ''

Spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawning, the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** ''Spawn: Armageddon' ...

''.

said that "The concept came from us. 'The Psycho Circus' is a tour theme we're working on, and we may even use the title for an album." Kiss were also involved in plotting the comic, according to Simmons: "I throw something to Todd, he throws it back. I'm always kept in the loop, but I leave Todd to his own devices when it comes to actual production and taking things the final step."

Characters

The following descriptions are taken from the comic: The Demon - Lord of the Wasteland - Creature of fire and shadow, blood and thunder. He embodies vengeance and terror, the darkest impulses of mortal souls, but also the purgative flames of rebirth, destruction that proceeds creation. His is the element of fire. Host: Johnathon Blackwell the Ringmaster The Starbearer - Prince of Hearts - He who draws from the deep wells of the soul and emotion, bringer of passion and pain. He can move a heart to tender love or murderous rage. His is the element of water. Host: Fortunado L'Etoile the Jester King of Beasts - Lord of the Hunt - Personifies the primal animal instinct, the rough beast that stirs in each of us. Embracing instinct rather than intellect, he knows neither cruelty nor mercy. His is the element of earth. Host: Tiberius MacLir the Animal Wrangler The Celestial - Scion of the Cosmos - Represents the principles of universal balance, the ultimate harmony of the cosmos. Observes situations dispassionately and sees all sides of a dilemma. His is the element of air. Host: Matthew Stargrave the Stiltwalker Adam Moon Adam Moon is a supporting character that's reappeared multiple times in the series, including in issue 1 and 2 and 29, 30, 31. He is a young boy whose dad beats him and hates his life and town. The Demon was the member of the Elder that reached out to him. Kismet Kismet is a "disappearing girl" who's had weird dreams about running down a hall, putting on a mask and coming to a door with the Elder sigils on it. She reappears multiple times in the comics, but first appears in issue 4. She becomes a member of the circus. Madam Raven A witch who is damned to the Psycho Circus. She is usually the first member of the circus to speak to any mortal character, and is a Fortune Teller at the circus. She appears in almost every issue, and is one of the biggest characters in the comics.

Video game

The comic book spawned the

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

'' Kiss: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child'', which featured many characters from the comic book. It was released on PC and later ported to

Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...

. It was very popular among Kiss fans but critically it sits with an average score of 71% for the PC version and 52% on Dreamcast according to

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

References

External links

*
''Kiss: Psycho Circus'' at spawn.comKiss @ comicbookdb
{{Kiss Image Comics titles Comics based on musical groups Comics adapted into video games Cultural depictions of Kiss (band)