The KISS band drew their larger-than-life stage persona from comic book lore, adding to their elaborate makeup larger-than-life personas. Their live performances were similarly more about spectacle than music: fire breathing, blood spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits and pyrotechnics. So it was inevitable that at the height of their career Starchild (Stanley), The Demon (Simmons), Space Ace (Frehley) and Catman (Criss) would cross over into comic books. The only question was of what form.

On this day, June 30, in 1977 Marvel Comics published their first “Super Special KISS comic book.”

The band had no intention of just letting a regular comic book go out with their name attached. They decided to put some of their own blood into the ink that would go into the comic books. A registered nurse drew a vial from each of the four, and photographers at Marvel’s Borden ink plant in Depew, New York were on hand to witness KISS pouring the containers of their own blood into the vats of red ink that would be used in printing the comic.