Thu Mar 6, 2008 — by Karl Cramer

'KISS 4K' Goes Digital

Gene Simmons' tongue (and the rest of the band) going exclusively online

KISS 4K, Platinum Studios' comic about the magical adventures of the rock band KISS (adventures which, surprisingly, didn't involve many groupies), will be leaving the world of comic shops and heading exclusively to cyberspace.

While 4K's main story was told in print, webcomic site DrunkDuck.com had featured back-up stories that tied into the print series.

According to DrunkDuck.com's Adam Black:

The second story was available here, at my humble little webcomic site on Drunk Duck. The webcomic existed to tell backstories about the previous incarnations of the 4K spirits, and we took them a month at a time, starting with Casanova, then moving on to Yoshiie, Constantine and Shaka. I also snuck in a little Christmas special, which seemed to go over well with everyone.

All, as of today, all that's changed. The two have merged into one. The storyline from the print comic will now be told here, exclusively. There'll be no more backstories or side-stories--those have all been told. So, when you're done reading issue 6 and are ready for issue 7, you don't drive to your friendly neighborhood comic shop. You come here.

So why the move? Dan Forcey, VP of Content Development at Platinum provided the following explanation in a news posting on the official KISS website:

The print book has been selling really well for us here at Platinum and we're very excited about it. There are several reasons why we're doing this.

First and foremost is that Gene, Paul and Scott (Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, CEO of Platinum Studios) are trend-setters and usually at the forefront of what is hot. (KISS was in comics back in the 70's, thirty years before a lot of rock stars like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and all the other bands "discovering" the comics medium right now.) Scott and Gene both see the world moving towards the digital distribution, like DD and websites like Wowio (hint, hint), and they want to be on the trailblazers like they always have been.(Remember when everyone said iTunes wouldn't work?)

Secondly, Gene and Paul plain love Adam's work and want HIM to be the vision that guides 4K from here on out. You guys may not know this, but Gene and Paul both insist on their approval over every printed page of KISS 4K, but they let Adam, and only Adam, do what he wants on the title here online. Actually, I'm kind of jealous of the guy sometimes because they give him more free reign than me. :-)

New KISS4K pages will be published Monday, Wednesday and Friday spreading over two months for the complete issue. The first page is scheduled to come out the evening of March 5.

To rock n' roll all night online, visit the official online home of the KISS4K webcomic.

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