'Kiss: The Elder' by Amy Chu with art by Kewbar Baal is a graphic novel based on a concept album by the band Kiss.

It's the future, and things are bad. There have been wars, and people live underground. They are protected by a robot army and told that someday they will get to leave the city. Some young kids question this and begin exploring the city. They find passageways with strange graffiti. They find an old computer that tells how the city got there. They find giant robots that looks like the band Kiss. Will the giant Kiss robots get to fight? You will have to read to find out.

I liked this story just fine. The art is ok too. I think genuine Kiss fans may be more out of it, but it wasn't a bad read.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I keep thinking I will find a Kiss comic book that I like and with Amy Chu at the helm, I thought this might be the one. Unfortunately no.

So in the future, after the war, four young people (male and female fraternal twins, plus another male and female who like to hang out with them) are living underground, like everyone else, in a city that is protecting them from whatever bad thing happened on the surface of the planet. The city, founded in the mid-21st century, is ruled by a council of elders who enforce their will with big robots called protectors. So far, this is a standard science fiction plot. Here’s where it gets strange.

The four heroes try to find a way to the surface by following KISS graffiti which seems to be everywhere inside the city’s ducts and crawl spaces. Instead of finding the surface, however, they find a computer named Morpheus that projects avatars of KISS, which causes the city elders to send giant robots with jet packs to capture the kids.

Let me back up a second. Does this make any sense at all? Well, only if you understand that the very first elders who controlled the underground city were the members of KISS. Now that makes perfect sense, because who better to manage a city than painted rock stars? You also have to understand that the plot is based on sort of a rock opera album, The Elder, that only diehard KISS fans remember. Now, the story is happening decades from now and I was selling KISS posters when I worked in a head shop in the 70s, so the members of KISS are already geriatric (albeit iconic) rock stars. They must have been really elderly elders when the big future war drove them underground.

Back to the story. Somehow our four heroes kind of turn into junior members of KISS, or maybe they’re just fans. Every now and then KISS lyrics show up in the panels, like Bob Dylan lyrics showed up in Battlestar Galactica, except that when it comes to lyrics, KISS ain’t no Bob Dylan. The heroes even start playing KISS songs on guitars and drums they conveniently stumble upon. How do they even know any KISS songs?

Then there’s the big surprise reveal which I won’t spoil, but I will make the non-spoiling observation that by the time the reveal comes, everyone in the book should be dead, for reasons that I assume would be obvious to anyone who understands anything about … anything.

The art is good and the story is just weird enough to be interesting, but a little too weird to recommend. If it made any sense at all, I might recommend it because I liked the art, but not enough to overlook the glaring plot absurdities.

If you are a KISS fan you will enjoy this comic. This is a SciFi comic about a World without a Sun and four teenagers determined to find out more about their world. As they explore they uncover secrets about their world and themselves. The KISS army in this comic is a set of four protectors. The ending has a good cliff hanger twist. The KISS artwork is great. Enjoy

I was provided an eARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

When browsing through the available titles on NetGalley's website, was there reallly any chance that I'd see this: (cover image)

and NOT press the "Read Now" button immediately?

Not so much.

I mean, I've been a Kiss fan for as long as I can remember...

So here's a bit of a reboot. That is, a new "version" of the story told on the 1981 album Music from the Elder

It featured hits such as....well...there really weren't any hits. The song "A World Without Heroes" is somewhat well known, but for the most part this was a concept album for the band and a huge departure from their signature sound.

That said, as I dug out my cd of the album and gave it a listen, I was reminded of how it's really not a bad album. Shocking to Kiss fans at the time, there was still some beauty there. This graphic novel captures some of that, telling the story from the perspective of four young folks that are unsatisfied with what their post-apocalyptic, dystopian society has told them life is all about.

As a story in and of itself, The Elder isn't anything remarkable. But what makes this memorable are the references to the band itself and its legacy, and the way that is all tied into the "history" of this tale.

The art is fantastic, both of the futuristic society and in the iconic images. It's definitely worth a read, especially by a Kiss fan.

Maybe only by a Kiss fan. But still...

Not a big fan of Kiss and this did seem a little silly as a tie in. It was mildly entertaining though.

A New Kiss Comic Fleshes Out the Band’s 1981 Concept Album but Takes No Risks
Paul Patane

Published: http://twincitiesgeek.com/2017/04/a-new-kiss-comic-fleshes-out-the-bands-1981-concept-album-but-takes-no-risks

Kiss has been an institution in the music industry since the 1970s, and the band’s influence branches across the pop-culture landscape. In comics, the rockers made their debut in Marvel’s Howard the Duck #12 to much acclaim in 1977, and they’ve since gone on to partner with other comic studios, including Image and IDW Publishing. Now, Dynamite Entertainment has gotten its turn to show the Kiss Army what it has to offer with the first five issues of the band’s ongoing series, collected in trade paperback as Kiss: The Elder Vol. 1: A World without Sun.

While Kiss’s appearance in Howard the Duck four decades ago actually kind of made sense and made a splash, Dynamite’s comic—which was influenced by the band’s 1981 concept album, Music From “The Elder”—falls flat in more areas than not. Kiss is known for its mixture of flash and substance, and while this five-issue collection features some substance and thoughtful world building, there’s very little flash or even much of a hook to suggest why Kiss and the book’s creative team should have entered the crowded market of dystopian comics.

Written by Amy Chu (Poison Ivy, Red Sonja), Kiss: The Elder features art by Kewber Baal (Jennifer Blood, Army of Darkness: Furious Road), letters by Troy Peteri (Witchblade), colors by Schimerys Baal (Army of Darkness: Furious Road), and a collection cover by Nick Bradshaw (Wolverine and the X-Men). Kewber Baal’s illustrations pair well with the comic’s need to build around the teenage angst it profiles with its young cast and the dystopian setting that comes from the album that inspired the comic, but there’s too much restraint that doesn’t fit or push its source material in meaningful ways. His best work on the book is drawing the protectors, which are robot versions of the band members that serve as a kind of police force—they’re powerful, distinctive, and fit the vibe of Blackwell, a city in the distant future with a population of over 2.2 million.

The setup in the first issue is handled well. Chu engages readers quickly by presenting the status quo, and then immediately begins to poke at and challenge it with her young cast of characters, led by Eran—who conveniently shares a map he recently found in the book’s opening pages that leads the group to discovering all sorts of secrets—and his twin sister, Noa. As the arc continues to unravel, its plot can more or less be boiled down to The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) meets Kiss robots in the distant future.

Chu does a solid job of turning a widely disliked and disregarded album into a serviceable comic, but what’s being adapted may be the book’s biggest flaw: it’s hard to imagine anyone lining up for a story inspired by what’s arguably Kiss’s most poorly received album. In a crowded marketplace that already includes a massive selection of similar titles, there’s little reason to pick up an average book that doesn’t take risks or push the medium in new or interesting ways unless you’re a megafan of the genre or a Kiss enthusiast. If there’s a silver lining it’s that anyone who’s been waiting for the trade should have no problem finding it in a discount bin at conventions this summer if they’re willing to wait a little longer.

Another perk for trade waiters is that, to accompany the interior artwork, Dynamite deployed its usual strategy of creating an abundance of variant covers available with the series’ first arc. For those who may have struggled with cover selection as the issues came out, the decision of which variant to pick has become nonexistent given that the book collects all sorts of back matter, including a cover gallery and design sketches.

This book was weird. It's set in the far future after a war caused humanity to head underground. Our protagonists are 4 teenagers who are exploring the forbidden areas of their city. Here they come across a monastery devoted to Kiss and discover Kiss robot suits. They use them to battle the "protector" Kiss robots who come after them. Then they find some instruments and play them before the book ends on its big reveal. Like I said, the book is really odd. Kiss aren't really even characters in their own book

This was weirdly intriguing and it was an interesting set-up. Gutted by that cliffhanger though! Definitely curious to see more.

“A world without heroes is like a world without sun.” Nice tag line, and lyric.
In a dystopian future where war has destroyed the surface of the planet, four kids explore where they’re not supposed to and change the course of history (there, got the requisite cliché out of the way).
What sets this apart from most other graphics is how well written it is. You know the government is up to no good when they call the society a “collective.” But once I saw how far in the future this was set, I wondered how the author was going to get KISS to be relevant. That worked out okay, though in the end I realized they didn’t need to be there at all to make the story work, so that was a little disappointing.
There’s some cool touches, like the Sphinx wearing sunglasses; just imagine how big those things must be. The “educational” (brainwashing) videos for the citizens remind me of the FedNet from Starship Troopers. Adi was my fave of the four main characters; the way she uses her butt to open the secret door is awesome. And most of all the dystopian story and setting were well made.
A couple of nitpicks, though. The robot battle was too confusing, couldn’t tell which side was which. And there’s an oopsie medical-wise; one of the characters sprains an ankle but is running fine a little later.
The artwork was okay in the old underground city, but once the story gets to the forbidden levels it really takes off. Much brighter in the garden, for example.
Bonus starts at 116 of 154, with the first two pages being congratulatory notes from two members of KISS. After that comes the expected early designs and alternate covers.
If only they could have worked Detroit Rock City into it. . .

Having been a Kiss fan for the last 37 years I was delighted to discover their reappearance in comic books on Netgalley. Song lyrics, dystopian story line and great drawings - well come on, I was fated to love it! Looking forward to reading more of this adventure and adding this Vol,1 to my collection.

Big Kiss fan so was excited to see this one available. Not really a lover of comic books/graphic novels but found the artwork amazing. Story was good also. Definitely one for the die hard Kiss fans. You wanted the best, you got the best.....

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy.