'Kiss/Vampirella Collection' by Christopher Sebela with illustrations by Annapaola Martello is a graphic novel about a famous band meeting up with an alien vampire.

The story takes place in L.A. in 1974. A young girl comes to the city to find fame and is taken in by an all female band with Vampirella as a bass player. Meanwhile, Kiss has arrived in town to record a new album. What both bands discover is an evil plot to get rid of rock and roll bands and replace them with soft rock and disco.

The plot is a bit silly, but it's a fun read and there is some fun humor along the way. I've read a few of these mashups with Vampirella and this makes about as much sense as the rest. The art isn't the best, but it's not terrible.

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 was hoping for some campy 70's fun instead this comic more cheesy. The premise is interesting but the execution is not. I found the artwork and the story to be lazy and failed to capture the fun. Demons have taken over the music industry in LA and Kiss and Vampirella team up to save the music. The story is predictable with no surprises.

I remember, sometime around 1978, reading one of my favorite comics and coming across an ad for a KISS comic book. It looked really cool! Unfortunately I never got my hands on that issue. When I saw this I immediately thought of those days and had to take a look. Hoping this book would be a nostalgic revisit to the '70s... Be careful what you wish for!

This mash-up of Kiss/Vampirella is, depending on the reader's perspective, either charmingly campy or hopelessly cheesy. My vote is cheesy.

Los Angeles in 1974. Kiss is in town to record a new album and check out the local band scene. Vampirella (a vampire from outerspace) plays rhythm guitar in an all girl rock band when not engaged in her "real" job - kicking monster/demon butt!

Kiss finds the local scene in steep decline. Clubs are closing, bands are breaking up and their members are disappearing. Worst of all... ***GASP*** ...soft rock, folk, and disco are taking over!!! I won't ruin it for you but suffice to say all the old cliches get a healthy workout.

I was disappointed. It does have a strong '70s retro vibe and there is a good deal of action, but unless you are either a card carrying member of The Kiss Army or a collector of all things Vampirella I wouldn't recommend it.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this title.

This one was...strange. I don't know what to expect but the result was fun and rare

I expected this to be crap, but it was actually quite a bit of fun. The worst part about it were those Juan Doe covers. Everyone he draws looks like a Russian nesting doll. The interior art was actually solid.

Set in the 70's L.A. rock scene, Vampirella is the rhythm guitarist in an all girl rock band. Growing up, the people in my church always said rock and roll is the devil's music. Now demons have actually taken over the music business. They're inserting subliminal music in acoustic music. I found all this a delightful twist after being forced to watch Hell's Bells (A propaganda film on the evils of rock music.) at my church as a teenager. I did like that they got rid of Vampirella's thong costume and replaced it with rock chick attire. The one thing that would have made this book better was if they gave KISS their super powers from that Phantom of the Park movie they made in the 70's. I was never part of the KISS army, but I always loved that ridiculously bad movie. I read this digitally, so no word if KISS added their blood to the ink of this comic as well.

Ok..so I requested this because I am an old Vampy fan from the 70s ...when the brought the title back I read all of those too ...but as time went on...seemed all Vampy could do was fight the inevitable demon horde that was constantly showing up in her backyard ...yawn...then..when it was felt they would add groups to help her ...and so kiss... I was hoping for something different..but pretty much the same standard fare ...demons rising ..vampy protecting..kiss shows up...vampy and kiss fight ..so kn and so on...it was ok..just hoped for something more ...

This was a fun mashup/cross-over.

Fun premise: Record execs are actually demons putting subliminal messages in disco and mellow music. To do so, they have to get rid of all the loud rock 'n rollers.

Interior artwork is serviceable, nothing fantastic, but I did really like quite a few of the covers and variant covers.

*Digital review copy provided by NetGalley and the publisher.

This is one crazy team-up I couldn’t pass up.

I don’t think I’ve read any other KISS comics - and there are a few.

Um. I didn’t know Vampirella played bass.

And does KISS always hang out with their makeup on?

Are these things I’m supposed to be suspending my disbelief about?

I like this Vampirella. She’s a bit Buffy-esque - has she always been like this? Though I don’t like cutesie names for my heroes. Stop calling her “Vampi”.

I know it takes place in the 70s, but it seems like it was written in the 70s. The writing seems a bit lazy. Is it just me? Like, at one point, Vampirella says, “I’ve only been on earth 5 years. I’m a baby, how do I write about all this? I’ve only been on earth for 5 years. I’m still so new, how do I write about it?” A bit redundant, no?

I actually kinda like some of the internal art. (The cover art was weird - not in a good way.) But the whole plot and dialogue - seems really rushed. Not much nuance to it.

The equator of hell runs right through L.A.? What does that even mean?? Oh! It’s a lei line owned by the Devil. Oddly enough that makes a lot more sense to me.

And then, one minute, KISS is freaking out when they see a demon, then next they are cutting people in half with their guitar/axes (ha!) and breathing fire on them? Are they part of this supernatural world, or not? Or is that fire-breathing part of their act? And I should know that?

But then the bands meet and they just crawl up each other’s asses and tell each other how great they are. And then they jam together. I guess that’s a refreshing change from seeing the heroes fight when the meet the first time. But it just seemed a tad corny. Oh no…I spoke to soon. Damn.

One thing I found hilarious is that one of the members of KISS says, “Can we now officially shut up about Satanic cults…?” Since growing up fundamentalist, it went around that KISS <b>was</b> a Satanic cult! (My Grandpa was the one that told me KISS stood for “Knights in Satan’s Service”. But he tended to stay up real late and watch Jim Bakker.)

But the plot seems to be that rock bands are disappearing - and forming new bands that play *gasp* soft rock! Apparently, these demons - who hate rock and roll - are forcing rock bands to play mellow music. Personally, I think it would have been better if they were forcing them to play country music. I think that would have been more realistic.

The concept was cool. But the story lacked.

Anyway.

<i>No one can stop rock ’n’ roll!</i>

<i>Thanks to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors, and Dynamite Entertainment for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

Kiss/Vampirella Collection by Christopher Sebela (Author) and Annapaola Martello (Illustrator) was received direct from the publisher. Growing up as a red blooded, non politically correct, American male in the 80's, both KISS and Vampirella were high on my list of things I hope to see, meet, etc. I do not really read comic books anymore but when I saw this compilation I had to have it. If you like "old school" KISS and/or Vampirella (the two go together like bacon and eggs), then grab this up or give it as a gift.

5 Stars

I am a fan of Vampirella stories but find that as the struggle to take her mainstream involves these crossover tales; much of what made her enjoyable is lost. Pass on this one.

I've always wanted to read a Vampirella comic.... and when you add Kiss in to the deal HELL YES!! But i thought the story and the art generic at best. I love comics..and I knew thst this was going to be campy but fun campy not eye rolling campy.

Well, this had some great potential for, at the very least, some campy fun. Maybe an opportunity to visually riff on the setting of 1974? But, alas, no. Muddled artwork that didn't distinguish between characters and a plot that, believe it or not, read very ho-hum. Finding myself wishing it had gone the other way and jumped the shark, instead.

Remember how you thought you'd have a trashy souvenir of Alice Cooper in comic form, but with Neil Gaiman's help actually had a decent book? Yeah, this is not like that. Take one bunch of guys who look the same, and add another female bunch of guys who also look the same, and stir in vampire hunters, demons disguised as Corporate Label Guys, other weird guys, artwork so awful you can't tell what half the action scenes actually are… And you have a mess. Some pages the script seems to have been thrown on to, in any order, whether it makes sense or not. The solitary 'in' to the plot, as in an actual regular human, changes hair colour completely and at random. Kiss were always to music what a 'your mama' joke is to comedy, but this doesn't help their legacy any. One and a half stars.