The Official Price Guide to Kiss Collectibles
By: Ingo Floren
Published 2004, 480 pages

About: Easily the best book about collectibles. This book is great if you need to check out prices etc. Ingo has really done an incredible amount of work on this book. Some of the merchandise is probably valued a little to high compared to what one can expect to pay but if you use the book to find max prices it’s great.
The book mainly focuses on official records and other merchandise.

There is also a small interview with Michael Doret who designed the RARO cover. And great comments by Dennis Woloch on all the covers he was responsible for the design on.

The only problem with guides like this is that they will never be complete. There are always merchandise you want the writer to write more about.

Verdict: 8/10

Rock and Roll war stories
By: Gebert, Gordon G. G and Ramagé Lynn
Published 2004, 228 pages

About:
I’m not really sure what Gordon is trying to do with this book. It is not shocking. It’s not entertaining and it’s not that well written. Most of the stories are about rock stars that nobody really cares about anymore. The best story is probably about Nikki Sixx. But it’s a story that wouldn’t have made it into ‘The Dirt’ (MC bio) because it’s not entertaining enough. And there is also a story about Marilyn Manson that could have been entertaining. But it’s not.
There are some stuff in the book about Kiss but that’s also in the book ‘Into the void…with Ace Frehley’. So there is absolutely no reason to buy this if your a Kiss fan.
(btw: What is it with ‘The girls with guns’ pictures? I can’t really see anything cool or erotic about girls with guns stuffed down their mouth.)

Verdict: 1/10

Kiss: fotografien von Didi Zill
By: Didi Zill
Published December 2003, 400 pages
ISBN: 3896024612

About: A really great photo book. Not much to read but all the pictures are great. It seems like all the pictures are “outtakes” from the sessions he did for BRAVO. I have never seen any of the pictures before, just others in the same series. I really love that they have made the book so extensive. Not much to complain about really. If I should mention some small flaws its that the pictures would have looked better on even glossier paper. Some of the pictures are a little un sharp and some could have been replaced with pictures already published in BRAVO.

It’s easy to see that I love the book. But some other fans has not been that crazy about it. The book is quite expensive so you should really check it out before you buy it.

But I think it’s a MUST in a real Kiss collection.

Verdict: 8/10

Behind the Mask: The Official Authorized Biography
Leaf, David & Sharp, Ken
Published November 200, 576 pages
ISBN: 0446530735

About:
A good book that could have been great. I really like the first part (a interview from 1980) and the third part of the book. The middle section I really don’t understand or like. If Ken Sharp had included his complete interviews from Goldmine and more pictures instead this book could have been as good as “Kiss Alive Forever”: The third part of the book is the real gem. A complete run through of all the albums and songs with comments by Kiss and other people who were involved with the recording of the albums. There were a lot of surprises for me when I read Paul and Gene’s comments about the different albums. This part of the book is really worth the price of the book alone.

Verdict: 7/10

Kiss: The early years
By: Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Waring Abbott
Published November 2002, 207 pages
ISBN: 0609810286

About:
Cool picture book with a lot of great early pictures. Most of them are not before published. The weak points of the book is that it is too small. Just as the “Barry Levine book” this should have been a coffee table book. Books like this could really have been part of the Kisstory series, instead of releasing crap like Kisstory II. The text in the book is not really much to talk about either. Mostly the same routine as we have gotten to expect from Gene and Paul in later years. Not very entertaining. But the pictures are great.

Verdict: 7/10

Sex, Money, Kiss
By: Simmons, Gene
Published June 2003, 264 pages
ISBN: 1893224864

About:
Gene’s second attempt in the world of books. Not really a Kiss book, but better than the first attempt anyway. The chapters about Kiss are better than anything in Kiss and Makeup anyway. The book is also a fascinating look at how Gene thinks. Even if he comes out looking mostly like a very insecure guy in my eyes in many ways. His life philosophy is quite extreme to me and in many ways quite childish. If think more or less think like Gene you will probably love this book.

But then again it is his life not mine. So the book is interesting look “inside his brain”…

Verdict: 6/10