As I was weaving through the hallways of the Hilton Parsippany during the Chiller Theatre Expo on April 18, 2009 – on my way to meet up with Peter Criss, the original drummer of KISS – I noticed a room full of signed KISS art. I barely gave it a second thought, thinking that it was just what it sounded like, artists who had drawn or painted KISS. This didn’t excite me that much, but after I met Peter Criss, I told my friends Bill and Peter that I’d like to take a look inside the room, thinking that it might contain artwork actually signed by KISS members.
So the first thing I noticed amongst the comic book art, of which I had no interest, was that there was artwork from the album cover of KISS’ Destroyer. This album is what I consider to be KISS’ crowning achievement, and one of the very first KISS albums to enter my collection back in 1979. The cover of the LP was one of the coolest that I had ever seen. But still, I thought – big deal, someone painted a reproduction of Destroyer.
Then suddenly I realized that the artwork had been signed by the same guy whose signature was on the original LP – Ken Kelly. Okay, this is pretty cool – I wondered how much this framed, signed artwork might be. Hundreds of dollars probably. That’s when I put two and two together and realized that Ken Kelly himself was standing right there in front of me.
He had huge photo albums full of various artwork – mostly from comic books – and naturally I immediately asked if he was selling photos of Destroyer – and the other KISS album that he had painted, Love Gun. The latter album I never owned on LP (although I would eventually get the cassette and of course the CD), but you can bet that I stood there staring at it many, many times whenever my Mom would take me to the local department stores and let me browse the records. Nothing but nothing was cooler than KISS in 1979.
Ten dollars each. Personally signed in front of me by the artist. And he was happy to pose for a picture (at the top of the posting) with me. I have to say that of all of the celebrities who were at the Chiller Theatre, this was the most pleasant – even if technically the only – surprise of the day.
Celebrities of the April 2009 Chiller show will continue…
If only he would have known you were willing to pay more…
Heidi
June 30th, 2009