God of Thunder and Copyrights

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons is working with local comic publisher IDW on a horror anthology comic to be titled Gene Simmons House of Horror. The first issue is scheduled for a July release, with Simmons appearing at the San Diego Comic-Con to promote the series.

"We originally planned to do a comic with Iron Maiden, until Gene's comic came along," says IDW creator Tom Waltz. "The band was totally up for it, but then all these middlemen got involved with licensing and permissions, and it became really difficult to get simple yes or no answers."

Simmons had planned to publish the comic under his own Simmons Comic Group last year, but an apparent falling out with co-creator (and fellow musician) Jazan Wild led to the two announced issues being canceled.

For the second Simmons comic, IDW is looking for contributors and paying $250 for scripts ("plus five comp copies"). IDW publisher Chris Ryall says, "Gene Simmons will own the copyright to all the stories that appear in this comic."