Kiss—a band that is no stranger to merchandizing or self-aggrandizing behavior—is releasing a brand-new book. And because the band prides itself on being bigger than life, the book is as well: Kiss Monster comes in at 3 feet tall, 2-foot-6-inches wide, and weighs nearly 50 pounds. Excess like that doesn’t come cheap, either: Kiss Army weirdos will have to fork over $4,250 to own this rather large piece of music history.
Not surprisingly, nothing in the book makes it especially worth $4,250, seeing as it just contains various photos of the group’s history and concerts. As such, only 1,000 copies will be made, each of them signed by the group’s current band lineup—which means no Peter Criss or Ace Frehley. The book will also come in 10 different covers, each featuring a flag of a country that boasts a significant Kiss Army population (including Sweden, Norway, and Japan), as well as a “custom message” written for that Army’s faction. (Whether that means only 100 copies will be released in each country, or U.S. Kiss Army soldiers will be forced to figure out what Gene Simmons is scribbling in Swedish is unclear.)
The band maintains that Kiss Monster is the largest rock 'n' roll book ever made, a boast that would probably mean more were there were a more competitive market for extremely large coffee table books about bands. Though it does have one interesting claim to fame: According to L.A. Weekly, it's “hand-stitched by the same book binder that makes the Vatican’s tomes.” Knights in Satan’s Service, indeed.