Ace Frehley’s Early Hand-Drawn KISS Logo Among Items in Auction
An early KISS wordmark sketched by former guitarist Ace Frehley in 1973 went to auction this week as part of a massive block of KISS memorabilia up for bid at GottaHaveRockAndRoll.com.
Did you know the KISS logo initially had a stylized dot over the "I"? That's how Frehley drew it when he conceived the classic rock band's visual calling card.
The auction, the spring 2022 "Gotta Have Rock & Roll Pop Culture Auction," is perhaps the largest KISS memorabilia auction ever, with over 250 items available. Other lots include stage-played instruments and stage-worn costumes, among other KISS-related relics.
See the logo sketch near the bottom of this post.
"For years now, we have all heard the story of the creation of the KISS band name and KISS logo," the item's description relays. "Paul Stanley thought of the name, Ace designed the logo, and then Paul refined the logo. But from the Paul and Gene [Simmons] perspective, we were never shown what the original version of the logo looked like."
It continues, "It's clear now, the reason it was never shown to us, was because Gene and Paul didn't have it to show anyone; the artwork was buried within Ace's personal collection."
Frehley used graph paper to draw the logo that "needed to be created for obvious band identity reasons," GottaHaveRockAndRoll.com adds. "But Ace also thought a logo was needed [for] a potential pinback button as a piece of merchandise or as a giveaway memento. … This is why the artwork was taped by Ace to a button for the sake of example; he basically built a prototype button to show the other band members."
Frehley also showed an early KISS logo in his 2011 book, No Regrets. Bidding starts at $50,000. It's expected to fetch $75,000–$100,000 before the auction closes in two weeks.
Learn more here.