Gene Simmons Recalls Touching Letter From Marvel Comics Founder Stan Lee

Posted on Jan 31st 2012 10:00AM by Chris Epting Comments

Getty Images

Last week, Gene Simmons of KISS hosted a Live Q&A with comic book Legend Stan Lee via Ortsbo.com, a real-time experiential language translation platform, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

The two pop culture icons were there in part to promote 'With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story,' a documentary celebrating the icon's influential career in the comic book and cinema worlds. Simmons was also at the famed festival to help spread the word about the Ortsbo app. It's a fitting union since the KISS icon speaks four languages, including English, Hebrew, Hungarian and German, plus some Japanese, and is currently working to add Mandarin to his repertoire. Ortsbo enables real-time conversational translation in over 50 languages and seamlessly integrates with today's most popular social media platforms.

After the press conference, Simmons spoke exclusively with Noisecreep about his admiration for Lee.

Can you describe how Stan Lee has influenced you over the years?

I started reading Marvel Comics in my youth, like many millions of young boys. For me, Stan Lee's stories had a profound, empowering quality that continues to this day. I witnessed super heroes with flaws. With self-esteem issues. With doubts about themselves.

And I connected.

I was so awed by the stories and the mythology of Stan's super heroes, that I wrote him a long letter, comparing Marvel's heroes to Greek Mythology and their gods. And Stan Lee wrote back a postcard. I remember it, as if it happened yesterday. "You will do great things", he said. And he signed it Stan Lee. I felt as if I was touched by the very Gods of Olympus at that moment.

And that feeling as never left me. Excelsior.

Can you imagine ever working the Ortsbo technology into a live concert setting like you did today?

Ortsbo.com has taken off like a rocket. It's uses, both for humanity's sake and for commerce, in general, is going to hit the world by storm. For live chats. For social media. For our military. For politics. For religion. For education... and yes, even for the live concert setting -- taking song requests in any language, in real time.

Watch a Slideshow of KISS' 1977 Comic Book

What memories do you have from the creation of the KISS comic books from the 1970s and who's idea was it to use real blood in the ink?

Marvel and KISS teamed up to do the KISS Comics series of 1978. And someone -- perhaps I did, I don't recall -- thought up the idea of pouring our blood into the red vat of ink used in the printing presses Marvel used in Buffalo, N.Y. The rest is Kisstory.

Watch 'Stan Lee Reveals His Favorite Superhero' Video

Follow @Noisecreep on Twitter | Like Us on Facebook | Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Download KISS Songs | Buy KISS Albums