Interview: Gene Simmons Returns to Comics with ‘Dominatrix’
Interview by Troy-Jeffrey Allen
From Kiss to Scooby-Doo and beyond — musician and entrepreneur Gene Simmons is a staple of popular culture. Constantly enterprising, his passion for entertaining audiences stretches beyond sold out concert halls, periodically bringing him back to his other love: comic books.
PREVIEWSworld’s Troy-Jeffrey Allen hung out with “the Demon” to find out more about his return to “funny books” within the pages of The Dominatrix™!
The PR on this calls Dominatrix a reimaging of the series. Is this more of a modernization or something else entirely?
This is the rebirth of Dominatrix™. Dominic Stern has always been a loner. Never knowing who her mother or father was. Born with the blessed body of a goddess, she nonetheless had a lifelong problem with the male of the species, who only saw her as an object of sexual gratification. This is her story.
This is based on your original story, but were you always interested In returning to Dominatrix? Why return to the character now?
My former partner/publisher was IDW. They did a fine job of putting out a 13-issue run of Dominatrix. I felt there were many other stories I wanted to tell that featured the enigmatic and sensual Dominique Stern. The guys at Opus understood the intrinsic backbone of the series for what it was always intended to be — CIA meets T&A.
Much has been said about your own love of comics. What do you enjoy about the format?
I wasn’t born in America, and Comics were my outlet. They visually told me stories about characters I’d never come in contact with in classical literature. Comics enveloped me in ways no other form of literature had. It’s quite gratifying to see how us fanboy comic book geeks who were once made fun of, literally rule pop culture…with the biggest movies of all time. We win!
Looking forward, what can readers expect from Dominatrix?
We will be doing things in our books that other characters can’t, and won’t. For one thing, although Dominic Stern looks hot and bothered, she has many other things on her mind. First and foremost initially, is her survival.
One more question: Who has a better comic book collection? You or Nicholas Cage?
I don’t sell my comic books. I keep them safe and sound.
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Troy-Jeffrey Allen is the producer and co-host of PREVIEWSworld Weekly. He is also the Consumer Marketing Manager for Geppi Family Enterprises. Troy’s comics work includes MF DOOM: All Caps, Public Enemy’s Apocalpyse ’91, the Glyph Award-nominated Fight of the Century, the Harvey Award-nominated District Comics, and the Ringo Award-nominated Magic Bullet.
