Helmet worn by Simmons in Saskatoon thanks to artist Wade Miller
See the complete game report – Gene Simmons Swaps Guitar for Goalie Gear
In honour of Gene Simmons of KISS fame donning goalie gear (and no skates!) during the intermission of the Saskatoon Blades vs. Portland Winterhawks game this evening we have gone into the archives and reached out to a few of the best-known artists in the business to see what has been done with a KISS theme on goalie masks.
We have received a few responses on short notice that we present here – and if you know of others fire us an email or add a link in the comments below. We’ll update this post with any photos we receive that include the photographers permission to post.
InGoal reader Tony Liuzzi sent us photos of his great KISS mask from High School hockey days on Long Island, New York in the late 1970s.
Otherwise we’ll only provide a link. Just like this one that might be the best of the bunch, if you love old-school masks, or this equally impressive submission we received from InGoal reader Tony Liuzzi on Monday morning:
Liuzzi, who coaches goalies on Long Island, where his 12-year-old son also plays goal, said his KISS mask was painted by teammates when he was playing goal for Islip High School from 1975-79. He keeps in on display in his office even today, and looking at the mask we can understand why.
Helmet worn by Gene Simmons in Saskatoon on Friday night
Before we get to the tribute masks, here are the shots of the actual mask used by Gene in Saskatoon. With thanks to artist Wade Miller of Too Tall Airbrushing in Landis, Saskatchewan who sent them in.
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The tribute masks
One of the most respected in the game, Frank Cipra of Cipra Design is best known for his work on Curtis Joseph’s CUJO masks, without doubt one of the most recognized and imitated designs in hockey. He has been kind enough to speak with us on one of our podcasts in the past. Frank sent us this mask he did for Jamie McLennan when he played for the Calgary Flames. The KISS theme is on the back plate, but the whole mask is a great piece as well.
Todd Miska of Miska Designs is known for a distinctive style that appears on the masks of all the Minnesota Wild goalies from Nik Backstrom’s latest lid to the latest he did for Jose Theodore and many others. We had the pleasure of chatting with Todd a while back and can tell you he’s as kind and generous a guy as he is a talented artist.
There isn’t a mask here that embraces Gene Simmons and KISS quite as much as this one by Todd!
Stephane Bergeron of La Griffe Originale is Marc-Andre Fleury’s artist. He designed a raging flower for Fleury and this one is definitely a raging demonic Simmons.
Tony Jarrett from Masked Expressions contacted InGoal a few years back and we included this KISS mask in a gallery of images by Tony.
And in terms of replicating KISS artwork, this mask by Frank Cipra may be the most authentic.
Andrew Penner of the Colorado Eagles, Central Hockey League, had Gene on the side of his mask last season. He and his father are HUGE KISS fans!
I play goal in the local rec leagues. I only WISH I was sporting a sweet helmet like the ones displayed here! Aweseome!
They are the most incredible goalie masks I’ve ever seen !
I was Tony Liuzzi’s back-up goalie on the Islip High ’78-’79 team… Let me tell you– that Gene Simmons mask was so cool and so far ahead of it’s time (I believe it was a Jacques Plante Futurmatic under the paint)! Being a big KISS fan myself, I was quite envious… But I had to wear a “birdcage” because I wore glasses!