Kiss bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons may have trouble successfully trademarking his variant of the devil’s horns gesture, given comments he made to Classic Rock Magazine back in 2014. In an interview then, he admitted that he adapted the gesture from Marvel superhero Spider-Man. He told them at the time:
“We laid down the templates. When you see bands rocking out in sync, that’s us. When you see bands putting up that two-fingered devil horn salute, that started with Kiss.”
“Mine came from Spider-Man doing his hand signal, as a homage to him. If you see me in photos, I’m sticking out my thumb. That’s the sign in sign language which means ‘I love you.'”
Of course, given that Spider-Man can often be seen using the same gesture—albeit with his his hands flipped upside down—while shooting webs, it would likely be in Marvel‘s best interest to take action, lest they want to potentially pay Simmons for some time to come.
When asked in the same interview with he believed that it was Ronnie James Dio who originated the devil’s horns salute, he replied: “Well, I’ve heard Ronnie say that to my face and I said, ‘God bless you.’ I mean him no ill will, but I think he’s wrong.”
