Mars Will Send No MoreScreaming at Comics with Kim Thayil’s Memoir
Kim Thayil’s 2026 memoir A Screaming Life is a great read for Soundgarden fans, giving us an articulate and introspective look into the history of a heavy yet genre-defying band of close friends who rose from obscurity to global fame, and all their triumphs and tragedies along that epic journey. Kim has been an influence on my guitar sensibilities ever since I was 17 and a friend played for me the Loud Love video. Besides his awesome riffs in odd time signatures, I love Kim’s wildly unconventional solos, such as the squealing, scratching, diving, harmonic-laden leads on the ultra-heavy Beyond The Wheel, where he eschews traditional melody and metal-styled shredding in favor of aggressive atmosphere and dissonant colors.
But this post is not about Kim the guitarist. No, this is ostensibly a comic-book blog, so let’s have a look at some of the comics-related memories Kim shares in his book. The first photo in the full-color middle section of the book shows a young Thayil holding a Batman comic. What issue could this possibly be?
It is none other than Batman 180, published in 1966, featuring a villain who apparently cannot be tried for his crimes because he dies… and yet mysteriously resurrects to commit more crime!
With a cover by Gil Kane, a script by Robert Kanigher, and interior art by one of Bob Kane’s “ghost” artists Sheldon Moldoff, it is a campy, ridiculous romp with strangely dark themes—and considering that Kim often refers to Soundgarden’s music and lyrics as dark psychedelia, maybe this book and others like it made a lasting impression on his artistic sensibilities.
The issue also shows Batman haunted by spectral visions in his dreams, much like the young Thayil once suspected his house was haunted when he heard strange thumping noises at night. Adult Kim has little patience for the paranormal and supernatural, and you’ll just have to read the book to find out the true nature of his childhood “ghost”.
On the same page, we see Batman attending a demonstration that lays to rest his suspicions of the villain’s paranormal powers and oddly reinforces Kim’s many statements about the limited representation of people of color in the world of metal and other heavy music. The man demonstrating an ability to fake death using ancient “yogic” techniques and who uses the word “sahib” is presumably of Indian heritage, like Kim—but this has got to be the whitest Indian I have ever seen.
This inexplicably whitewashed portrayal of an Indian puts a fine point on Kim’s concerns about the representation of people of color in American rock music. I honestly never gave much thought to Kim’s ethnicity—I’m more concerned with riffs than race—so it was interesting to see what it means to Kim, such as when he says he’s always felt more punk than metal due in no small part to punk’s more diverse inclusion of people from all walks of life when compared to your typical white-boy metal scenes of the 1980s.
That being said, no one can deny that Kim’s beard is legendary, and Batman 180 has something to say about beards! Below is a panel from a page of “public service announcements” called Health Myths Debunked, and you can learn more about these vintage PSAs in DC comics in my little archive of ones I’ve collected over the years.
Finally, Batman 180 has an ad for a model car called the Surf Hearse, which seems more like something Rob Zombie would be into, but reinforces the oddly dark themes of Batman’s tale.
When Kim talks about his love for vintage comics, it’s almost entirely related to DC’s flagship superheroes. In fact, he says that when he was 13, he submitted a story for DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes. And though it was rejected, that is exactly how Jim Shooter got into the business at the same age! What kind of alternate universe would we be living in if a teenage Kim had become a writer for DC? Given that Soundgarden is one of my all-time favorite rock bands, I can’t help but feel relieved that Kim’s life took a different path than Jim Shooter’s.
However, Kim states that his one literary contribution to comics was having a letter to the editor published in a 1975 issue of Detective Comics. So I dug through some old scans to see if we could track it down. Here it is, from the letters page of Detective Comics 451.
The letter is addressed to editor Julius Schwartz, but it was Schwartz’s assistant editor Bob Rozakis who answered. Bob had recently earned his first DC writing credit for a backup story only a few issues prior, and he would enjoy a long and influential career before his retirement.
Kid Kim praises issue 447, and he correctly spotted DC’s supernatural character the Phantom Stranger in the background of a panel from page 2. See if you can spot the Stranger, too!
Issue 447 guest-stars the utterly weird Creeper in the first of a two-part murder mystery that concludes in issue 448.
And once again, besides the supernatural overtones, this story includes more scenes of digging up graves! Somebody call the Surf Hearse!
And there you have it, folks: a little of my detective work about vintage Detective Comics, courtesy of Kim Thayil’s awesome memoir. A Screaming Life is a thoughtful and entertaining read due to Kim’s dry, understated wit and willingness to share his thoughts and feelings about the high points and low points of his musical career and personal life without ever seeming maudlin or melodramatic. The world might have missed out on Kim’s Legion of Super-Heroes, but we were blessed with decades of innovative guitar work that redefined the nature of heavy rock. I’d say we got the better end of that deal.
Collector’s Guide:
—Kim Thayil: A Screaming Life (in print, ebook, and audiobook)
—Batman 180 (pictured in Kim’s book)
—Detective Comics 447 (referenced in Kim’s letter)
—Detective Comics 448
—Detective Comics 451 (includes Kim’s letter)
Rate this:
#Batman #BobRozakis #bookReview #books #creeper #crime #DCComics #DetectiveComics #GilKane #India #KimThayil #RobertKanigher #rockAndRoll #ScreamingLife #soundgarden #superhero
🤘 The Metal Dog 🤘
Rolling Stone Brasil [Unofficial]
Matt Knight 🌱
Noticias Rock CL
Dr. Dani Sanchez