ON June 16, 2006 at 11:49 am Ken Raining wrote:

I don’t know if it appeared in the comic itself, but I do recall that in one of the Who’s Who wrap-ups for the book, where they listed who died, which realities person became which hero, which people died on which worlds, etc. there was mention of Marvel. I can’t recall after nearly 20 years if it was Actually Universe 616 that was destroyed, or if was listed as a cross-over world where both Marvel and DC heroes existed, but it was destroyed.Because of that, I was a little miffed at the DC vs. Marvel thing, because DC continutity said that Marvel had been destroyed!

You gotta remember Dio had other bands before he was in Sabbath. He’s an old little man.

But I’ve heard him tell the story. He claims to have first used it AFTER joining Sabbath, as he wanted his own hand-sign to replace Ozzy’s ‘V-for-Victoy/Peace’ sign.

Of course, as many other traditions of ancient european paganism, the “horned hand” also survived in the christian world, although with a transfigured meaning. Know througout Italy as “mano cornuta”, the symbol started being used as a way to protect oneself from diabolic forces (in a way similar to the “sign of the cross” gesture). Of course, if one pointed the “horned hand” to another person, the obvious implication was that the said person was diabolic or in relation with the devil, what allowed for the gesture to be also used as a light curse.

And, in the funny comic book related note, the original esoteric meaning of the “mano cornuta” still survives in the Marvel Universe… it is one of the most commom hand gestures of the Doctor Strange, a champion of the fight against the forces of evil. How intentional was that, I have no idea.

Lars Ulrich claims to have seen Dio using the sign back in 1975, 76 and 77 – when Dio was with Rainbow and not Black Sabbath.

George Clinton and Bootsy Collins have supposedly been using the sign long before it became known as the devil’s horns.

All this and more at
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1216&IssueNum=66
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corna

(Incedentally, the version of the Simmons story I heard was that he wanted to wave at some fans without dropping his pick, so he held it with the middle fingers and waved with the outside, then liked the way it looked in pictures he saw later – also that it was more of Dr. Strange’s gesture than Spidey’s)

It’s most likely, I think, that they both did it by themselves – Ronnie for his grandma, Gene because he thought it looked cool – and when fans saw (nearly) the same gesture used (independently) by both Black Sabbath and Kiss, thought it must actually be some super-secret rawk symbol and adopted it…

So, did Elvis base his haircut on Captain Marvel, Jr? The story I heard was that the pre-fame Elvis asked his barber to cut his hair like the cover picture of the Little Blue Cheese…

Check it out here, in installment #37!

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/02/09/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-37/

Actually, Ronnie James Dio, formerly of Iron Maiden and now Dio, was the inventor of “the Horns”. Or, more acurately, his grandmother was.

Dio’s family are Italian immigrants, his grandmother coming from the “old world” if you will. She used the hand symbol as a light curse, similar to the “evil eye”. Dio himself would later use the hand sign as his music is chock-full of dark and mystical things. Most of his songs sound like readings from the Fiend Folio. Fans picked up on it and it spread like wild hellfire. Nowadays people (like me) get their own mother’s to give the devil horns’ sign and take pictures of it because it’s cute and funny.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and you’ve beeen debunked!