MICHAEL JACKSON: COMIC BOOK STAR? NOT SO MUCH.

Michael Jackson has passed away, and the media circus will not abate until the next celebrity scandal or death – perhaps Redmond O’Neal will do something crazy at Farrah Fawcett’s funeral? In the meantime, let’s console ourselves with a quick look at his career as a comic book character. Don’t worry, it won’t take long.

Considering how fast nowadays that comic books – perhaps fueled by a need-for-sales-and-publicity desperation – have embraced Barack Obama and thrown him into the Marvel Universe, the Image Universe and even stuck him back in the barbarian age, you might have thought they’d have equally embraced someone who was once as globally popular as Michael Jackson. Especially since MJ, back when he was alive, had been seen taking his disguised children into a comic book store to do some non-Wednesday shopping. Or even, as Michael Dean wrote in The Comics Journal #270 about how Michael Jackson almost bought Marvel Comics.

You’d be wrong. Michael Jackson’s comic book appearances appear to be few and far between. Yes, he appeared many times in MAD Magazine and CRACKED Magazine, but that should be considered a special category, since those are “magazines” and not comic books. Let’s take a look at the others.

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