Michael Jackson left this earth too soon and so unexpectedly and tragically.The Museum of UnCut Funk is working through profound sadness over his passing by honoring him in this blog with a quick look at his career as a comic book character.
Considering how fast nowadays 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 would have equally embraced someone who was as globally popular as Michael Jackson. Particularly given the fact that as Michael Dean wrote in The Comics Journal #270, Michael Jackson almost bought Marvel Comics.
You’d be wrong. Michael Jackson’s comic book appearances were few and far between. While he appeared many times in MAD and CRACKED Magazines, they really do not count, as they are “magazines” and not comic books.
He made a pre-plastic surgery appearance in Marvel Comics’ Spoof #3 (1973), as part of The Jackson 5. The story was co-written by Steve Gerber and Bruce Carlin and illustrated by Henry Scarpelli. This was similar to MAD and CRACKED and even Marvel’s Crazy, but Spoof was in comic book not magazine format.
Michael Jackson and his brothers were also drawn as part of the audience shown attending the Superman vs. Muhammad Ali fight in this 1978 DC comic.
A few years later the self-proclaimed King of Pop appeared in Longshot #2 (October, 1985) by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams.
In July,1987 Eclipse Comics published Captain EO (actually known as Eclipse 3-D Special #18), a 3-D comic book, based on the Michael Jackson Disneyland ride.
And then in 1991, Revolutionary Comics released Rock And Roll Comics #36, a bio-comic of Michael Jackson.
The Museum of UnCut Funk salutes Michael Jackson and all the contributions he’s made to music and the world.
