While various outlets have already posted remembrances of the star’s prominent place in the worlds of music, movies and so many other elements of pop culture, MTV reports that it’s worth noting that Jackson was also known to have a fondness for comic books and Sci-Fi that rivaled even the most obsessive fanboy.
From trips to the comic shop to a collection of some of the most impressive comics-related memorabilia around, Jackson made no secret of his affinity for comics – going so far as to almost buy Marvel Comics in the late 1990s.
Those looking for proof of Jackson’s love for comics need look no further than some of the items from his personal collection that were recently put up for auction. Along with a life-size, molded rubber Batman costume (fitted over a life-size replica of Jackson himself), Jackson’s personal stash of comic book swag included a massive Superman statue, numerous life-size Spider-Man statues and a variety of other items die-hard comics fans would likely give up a limb to own.
Late last year, Jackson even dropped by Los Angeles comic book shop Golden Apple with his three children to pick up a pile of issues to add to his collection. Hidden behind a pair of massive sunglasses and veil, Jackson had his children wear masks on their way into the store to hide their identities – including one mask designed to look like Mike Allred’s “Madman” character.
His appearance prompted a bit of a commotion, but reports claimed that both he and his children happily left with a stack of comics new and old. Of course, if Jackson wasn’t filling in spots in his collection during that trip to Golden Apple, he might’ve just been picking up a few more copies of the various comic books in which he appeared over the years. The pop star made cameos at various times in the parody magazines “MAD” and “Spoof,” but also had cameos in a 1990 issue of “Disney Adventures,” as well as in a 1985 issue of the “Longshot” miniseries published by Marvel Comics.
Possibly the most notable connection between Jackson and the comics world, however, is how close the star came to owning Marvel, one of the industry’s “Big Two” publishers, in the late ’90s. As chronicled by The Comics Journal in an August 2005 article, Jackson met with Stan Lee and Peter Paul of the newly formed Stan Lee Media to investigate the possibility of buying Marvel Comics.
In Comics Journal, Peter Paul said;
“After we built SLM into a public company with a market cap almost twice Marvel’s, we talked with Michael Jackson about teaming up to buy Marvel, I have a videotape of Michael in our offices for over two hours, seeing what we were doing.”
Jim Salicrup, a former Marvel editor who was a writer-editor for SLM during the Jackson meetings, told TCJ that at one point, Jackson asked Lee,
“If I buy Marvel, you’ll help me run it, won’t you?”
While the deal eventually fell through, it certainly offers an interesting “What If?” scenario for comics fans – and an indication of exactly how close the worlds of Jackson and comic books often overlapped.
One of my personal fond memories of Jackson and another nod to his Sci-Fi fandom was his Disney 3-D movie, “Captain EO.”
Despite all of the cool rides and characters to interact with at Disney, “Captain EO” was an awesome experience. Captain EO was simply a short Sci-Fi film with a Michael Jackson musical number, that just so happened to be Produced and Directed by George Lucas & Francis Ford Coppola and it was in 3-D!
This was the 80’s, so 3-D was a very new and still an off the charts experience.. even more so for a little kid. Unfortunately, those who didn’t experience ‘Captain Eo’ first hand or weren’t from the generations that experienced MJ in the 70’s and 80’s (prior to the ‘Wacko Jacko’ years, will never understand just how cool he was).
Watch Captain EO below (awful quality but the best I could find)
Rest In Peace Captain EO. You were one of a kind and You will have to forgive me but now that you have left us, I can pretend that your later years never existed and remember you for the brilliant Superstar you really were..long before you were ever “BAD”
