Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy birthday, Janis Joplin!

Born today in 1943: singer, songwriter, and rock legend Janis Joplin! (I shall refrain from posting the doctored Angel Love panel here out of respect.) And yes, she's appeared in comic books and in comic art!


from Comic Book Comics #4 (Evil Twin, October 2009); script by Fred Van Lente; pencils, inks, and letters by Ryan Dunlavey
One of the weirdest, and probably the least seen, Janis cameos appears in this hallucinatory sequence from a Clive Barker-inspired comic book:




from Ectokid #6 (Marvel/Razorline, February 1994), script by Larry Wachowski, pencils by Steve Skroce, inks by Bob Dvorak, colors by Mike Thomas, letters by Gaspar Saladino
And of course, Janis's most famous comic art portrayal (I'm not gonna reproduce the whole cover; you've seen it before and you'll know why).


cover detail of Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company (Columbia, August 1968), by Robert Crumb
Singin' her own tune, gone far too soon. Happy birthday, Janis.