Today in Comics History, February 23: Happy birthday, Janet Jackson!*

Born on this day: Janet Jackson! We now pause momentarily to clarify: *No, not that one™. This Janet's a comic book colorist for Marvel, Defiant/Acclaim/Valiant, and other companies: The Amazing Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Hellstorm: Prince of Lies, Star Brand, Solo Avengers, Mario Bros., Nintendo Comics System, Unity (and more), plus Valiant's The Good Guys, Warriors of Plasm, and Dark Dominion, where she also wrote scripts!


from Marvel Age #50, 87 and 98 (Marvel, May 1987, April 1990, and March 1991), text by Mike Carlin (#50), and Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter (#87 and 98); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Gregory Wright (#87) and Renee Witterstaetter (#98)



And now, a li'l bit of trivia I didn't know until I started researching Jay Jay: She was was used as a visual reference and inspiration for Transformers villain Circuit Breaker, including her hair! I know so little about Transformers that when I first discovered this factoid, I imagined her as an actual cute Transformer robot, instead of this:


cover of The Transformers (1984 series) #45 (Marvel, October 1988), pencils by Bob Budiansky, inks by Dave Hunt
Circuit Breaker, created by Bob Budiansky, Alan Kupperberg and Mike Manley, is one of the rare Transformer characters that actually belongs to Marvel. As in, they could probably still use her as a modern character! (But they likely won't.) This is because at the request of Bob Budiansky, she appeared in her super-form in the infamous miniseries Secret Wars II before her debut in Transformers, solely so Marvel Comics could claim ownership of the character. She's the one who talked some good ol'-fashioned common human sense into The Beyonder, shown here controlling the minds of every living person on earth. Yes, even (and shown!) Marvel editor Archie Goodwin.


from Secret Wars II #3 (Marvel, September 1985), script by Jim Shooter, pencils by Al Milgrom, inks by Steve Leialoha, colors by Christie Scheele, letters by Joe Rosen
(A page later, the Beyonder frees the will of everyone again, starting with former-prostitute but now-amazingly-happy-to-be-a-waitress Toots. "Toots." THANK YOU, JIM SHOOTER.)


Anyway, SWII3 is the "first" appearance of Circuit Breaker (™ Marvel Comics Group), even though she appeared in her civilian identity of Josie Beller several issues earlier, lookin' uncannily like Janet Jackson*.


from The Transformers (1984 series) #6 (Marvel, July 1985), script by Bob Budiansky, pencils and inks by Alan Kupperberg, colors by Nel Yomtov, letters by Rick Parker
Seriously injured in one of those Autobot/Decepticon fights that never hurt anyone on television, Josie develops an amazing ability to connect directly with computers, not unlike Artoo-Detoo.


from The Transformers (1984 series) #8 (Marvel, September 1985), script by Bob Budiansky, pencils by William Johnson, inks by Kyle Baker, colors by Nel Yomtov, letters by Rick Parker
In the next issue, Josie's gained the powers of dressing up in a computer version of the Witchblade armor and interacting immediately with all machines. Wow, she would be great at getting online concert seats at Ticketmaster.com.



from The Transformers (1984 series) #9 (Marvel, October 1985), script by Bob Budiansky, pencils by Mike Manley, colors by Nel Yomtov, letters by Rick Parker
So happy birthday, Janet Jackson*!


from Marvel Age #40 (Marvel, July 1986), photograph by Andy Mushynsky