Michael Jackson Jackson's makeover and shades of change at EbonyPop star Michael Jackson has resurfaced. - REUTERS

Pop star Michael Jackson has resurfaced. He has returned to the recording studio. And in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Thriller, he gazes placidly from the December cover of Ebony magazine. And, to be blunt, he does not look like a creepy goofball.

When the world last had a long, hard look at Jackson more than two years ago, he was on trial for child molestation. He would shuffle into court late and distracted, wearing suits that looked like they had been lifted from Sgt. Pepper, militaristic armbands and medallions and, on one day, pajamas. After he was acquitted, he disappeared to the Middle East, only occasionally emerging to make a few bucks by posing in photo ops with screaming fans in Japan.

But he has been transformed in Ebony.

He is wearing white tails and a plain white shirt. A gold mesh bow tie hangs, undone, around his neck, and a large diamond-and-white-gold floral brooch serves as a million-dollar boutonniere. He looks like a contemporary pop star, rather than a relic from the '80s.

Compelling photos

The photographs inside are even more compelling. In one, Jackson is wearing silver metallic jeans, silver reptile cowboy booties, a long black iridescent frock coat, copious diamonds on his lapel and a black top hat, the brim of which he is tugging down over one eye. The photograph is graceful and dynamic. But what is most fascinating is that Jackson looks like himself - that hair, that face, that dancer's body, that flamboyant style - but he also looks like a grown-up. Or more specifically, like a grown-up version of his P.T. Barnum self.

There is no attempt, either in the images or in the accompanying story, to address his financial situation or to backtrack over his legal problems or curious proclivities. Instead, it is purely a celebration of the performer, the fact that Thriller has sold more than 100 million copies and that some version of a Jackson song - a sample, a remake, a Jackson 5 ditty - probably is on every iPod in the world.

Negotiations

The photos, by Matthew Rolston, were taken at the Brooklyn Museum about two months ago, following about eight months of negotiations with Jackson's people - about a dozen of whom accompanied him to the shoot - regarding everything from timing to who would do his hair. (His personal hairstylist did it.)

It was Jackson who proposed the location. He wanted to be in the company of art, says Harriette Cole, Ebony's creative director. With the museum as the backdrop, Cole says, "I started thinking 'timeless'."

She also noted that when Jackson was asked to review some ideas for the shoot, he slipped on a pair of reading glasses, a gesture that reminded her that "his music may be timeless, but he's a grown man".

At the heart of the shoot was a singular question: "What does a mature icon look like?"

- The Washington Post