By Stacy Jenel Smith

Each year for the past eight years, Forbes magazine has compiled a list of the top-earning dead celebrities of the prior 12 months. No one has to guess who'll be No. 1 this year.

Now that the Michael Jackson memorial is over, expect the sell-athon to begin in earnest. He was reportedly $500 million in debt when he died, true, but the tsunami of post-mortem money is already surging in.

Seven of the top 10 selling albums on iTunes the day after his death were Jackson's. He was at the top of Amazon's MP3 store and other outlets as well. Ahead, there are the two albums he had in the works -- the much-talked-about comeback pop album and the intriguing classical/jazz instrumental album -- plus the documentary that concert promoter AEG is reportedly putting together using rehearsal footage.

Repackaged recordings and videos will no doubt keep coming out for decades to come, and licensing and merchandising possibilities are enormous.

Overnight, he went from being an aging, faded superstar, often the butt of jokes, who had an uncertain future -- to being deified as the immortal entertainment icon (not to mention power earner) of all time.

Death can work wonders for a career. Jim Morrison's famous He's Hot! He's Sexy! He's Dead! Rolling Stone cover attested to that. The Doors' lead singer was in a downward trajectory in terms of his appearance and popularity -- overweight and derided for ugly, alcohol-fueled onstage antics -- when found dead in a Parisian bathtub at age 27. But his lean, youthful visage remains familiar today as an icon of 1960's psychedelia-steeped rebellion.

Sad but true, oftentimes performers who have been forgotten about or turned against in their later days are reborn as stars after their passing.

Dorothy Dandridge owed $139,000 in back taxes, had been forced out of her home, placed her daughter in a state mental institution, and suffered a nervous breakdown before her death of an accidental overdose of Imipramine, an antidepressant, at age 42.

Decades later, a re-appreciation of the actress took hold in Hollywood, culminating with Halle Berry's HBO movie, "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge." Now, Dandridge is generating a steady income as fans can buy copies of "Carmen Jones" and other movies starring the trail-blazing African-American film icon, and buy her "Smooth Operator" and other recordings.

What accounts for a personality becoming larger than life in the afterlife? Only a select few faces of stars from the past find their way onto Hollywood Boulevard murals, after all. There must be some essence that transcends generations, some image or spirit that's timelessly fascinating.

Dying young and beautiful, of course, can turn a popular star into a celebrity demigod -- as in the cases of James Dean, 24, Marilyn Monroe, 36, and Heath Ledger,28.

Dean earned $20,000 from "Giant," his last film before the 1955 car crash that took his life. Last year he earned some $5 million in licensing fees, including use of the "Rebel Without a Cause" actor as the front man for Todd's Rebel clothing line. He's also featured in a series of Mercedes-Benz adverts along with fellow 50's icon Monroe.

When Monroe died in 1962, she left an estate valued at $92,781, according to Salon, which also reported that recently, upwards of 120 companies had been licensed to sell products bearing the sex symbol's image on everything from plates to jewelry. A 1999 auction of Marilyn's belongings brought in $13.4 million. Last year, she earned $6.5 million.

Time will tell whether Ledger's image has staying power, but his too-short career certainly gave him two iconic roles, as gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain" and as The Joker in "The Dark Knight."

Unforgettable music is the reason others have attained Larger than Life in the Afterlife status. That, and active estate handlers.

Courtney Love and Yoko Ono have more in common than being widely disliked widows of music icons. They've been working the catalogues of late husbands Kurt Cobain and John Lennon, respectively. Love made a $50 million deal giving publishing company Primary Wave a quarter stake in Cobain's song catalogue last year -- leading to the expectation that his music will be more prevalent in films, on TV and even, possibly, in commercials.

Yoko was way ahead of her on that, as evidenced by Lennon's "Instant Karma" being utilized in those current, heavily-played spots for Chase bank. As is customary with Beatles' tunes used in ads, it was done with someone else performing -- former Bauhaus lead singer Peter Murphy. Yoko's licensing of the master recording of her late husband singing "Real Love" to J.C. Penney's in 2007 caused a big flap as tastelessly, ruthlessly commercializing.

But most of the $9 million-per-year earned by Lennon's estate goes to anti-war charities, according to Forbes, so there is that.

When Marvin Gaye was shot to death in 1984 by his father following an argument, he was reportedly $9 million in debt. Last year, he earned $3.5 million.

Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, Jimi Hendrix and Nat King Cole are also among the musical stars bigger, economically speaking, after death than when they were alive.

And then, there is the case of one of Michael Jackson's heroes, the late King of Rock ?n' Roll, Elvis Presley -- whose image was also reborn after he died.

Elvis' estate was worth $4.9 million at the time of his death in 1977. Forbes had Presley at the top of its dead earners list last year with an astonishing $52 million in 2007-2008 alone. Earnings include ongoing royalties from 41 gold albums, the profits from Graceland tours, plus licensing and merchandising fees.

That landed Elvis at the top of the Forbes list last year.