steve geppi
baltimore diamond distributors fantastic forum geppi' s entertainment museum steve geppi ulysses e. campbell
geppis entertainment museum in baltimore is to open on friday, displaying steve geppis personal collection .
steve geppi | geppi mansion fails to sell at $ 2. 79 million - tribunedigital - baltimoresun
steve geppi opens geppi’s comic world, which operated out of the basement of a tv repair shop .
geppi' s entertainment museum - geppi' s entertainment museum president / ceo stephen a. geppi bio
diamond comic distributors, inc. - steve geppi interview with fanboy radio available online
steve geppi: i prefer to think it was spoken as a man mark .
diamond comic distributors, inc. - steve geppi named baltimore ceo of the year
since then– steve geppi has effectively cancelled titles. including one of yours… correct ?
shields said spiroff and gonzalez morin reported to geppi, and geppi reported to moyer .
but not with comics. not any more. all the pressure groups have to do is lean on steve or threaten steve or picket steve or—most worrisome of all—genuinely get steve on their side .
comicwow! interviews diamond comic distributors, inc. ceo, steve geppi, about the company’s 35 th anniversary
geppi' s entertainment museum press room :
geppi' s entertainment museum president / ceo stephen a. geppi bio
. accessed march 5, 2009
owner steve geppi describes it as “one of the largest investments i’ve ever made in diamond and our industry. ”
a former dean at carroll community college, steve geppi, has returned to his roots to weed out corruption .
steve geppi grew up in poverty! he' s a self made man, dammit! if steve geppi can pull himself up by his bootstraps, so can all those other poors out there, if only they weren' t so lazy .
steve geppi talks at the future tomorrow panel at the 2013 comic - con international: san diego. seven minute video .
- the maryland stadium authority reduces politically well - connected businessman steve geppi’s $ 367, 820 rent at the state’s camden station by 31 percent after geppi misses 19 monthly rent payments .
so, diamond' s steve geppi will be voting for donald trump at least... - bleeding cool news and rumors
i also understand that steve geppi' s gemstone publishing company is to close, just as the final overstreet price guide shipped .
heidi macdonald ,
steve geppi’s debt woes growing
in the beat, february 18, 2009. accessed march 5, 2009
geppi' s entertainment museum, baltimore: hours, address, geppi' s entertainment museum reviews: 4. 5 / 5
jamie: you clearly feel betrayed by diamond’s deal with nextplanetover. com, do you think you can trust diamond or steve geppi again ?
founder of the geppi entertainment museum and diamond comic distributors, steve geppi, talks about building the xanadu for comic collectors, what he loves to collect the most, and the art of sniffing old comic books .
the other consideration is inheritance tax consequences for the geppi family. a sale of diamond could be structured to benefit the geppi tax - wise .
steve apparently weathered the storm, and i’m sure herman rush did. but there must have been some impact, if, as i’ve been given to understand, steve sold his interest in the baltimore orioles. steve loves the baltimore orioles .
steve geppi will overcome his debt problems; re: dean burns’ 4 / 21 / 09 posting: “stephen g. is in a lot of hot water”
walt flanagan of amc' s
comic book men
takes a whiff of a copy of action comics no. 1, as steve geppi looks on .
guarantee in writing that neither steve geppi, diamond, or any member of the diamond staff would ever take any equity position in a comics retailer ever again .
in 1987, geppi responded to
a graphic chiwdbirf scene in miracweman # 9 [ written by awan moore ] .
geppi wrote to retaiwers dat :
mark waid: spoken like a rich white man. thanks for sharing, steve .
we could have spent days checking out the treasures in steve geppi’s office but he was eager to give us a tour of his pride - and - joy museum .
that would make great sense, as diamond is the only significant distribution mechanism around for the comics industry, headed up by steve geppi' s terrible mismanagement. one real major screw - up from geppi, and the whole comics industry is fucked .
gemstone publishing was formed by diamond comic distributors president and chief executive officer steve geppi as a conduit for his efforts in preserving and promoting the history of the comics medium .
jamie: if steve geppi / diamond comics continues their plans with nextplanetover. com, what will their positions in the industry be like one or two years from now ?
our last stop was the museum gift shop, where steve loaded us up with freebies .
well, steve geppi wasn' t going to take that. he' s a man, remember. so steve geppi responded as any man would - with a diatribe almost as long - winded as the original one that started this whole thing, so long - winded, in fact, it wouldn' t fit in a single screencap :
shields confirmed that geppi' s unit was a participant in the eci investigation. he declined to say what roles geppi, spiroff or gonzalez morin might have played .
steve geppi is a man who seems to get what he wants. a barks painting at an auction? he gets it. dominance of comics industry distribution? all his .
famed comics collector steve geppi seems to have moved up to collecting multi - million dollar lawsuits. news broke today of another pending suit with the widow of bruce hamilton filing a $ 3 million complaint in prescott arizona against geppi and his defunct diamond international galleries .
leach’s news was picked up by the disney comics worldwidw blog, which connected it with gemstone owner steve geppi’s reported financial difficulties. as dcw reported, gemstone, diamond and geppi have been sued by creditors trade association for $ 373, 000 for unpaid printing bills .
steve geppi spoken like a rich man is not racist. spoken like a white rich man is. try that using the word black and see if you get away with it .
this isn’t to say that john davis and milton griepp are george the third or that steve geppi is ming the merciless. nor is there any implication that something fishy is going on .
geppi owed about $ 3. 25 million on the property, according to court records .
on march 11th i arrived at the hotel in baltimore, half - expecting a message to meet with steve geppi prior to the beginning of the rrp meetings. no message was waiting. despite that lack of communication, i decided to still hold back. i had brought with me 5 copies of the e - mails i sent steve after brian hibb' s editorial appeared in comics retailer. this included the original letter to the editor that i had never sent in, plus my letter to brian explaining how i had an ongoing dialog with steve, and how i thought that steve would find some solutions to the conflict of interest issue. my intention was to allow retailers who asked me about why i had never spoken out about steve geppi' s ownership of urltoken to read exactly what i had said to steve, and to brian. as i told steve in my e - mail message of 3 / 10 / 99, my goal was to simply let my fellow retailers read the messages, and judge for themselves the appropriateness of steve geppi' s actions .
before going off half - cocked, however, i did want to give steve geppi yet another chance to fix things. so i sent him the following e - mail on march 10th :
when steve showed up at valiant looking for work, his shoes were held together by duct tape .
i admire steve ditko' s principles even if i don' t always understand what motivates them .
he also continued the discussion highlighted yesterday, with mark waid, in which i also pointed out that steve geppi had recently been close to bankruptcy. another reason why the “bank” may be closing… .
within a few years, geppi was not making his yearly payments of $ 250, 000 and the montana family sued. in a deposition, geppi very matter of factly explains what happened :
other geppi bad deals were based on the real estate bubble – in that he’s hardly alone .
original art for price guide covers highlights august heritage auction at geppi' s entertainment ...
the matter involving spiroff was separate from the one involving geppi and gonzalez morin, shields said .
among the pieces being exhibited are many on loan from the private collections of kerby confer and gem founder steve geppi, widely regarded as the two most extensive representations of carl barks’ paintings and other works .
steve geppi is a very smart guy and an unbelievable contributor to this community ,
she said .
it' s very sad to see what happened to him, whatever the reason .
i first met steve ditko sometime in 1977. for the life of me, i can’t remember where .
compared to say, alan moore, steve ditko, with his privacy and his principles seems quite normal .
in his new position, vaughn will continue reporting to geppi, who is also president and ceo of diamond comic distributors, and founder of geppi’s entertainment museum in baltimore’s historic camden yards sports complex .
york, pa. – stephen a. geppi, president and ceo of diamond comic distributors and geppi’s entertainment auctions – parent company of morphy auctions and hakes americana – has been elected to the york college of pennsylvania board of trustees. geppi will serve a three - year term on the board .
chuck rozanski: i am now a firm advocate that the exclusive relationships that diamond has with any comics publishers must be voided. we trusted diamond and steve geppi, and i feel they have betrayed that trust. i once advocated the exclusive relationships because i felt that maintaining stability in the world of comics was more important than fears of monopolization. i now fear steve geppi and diamond far more than i fear chaos .
given that i was still waiting for any kind of a reply from steve geppi to any of my suggestions, i was at a loss as to what to do. it had been four weeks of total silence. i knew steve had other issues to deal with in his broad collection of enterprises, but i could also see that time was drifting away in which to make a public protest. four weeks of waiting seemed long enough. in the end, i decided to compromise. i wrote the vociferous letter of support for brian' s condemnation of steve geppi' s ownership of urltoken to comics retailer, but then i sent it first to steve geppi. the text of that e - mail follows on december 15, 1998 :
geppi' s entertainment museum to close. bummer. collection moving to library of congress. cool .
denver, pa. (acni) – four and a half years after selling the auction company he co - founded, dan morphy has come full circle and bought back the operating assets of morphy auctions from geppi’s entertainment. the geppi family of companies is headed by baltimore businessman stephen a. geppi .
still, you just wouldn’t want to be steve geppi today — although he possesses some of the greatest collectibles in the whole comics world, it’s looking more and more likely that a bank is the actual owner .
when steve showed up at valiant looking for work, his shoes were held together by duct tape .
in 1995, geppi founded diamond internationaw gawweries, which acqwired hake' s americana & cowwectibwes auction house (2004), and in 2005, pennsywvania - based morphy auctions. [ 49 ] in 1999, geppi founded diamond sewect toys, and in 2006 he founded geppi' s entertainment museum in bawtimore .
this development came as a severe shock to me. for the previous 18 years, despite overtures from myself and many others, steve geppi adamantly refused to be involved in the retailing of comics. the only exception to this policy was maintaining the original geppi' s comic world retail stores that he had established prior to creating diamond comic distributors. steve geppi made it clear to me repeatedly during the years of our friendship that any expansion of retailing on his part would be a complete conflict of interest relative to his ownership of diamond .
baltimore magazine is published by stephen a. geppi. born in the “little italy” section of baltimore, maryland, geppi turned his childhood love of comics into the world’s largest distributor of english language comic books .
alliance is a big shop. their size allows them to have one of the best comic book selections in the dmv. they even have archie comics. alliance has an old school, friendly vibe probably inherited from the previous owner steve geppi, of geppi’s museum fame. geppi owned the store from the 70s to the late 90s until the space evolved into alliance comics, much like how jean grey transformed into the phoenix .
steve geppi, publisher of baltimore magazine and ceo of diamond comic distributors, will receive the 2011 nephcure public service award at the countdown to a cure, a baltimore banquet at the pier 5 hotel jan. 20 .
just saw searching for steve ditko on youtube. nice documentary, looks like he just wants to be left alone .
it’s now official. the comic book market’s eggs are all in one basket. carol was right again (as she so often was). and steve geppi is now the most powerful—and the weakest—man in the comics industry .
mr. geppi entered the comics business in 1974 when he opened geppi’s comic world, which he soon expanded to four stores. by 1982, his distributor was failing and he decided to move into distribution. in just over a decade’s time mr. geppi expanded his comic book distribution business across north america and europe .
unlike the state employees charged in the eci indictment, geppi and spiroff were hired by the hogan administration .
geppi supervised several hundred workers in the intelligence, investigations, central hiring and inspector general' s departments .
is there a more cautionary tale in comics than that of the failing fortunes of diamond comics owner and über - collector steve geppi? daniel best reads through some of the court documents on the montana estate vs steve geppi lawsuit we alluded to the other day, and they are not too thrilling if you are steve geppi, the owner of diamond comics and once considered the richest man in comics. in a nutshell, back in 2006, a flush geppi offered the family or archie artist $ 1, 000, 000 for a collection of original archie art, while attesting that he was worth $ 20 million, as the attached exhibit shows. as time went by, a few things happened — geppi made a series of very bad deals which ate up his money, especially as the economy and the real estate market tanked; and the art also lost a lot of value :
having steve geppi in this position was intolerable to me and to all the retailers with whom i discussed the matter. there was a consensus among those with whom i spoke that there was no way that severe conflicts of interest could be avoided between diamond' s servicing of their 4, 000 independent retailers, and steve geppi' s anotheruniverse. com. i spoke with representatives of marvel and dc, diamond' s largest suppliers, and made sure that they understood my concerns. i also spoke with representatives of dark horse comics, image comics, and our local diamond representative. they, in turn, passed on the issues i raised to diamond, and steve geppi .
baltimore — if steve geppi has his way, his new entertainment museum will be a cultural institution that children must be dragged out of rather than into. and his idea of children does not mean 12 years old and under .
like the other lawsuits mentioned above — all of which have been settled against geppi — this one was settled in january with the court ordering geppi to pay the $ 3, 000, 000 due for the collection .
fortunately, we had rom, spaceknight. rom fit steve’s criteria well enough. he did some great work on rom .
pop culture mogul, steve geppi, will be stopping by the comicwow! studios on february 8 th for an interview about diamond comic distributors, inc. (dcd). february 1, 2017 marked the 35 th anniversary for dcd .
i think several artists asked if they could ink an issue of steve' s rom pencils and it became a thing. a chance to work with the great steve ditko for one job was an honor. i believe bill mantlo also did some recruiting .
this story is nothing compared to what steve to helen hamilton and another rainbow... ...... .
as years passed, it became evident that the direct market was underscored by head - to - head competition between capital and diamond. and carol would say that steve geppi was the more aggressive, the more determined to come out on top .
many thanks to brian hibbs for speaking out (comics retailer # 82) on the subject of the diamond / geppi takeover of anotheruniverse. com. brian seems to be one of the few folks who clearly recognizes danger to all direct market retailers posed by having steve geppi in control of not only all comics distributing, but also the largest internet retailing presence .
geppi' s entertainment museum | 301 w. camden street | baltimore, md 21201 | 410 - 625 - 7060
in january 2009, pnc bank won a $ 16. 4 million judgment against geppi, according to court records .
resume for
stephen a. geppi
at businessweek, september 8, 1998. accessed march 5, 2009 .
newswatch: geppi buys bawtimore ,
the comics journaw # 174 (february 1995), p. 29 .
the officials include steven f. geppi, director of the department' s investigation, intelligence and fugitive apprehension unit .
on friday, co - host billie rae bates and i visited geppi’s entertainment museum where we met steve geppi. steve is one of the most influential men in the comics industry through his position as president of diamond comics distributors. diamond has cornered the distribution market and if you are a publisher who wants their books to make it to specialty comics retailers you have to deal with them. before diamond, many of you may remember mr. geppi from his chain of comic book stores in the dc / maryland region that bore his name. billie rae conducted a fabulous interview while i acted as cameraperson / director .
this revelation left me stunned. it now seemed clear that my worst fears were being confirmed. i had to admit that clyde durkee might have been right all along when he predicted that steve geppi would tell me anything he thought i wanted to hear in order to keep me silent on his ownership of anotheruniverse. com. my trip to baltimore in november, at steve geppi' s invitation, now appeared to never have had any chance of success. during the time that steve geppi and i spent fifteen hours together discussing how to constructively resolve the issues relating to his ownership of anotheruniverse. com, he apparently already had his staff secretly negotiating yet another preferential deal for a comics retailing entity in which he had an option to purchase stock .
about mr. geppi—after starting geppi’s comic world in 1974, steve geppi launched diamond comic distributors, the largest distributor of english language comic books in the world. in subsequent years he founded gemstone publishing, diamond international galleries, and diamond select toys and acquired other fine firms such as alliance game distributors, baltimore magazine, e. gerber products, hake’s americana & collectibles, and morphy auctions. he is a minority owner of the baltimore orioles and is involved in many local civic activities .
in a move prompted by frustration over an inability to negotiate a reasonable compromise with diamond comic distributors, inc. , and diamond owner steve geppi, over mr. geppi' s takeover of internet retailer anotheruniverse. com, mile high comics, inc. has filed a letter of protest with the anti - trust division of the united states department of justice. mr. peter mucchetti, an attorney for the department of justice who has been investigating the role of steve geppi and diamond comic distributors, inc. in the current state of comics distribution, agreed to also investigate the claims made by mile high comics, inc .
i don’t know exactly how long marvel had kept steve on after i left there, but eventually they’d cut him loose. jerks .
this story is nothing compared to what steve did to helen hamilton and another rainbow... ...... .
steve geppi, ceo, president and owner of diamond comic distributors seems to have had a new year’s resolution. not just the one he describes below, but one to speak out more about his opinions, with as much frankness as he can muster .
the official companion to the “atlas at last! ” exhibit at geppi’s entertainment museum. comic book marketplace returns ...
as i said before, someone of the caliber of steve leialoha or klaus janson would work well. p. craig russell is a great choice, too. someone whose work would be lush and full, while still keeping the essence of steve ditko' s style .
when asked about why the payments stopped geppi was more forthright. “there was no funds (sic) sufficient to pay it, ” he said. “there were no funds available. diamond international galleries did not have funds available. ” when asked why he had no funds, geppi simply said, “credit officers have been asking that questions (sic) for years. ” the montana’s legal representative pressed further asking about geppi’s net worth. geppi stated that he did indeed have a net worth in excess of $ 20, 000, 000 when he signed the contract in 2007, but as of 2010 his net worth was around the $ 1, 000, 000 mark. if true then this is an amazing fall for geppi. geppi insisted that the only reason the final $ 500, 000 was not paid was down to, “no funds. ” for geppi it really was as simple as that. no other reason was offered, no other reason was required. however another accusation that geppi filed was that other items were shown to him by the montana family but were not included in the final inventory. faced with geppi’s answers the montana family asked for a trial by jury, something that geppi was keen to avoid .
all i can say is, it couldnt happen to a nicer person than steve (let me screw you and manipulate the market) geppi…and yes i to have been thru his museum and his private collection…. been an insider for many many years…interesting to see how geppi manipulayed prices and the market with his cronies…. good to see him fall…. maybe criminal legal action can come next
as part - owner of the baltimore orioles, geppi is a very prominent local businessman, whose ventures often appear in the local papers. in fact, this link is from a local maryland newspaper naming geppi one of the “biggest scammers” of 2009 :
geppi’s entertainment museum, founded in september 2006 by diamond comic distributors ceo steve geppi, is more than $ 700, 000 in debt. maryland’s daily record reports the baltimore pop - culture museum has accrued about $ 622, 500 in unpaid rent to the maryland stadium authority, and owes more than $ 77, 000 in late fees and unpaid electric bills dating back to february 2007 .
i just saw the in search of steve ditko documentary. i enjoyed everyone' s stories about ditko, and their interpretations & opinions .
diamond comic distributors, inc. marks the 35th anniversary of its incorporation, a new milestone in the evolution of the company president and ceo steve geppi successfully started as a former retailer to distribute comic books and pop - culture related merchandise to his fellow retailers. urltoken
steve geppi, gemstone publishing president and ceo, publisher of baltimore magazine and president and ceo of diamond comic distributors, will receive the 2011 nephcure public service award at the countdown to a cure banquet at baltimore’s pier 5 hotel on thursday, january 20, 2011 .
coinciding with new details on its expansion of the olive branch, mississippi central warehouse facility, diamond' s president / ceo steve geppi has written a personal letter to its customers - comic book retailers - on the changes in the industry and what prompted the expansion .
during last night’s presentations at the diamond retailer summit, the comic book legal defense fund announced that diamond’s founder and president, steve geppi, has accepted a seat on the group’s board of directors. geppi joins chris staros, peter david, neil gaiman, milton griepp, greg ketter, frank mangiaracina, louise nemschoff, and paul levitz in overseeing the direction of the non - profit organization .
last month, harbor bank of maryland won a $ 3. 5 million judgment against geppi, according to county court records .
geppi & apos; s entertainment museum is heaven for comic book lovers, as shown on a recent episode of amc show .
diamond comic distributors founder and president stephen geppi sr. with some of the characters that propelled his company to fame and fortune .
what' s happening at gem we are incredibly proud of geppi' s entertainment museum (gem) and the ...
below is a very eye opening interview where he discusses his opposition to recent diamond comics / steve geppi dealings with online super stores urltoken and the upcoming nextplanetover. com. also discussed are his near purchase of marvel comics publishing arm and his thoughts on other industry matters .
john geppi. executive vice president and cfo of covenant health system (knoxville, tenn .). mr. geppi has helped covenant health, a seven - hospital system, become one of the most financially viable providers in east tennessee. [ read more ]
“this is not to say that steve has done any of these things or would do any of these things. just that he could. ”
in recent weeks, while news of diamond’s new trade policies has rippled through every level of the comics business, diamond’s owner, stephen geppi, has also been hit with several lawsuits for outstanding debts. while geppi’s various business interests, including the geppi entertainment museum and gemstone publishing, are all separate corporations, the overall picture of debt that emerges is an uncomfortable one for the comics industry .
' considered' means to ponder, look at closely, examine, etc. and does not admit, or claim, or state that steve ditko is spider - man' s co - creator .
– steve ditko' s response appeared in the may 2001 issue of the comics
sadly, despite his personal promise to me to do so, steve geppi never called brian hibbs. of my suggested changes, the only one that went into effect was the wholesaling of specialty publications from urltoken to all diamond accounts. by last week (almost three months after his pledge to take action) steve geppi had not done anything. nor had he ever called me back. instead he went forward with milton griepp and his associates to establish a relationship by which urltoken would become the first internet retailer whose fulfillment would be handled exclusively by diamond .
update june 2018: geppi’s entertainment museum has closed. the collection has been donated to the u. s. library of congress .
geppi said he was fired by moyer tuesday and seven or eight other employees of the unit had been placed on leave. he said those employees are protected by the correctional officers' bill of rights. geppi and gonzalez morin said they could be fired at will .
i had a time where i would have regular conversations with steve ditko over the phone. he was nothing but polite and pleasant to speak with .
i wasn' t thrilled about doing the wwf books, but steve seemed to enjoy them. they weren' t particularly rushed. yes, you' d think that the co - creator of spider - man (stan said it was 50 / 50, steve told me it was 70 / 30 in his favor) would have grander and more significant assignments. but steve seemed okay with it and we were very glad to have him .
we then spent hours discussing what methods could be employed to utilize the urltoken mailing list to help comics retailers without diminishing the value of that asset. i thought i came up with several good suggestions based on the positive responses i received from steve. perhaps i was once again being incredibly naive, but i really believed that steve geppi was sincere in trying to find solutions to his conflict of interest. upon parting for the airport i agreed to send steve a summary of our discussions, listing specific suggestions. i also agreed to continue to consider being a part of the process .
as to gemstone’s woes: disney drove such a hard bargain with gladstone (bruce hamilton), that he stopped publishing the line. steve geppi picked it up for his love of the “ducks” knowing full well that it would probably be a money - losing proposition for years to come–but steve wanted to see donald, huey, duey, louie and uncle scrooge return home from europe to the good old usa in triumph. folly or not — fifty years from now when the gemstone issues are bringing a thousand dollars a copy (or more) steve’s publishing contributions will be remembered with gratitude .
the question, as always when we report on geppi’s financial matters, is where does this leave diamond? every diamond employee we’ve ever spoken to has assured us that there is a financial firewall between geppi’s personal business like the museum and the galleries, and diamond comics distributors .
a grid of video monitors displays the first issue of action comics, introducing the man of steel in 1938, at geppis entertainment museum .
have known steve geppi neigh on 40 years now since we were both sub - distributors for new media. diamond has always been fair minded striving to do the best job possible, just like so many others of us in this wonderful hobby turned big biz. check em out on ebay .
these ideas were designed to mitigate, not eliminate the conflict of interest issues presented by joint ownership. i have to point out, however, that i only took this approach when it was made clear to me that steve geppi never intended to ever let urltoken get away from his ownership. divestiture of urltoken is the actual best solution. then diamond' s hands would be once again clean, and the conflict of interest issue would be moot. . but that' s not going to happen. steve geppi clearly understands that a substantial portion of the future of comics retailing is on the internet, and he intends to dominate that niche. if you have any doubt of that fact, just ask yourself the question: have you ever seen steve geppi enter into any venture without going all - out to win? understanding that factor made me realize that i had better prepare for an unprecedented blitz of internet competition from urltoken. steve milo may have been an inefficient competitor, but steve geppi has the resources, and the skill, to cause great harm to mile high comics, and every other retailer in the direct market. assuming he will not, out of some sense of past friendship or obligation, is foolishness predators predate. they kill in order to live. that' s how the world works .
i’d never before seen steve looking…i don’t know. worn down? worried? troubled? hard to say, steve doesn’t exactly show his feelings much, and was not the type to express despair or even its lesser cousins. but he didn’t look happy. he didn’t look well. and he needed work .
i have always considered steve ditko to be spider - man' s co - creator .
- stan lee (in a letter to ditko )
nobody has done more in recent years for the comics industry than steve geppi. where would marvel and dc be today without his wisdom and diamond’s expertise in comic book distribution? george t. delacorte (dell), whom had the most extensive comic books distribution network in usa history failed in 1960 - 61 and western publishing suddenly found themselves on their own with multiple independent distributors ripping them off at every chance. had steve geppi appeared on the scene ten years before with diamond, chances are there would still be a “gold key” comics line on the shelves today. think about that .
chuck rozanski: my initial contact with the justice department was when they called me for my opinion on steve geppi’s acquisition of anotheruniverse. com. i told them that i considered his personal ownership of the leading internet retailer of comics to be a direct conflict of interest with his other role as the owner of diamond comic distributors, the sole - source supplier to the retail comics trade of marvel, dc, image, and dark horse publications. but i told the investigators that i was negotiating with steve geppi personally to find ways to mitigate the conflicts involved with his ownership of anotheruniverse. com .
morphy said he looks forward to an ongoing collaboration with the geppi companies, which will be referring appropriate consignments to the newly minted auction house .
get the chance to ask geppi questions yourself. during the livestream, leave a question in the comments for geppi to answer! make sure to tune into the interview live at 2: 30pm, wednesday, feb. 8, on comicwow! ’s facebook page. see you then !
a recipient of many prestigious awards, mr. geppi has been honored numerous times in his hometown for his professional accomplishments and his tireless philanthropy .
state records show that geppi earned $ 109, 000 a year. spiroff earned $ 91, 000; morin earned $ 81, 000 .
documents in baltimore county circuit court show that several limited - liability companies in which geppi was an investor borrowed $ 18. 6 million in december 2006 to acquire waterfront properties for development in maine and that geppi signed a personal guaranty on the note. the borrowers defaulted in october 2008 .
, who died in 2009, was the letterer on
steve canyon
from 1975 - 88. this year' s event was hosted by brian o' halloran, known for playing dante in the
clerks
movies. the
walking dead
comic book and artist fiona staples (artist of
saga
) won multiple awards. steve geppi was given the
shel dorf legacy award .
geppi owns diamond, which he grew from a small comics distributor in the early' 80s to a current monopoly of the industry. he also has an amazing collection, which you can view at
anyway, i met steve, probably there. what an honor. i loved his work. when i was a kid i tried to emulate his style .
steve came back to marvel in 1979, where he drew machine man: the one title along with tales to astonish which he shared runs with jack kirby .
stephen a. geppi was a postman with an 8th grade education. but he became a multi - millionaire comic book distributor, and he used his money and his connections to create geppi' s entertainment museum. its purpose, according to its brochure, is to show that pop culture collectibles mirror american history and are educational for kids. geppi knows this first - hand, since he reportedly attributes his own literacy to batman comics .
in 2008, an investigation by the daily record showed geppi' s entertainment museum went 19 months without making any kind of payment to its landlord and accumulated a debt of more than $ 700, 000 to the state in rent and other fees. geppi settled the debt in early 2009 .
i dont know the whole story, only part, will try to get more info, but it is not a good one, bought ar and did not pay in full or something like that, dont know how it settled out if it ever did, will let you know more as i find out about it but 4. 6 million dollar purchase and h hamilton sued geppi in fed court after he stopped making payments according to april 10, 2010 suit filed in ariz. she says geppi owes her more than 3 million after not making payment for 2 years, found the lawsuit goggle helen hamilton trust vs steve geppi and look to pdf file that says kenneth... what a story over 3 million... movie posters, comic books, bruces collection... . sued steve geppi and diamond. . poor widow and bruce is gone and so is 6400 carl barks autographs .
in january of 1995, geppi opened diamond international galleries, a gallery devoted to comics, comic collectibles and related art. he recently opened the geppi’s entertainment museum at camden yards and has continued to expand his interests within the collectibles field with the addition of auction houses hake’s americana and morphy auctions .
geppi said the firings and the suspensions would cause severe harm to the department' s attempts to fight corruption in the state' s correctional institutions .
as far as i know, steve ditko never worked there, but, like i said, almost everybody stopped by at some point for one reason or another .
there are several old photos of steve ditko available online. as of the last time i saw him he looked the same as always, just a little older .
from left: comics4kids inc president dale moore in sarasota florida getting hired at cgc in 2002 with cgc’s steve borock, audrey, john slater, and mark haspel .
geppi has faced financial trouble in recent years. last may, the maryland stadium authority agreed to reduce the rent paid by geppi' s entertainment museum for its space in camden station at camden yards after the museum struggled to pay its rent. pnc bank won a $ 16. 4 million judgment against geppi in january 2009, while harbor bank of maryland won a $ 3. 5 million judgment last month, baltimore county circuit court records show .
. geppi was already in the business as a retailer at that time: he had left his job as a letter carrier for the u. s. postal service in 1974 to open his first shop, geppi' s comic world, which operated out of the basement of a tv repair shop .
sunday’s season 6 premiere of the amc show “comic book men, ” spotlighting the continuing adventures of writer - director - comic geek kevin smith and the staff at his jay and silent bob’s secret stash comic store, included a stop at the museum adjacent to camden yards and a visit with its owner, steve geppi .
in regard to the existing internet retailers, i think it should be clear that having steve geppi own urltoken has a far greater immediate impact on those entities than it does storefront retailers. we' ve gone from having a flamboyant, but poorly managed online competitor, to having the largest available pool of both working capital, and managerial talent, in the comics industry brought to bear against our own online marketing programs. this is a chilling and depressing turn of events. particularly since we' ve trusted steve geppi for so many years as our primary supplier supplier. to find an equitable middle ground, i have suggested the following :
one of the
last loyal customers
when new media began having fiscal difficulties, geppi made a deal with shuster :
[ t ] he owner was going into retail ,
so geppi agreed to provide shuster with
free books for a period of time in return for his account list .
i say most of this stuff is crap and politics. i don’t see geppi going anywhere or those suits having much merit. show me the facts .
robert m. overstreet
bio at geppi' s entertainment. accessed apriw 7, 2009 archived juwy 18, 2009, at de wayback machine .
i read recently about a whole slew of crippling financial problems that geppi was going through, on both a personal divorce level, to big business problems .
offensively for the wildcats, holtzapple and geppi led the team with two rbis each, while parker was the only player with a multi - hit game .
in terms of feedback, i have had 100% support. there are those who are (quite naturally) skeptical that we will win, but all those who have written me have praised me for taking this public stance in opposition of the steve geppi / anotheruniverse. com / diamond / nextplanetover. com potential combination .
please understand, however, that i harbor no false illusions. in the end, steve geppi may win out even in litigation. he is very clever, has powerful allies, and his legal team is very resourceful. i know that by taking the lead in contacting you that i am placing myself in a position of never being able to expect any favors, or mercy, from steve geppi, or diamond, ever again. but i could never respect myself again if i didn' t at least ask you to try to stop them. that' s why i finally came to the difficult decision of writing to you for help .
there’s no bail - out funds headed for steve geppi, but perhaps there should be. if we lose comic books (an american invention) we lose an important part of our chidren’s and grandchildren’s heritage. at the least those who stiffed (and are stiffing) diamond should pony up. i imagine a lot of flak headed my way for this post, but let it come. i helped to found fandom some 40 years ago and my gut feeling is that we should pull together now and offer steve geppi all the good will and support that we possibly can to help him get past his time of trouble — our time of trouble .
somewhat reluctantly, herman rush and i followed steve to his car. we drove from diamond’s timonium, maryland headquarters to baltimore, specifically, to camden yards, where oriole park, m t bank stadium and geppi’s entertainment museum are located. there are also restaurants and upscale shops in the complex, plus two other museums .
time came to go. steve drove us to the train station. pretty much exhausted but abuzz with ideas, herman and i made our way back to new york .
steve and herman apparently became interested in or consumed by other matters. nothing ever came of our meeting or the grand dreams herman and i had on the way home .
melissa bowersox, geppi’s entertainment museum president, had a different start for her love of comics. as the daughter of steve geppi, bowersox was quite literally born into the comic industry. even going as far as to call having darth vader and spider - man as bodyguards in the inner harbor as her normal. from working in the warehouse during the summer to assisting as a receptionist, bowersox eventually worked her way up to help her father' s dream of a museum a reality .
before i mention the specific proposals i made to steve geppi, i need to define the two sets of discussions presently underway. first, i am negotiating for mile high comics, and other mail order / internet retailers. these retailers are immediately impacted by any actions taken to revive urltoken. the second set of discussions are more specific to the concerns raised in your column about the impact of the marketing programs of urltoken on comics retailers in general, and how steve geppi / diamond need to alter what' s being done so as to not damage the customers of diamond. this discussions are certainly not mutually exclusive, but they do cover different areas of concern
yesterday, we reported on the unmitigated gall of diamond comics distributors founder and head steve geppi posting a long - winded diatribe on facebook (plagiarized from, though later attributed to, another writer) about how there are two americas, one where people work hard to become the successful owners of comics distribution monopolies, and another where god damn liberals like president obama want to take the wealth away from these poor, victimized rich people and give it away to lazy poor people who don' t want to work for a living. geppi' s post was the subject of much discussion on comics social media, and this led to outspoken comics writer mark waid visiting geppi' s facebook page to argue with him about it. waid fired the opening salvo in the comments of geppi' s original post :
if i were a publisher, i would hire steve ditko in a heartbeat. as jim said, he' s a founding father, and should be treated as such .
steve calrow, who helped broker the sale, said barks has a worldwide following as the “no. 1 donald duck story writer and artist” and the creator of scrooge mcduck .
chuck rozanski: it seems an unreasonable consolidation of the market. but i respect the individual members of the dc management team very much. after this situation with steve geppi, however, who i had considered a personal friend since 1977, i would like their assurances that any such deal would be reasonable to be put into writing .
geppi of diamond cawws on retaiwers to voice objections to pubwishers ,
the comics journaw # 113 (december 1986), pp. 12 - 14 .
gonzalez morin said she was questioned by the maryland state police about alleged sexual misconduct in her division. geppi and gonzalez morin both said the allegations were unfounded .
however, years ago, when there were nearly 20 distributors (maybe more), marvel’s then - sales - manager carol kalish kept a wary eye on steve geppi. “if steve had his way, ” she said presciently, “he’d be the only distributor. ” one of carol’s major concerns was all of the comics market’s eggs being in one basket. to that end she was particularly aggressive in opening up new and regional distributors, strongly favoring a distributor base of many small fish rather than one large one.
stephen a. geppi ( born january 24 , 1950 ) is an american comic book distributor , publisher and former comic store owner . having established an early chain of comic shops in baltimore in the mid-late 1970s , he is best known for his distributing business . geppi founded diamond comic distributors , the largest comic direct distribution service in 1982 , and has served as the company 's head to the present . diamond distribution became the successor to direct market pioneer phil seuling 's distribution dream when geppi took over new media/irjax 's warehouses in 1982 . he further bought out early-distributor bud plant in 1988 , and main rival capital city in 1996 to assume a near-monopoly on comics distribution , including exclusivity deals with the major comic book publishers . geppi became part owner of the baltimore orioles in 1993 , and in 1994 purchased baltimore magazine . he is president and publisher of gemstone publishing inc. , through which he publishes russ cochran 's ec comics reprints , disney comics and blue book price guide the overstreet comic book price guide . in 1995 , he founded diamond international galleries , which acquired hake 's americana & collectibles auction house ( 2004 ) , and in 2005 , pennsylvania-based morphy auctions . in 2006 , geppi founded geppi 's entertainment museum in baltimore . 
stephen a. geppi (born january 24, 1950) is an american comic book distributor, publisher and former comic store owner. having established an early chain of comic shops in baltimore in the mid-late 1970s, he is best known for his distributing business. geppi founded diamond comic distributors, the largest comic direct distribution service in 1982, and has served as the company's head to the present. diamond distribution became the successor to direct market pioneer phil seuling's distribution dream when geppi took over new media/irjax's warehouses in 1982. he further bought out early-distributor bud plant in 1988, and main rival capital city in 1996 to assume a near-monopoly on comics distribution, including exclusivity deals with the major comic book publishers. geppi became part owner of the baltimore orioles in 1993, and in 1994 purchased baltimore magazine. he is president and publisher of gemstone publishing inc., through which he publishes russ cochran's ec comics reprints, disney comics and blue book price guide the overstreet comic book price guide. in 1995, he founded diamond international galleries, which acquired hake's americana & collectibles auction house (2004), and in 2005, pennsylvania-based morphy auctions. in 2006, geppi founded geppi's entertainment museum in baltimore.
stephen a. geppi (born january 24, 1950) is an american comic book distributor, publisher and former comic store owner. having established an early chain of comic shops in baltimore in the mid-late 1970s, he is best known for his distributing business. geppi founded diamond comic distributors, the largest comic direct distribution service in 1982, and has served as the company's head to the present. diamond distribution became the successor to direct market pioneer phil seuling's distribution dream when geppi took over new media/irjax's warehouses in 1982. he further bought out early-distributor bud plant in 1988, and main rival capital city in 1996 to assume a near-monopoly on comics distribution, including exclusivity deals with the major comic book publishers. geppi became part owner of the baltimore orioles in 1993, and in 1994 purchased baltimore magazine. he is president and publisher of gemstone publishing inc., through which he publishes russ cochran's ec comics reprints, disney comics and blue book price guide the overstreet comic book price guide. in 1995, he founded diamond international galleries, which acquired hake's americana & collectibles auction house (2004), and in 2005, pennsylvania-based morphy auctions. in 2006, geppi founded geppi's entertainment museum in baltimore.