BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit (Graphic Arts): Geppi Gems

DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit (Graphic Arts): Geppi Gems:

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Description of Pictures: Geppi Gems
September 21, 2021-ongoing
COMIC BOOKS have permeated almost every popular entertainment medium in the United States. When Stephen A. Geppi opened the Geppi Entertainment Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2006, he sought to show how comic books—much like newspapers, television, motion pictures, music and sports—have shaped and influenced the culture of the United States.
When the Geppi Entertainment Museum closed its doors in 2018, Mr. Geppi generously donated a large portion of its contents to the Library of Congress, knowing that thousands of people would be able to access his collection and relive their own childhood memories or share in his excitement about comic book superheroes and pop culture icons.
The Library of Congress honors Mr. Geppi’s generosity with a selection of the collection’s gems. They represent themes from the museum, including Walt Disney’s iconic characters, westerns, superheroes, science fiction, horror, sports, music, and entertainment.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LCGEPP_210925_029.JPG: COMIC BOOKS have permeated almost every popular entertainment medium in the United States. When Stephen A. Geppi opened the Geppi Entertainment Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2006, he sought to show how comic books -- much like newspapers, television, motion pictures, music and sports -- have shaped and influenced the culture of the United States. When the Geppi Entertainment Museum closed its doors in 2018, Mr. Geppi generously donated a large portion of its contents to the Library of Congress, knowing that thousands of people would be able to access his collection and relive their own childhood memories or share in his excitement about comic book superheroes and pop culture icons. The Library of Congress honors Mr. Geppi's generosity with a selection of the collection's gems. They represent themes from the museum, including Walt Disney's iconic characters, westerns, superheroes, science fiction, horror, sports, music, and entertainment.
2. LCGEPP_210925_034.JPG: Exhibit Brochure: Scan QR Code for Geppi Gems Exhibition Brochure -- https://www.loc.gov/static/exhibitions/geppi-gems/documents/Geppi-Gems_Exhibition-Brochure.pdf Scan QR Code for Geppi Gems Exhibition Website Homepage -- https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/geppi-gems/about-this-exhibition/
3. LCGEPP_210925_038.JPG: Early Newspapers Newspapers played a critical role in the development of comic books and their characters which are at the heart of the Stephen A. Geppi Collection. The emergence of color printing in nineteenth-century newspapers, along with the relatively low cost and widespread access to newspapers across the country, helped to promote comics and establish them as a key part of popular culture. In fact, the first modern style comic books started out as reprints of newspaper comic strips, beginning with collecting multiple stories of a single series, then combining multiple series together to be read independently of the newspaper itself.
4. LCGEPP_210925_045.JPG: Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye Popeye originally debuted in Elzie Segar's syndicated newspaper strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929. Popeye's popularity exploded, and within five years, he became one of the most well-liked comic strip characters -- with comic strip reprints, theatrical cartoon shorts, radio programs, and advertisements circulating the character to fans. This collected reprint edition of black and white comic strips from 1930/1931 is a beautiful example of the early predecessors, sometimes referred to as "proto-comics," to what we know as comic books today.
5. LCGEPP_210925_055.JPG: Gasoline Alley The Sunday color comics section of the newspaper became extremely popular with the reading public in the early-twentieth century. These pages, now highly sought after by collectors because of their relative scarcity, were also prized by cartoonists for the opportunity to utilize a full page for their creations. This particular page from the Chicago Tribune features Gasoline Alley, the longest running comic strip in the United States since its debut in 1918, and includes unusually well-preserved vibrant bright reds and blues.
6. LCGEPP_210925_066.JPG: Disney Walt Disney was a struggling animator in 1928, when he introduced Mickey Mouse to motion picture audiences. By the time of his death in 1966, Disney had created an enduring empire, initially based on such animated characters as Mickey and Donald Duck. However, as an innovative entrepreneur, Walt Disney understood the role of marketing his characters so that they became instantly recognizable. Licensed products included comic books, comic strips, figurines, and other related commercial products. Stephen Geppi is clear about his passion, "I love [Disney Comics], and I am a diehard Carl Barks [American cartoonist and creator of Scrooge McDuck] fan."
7. LCGEPP_210925_071.JPG: Mickey's and Donald's Race To Treasure Island Surrounding this map of the United States, produced in collaboration with the Standard Oil Company of California, is a set of images clipped from issues of Travel Tykes Weekly, showing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck engaging in activities as they race across the continent to the Golden Gate International Exposition in California. On the back, Standard Oil offered instructions on how to acquire the free magazine and care for the map, while Disney offered an illustrated story told in rhyme, Mickey, Donald & Nephews Adventures at the Fair.
8. LCGEPP_210925_078.JPG: Characters in Residence at Disney These pocket-sized color Disney comics, printed as giveaways, or premiums, for mail-in purchase when redeemed with a Cheerios cereal box top, featured different Disney characters and stories in small newsprint mini-comics. Originally released as a four lettered series (W, X, Y, Z) with four titles each, the Geppi Collection includes comics from three of the series (W, X, and Z), and highlight two of Mr. Geppi's particular areas of interest -- Disney comics and comic ephemera.
9. LCGEPP_210925_104.JPG: Westerns Before the last land rush in the United States occurred, Americans became nostalgic for the Wild West. Periodicals began devoting issues to stories about such outlaws as Billy the Kid, turning them into larger-than-life heroes. Western novels as a genre, translated well into illustrated dime novels and later into radio, comics, film, and television. Set in the American West during the nineteenth century, the storytelling could be, as in the case of Wyatt Earp, based on historical figures, or about such events as the 1889 land rush in Oklahoma. The genre focused on mavericks who avidly sought romance and adventure.
10. LCGEPP_210925_107.JPG: Wanted: Dead or Alive! Capitalizing on the continued popularity of Westerns, the television show Wanted: Dead or Alive! featured Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall, and would help catapult McQueen into superstardom. This comic tie-in with the TV show was published by Dell Comics as a part of their long running Four Color series, an anthology that featured a single character per issue. Dell's Four Color was one of the earliest comic series to use licensed characters and stories, including those created by Walt Disney, and others from television shows, films, newspaper comic strips, and books.
11. LCGEPP_210925_110.JPG: Annie Oakley and Tagg Annie Oakley and Tagg debuted as a television series in 1954, one of the first to feature a female heroine. The show and comic book were based on the historical figure of Annie Oakley, who rose to fame as a sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. She became an early female celebrity for her daring feats of marksmanship, such as hitting dimes mid-air and snuffing out candles with a single bullet. Buffalo Bill's circus-like extravaganza recreated daring rescues, heroic battles, and Native American dances. The show toured the United States and crossed the globe between 1883 and 1906 and helped to popularize the myth of the American West.
12. LCGEPP_210925_120.JPG: Wyatt Earp's Cheerios Box General Mills sponsored the Western ABC-TV series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, which debuted in 1955 and ran until 1961. Cheerios issued three types of boxes from which consumers could cut out a gun associated with the program. Each box featured the full-length image of Wyatt Earp as portrayed by actor Hugh O'Brian. While never as popular as Gunsmoke, Wyatt Earp earned respectable ratings and capitalized on merchandizing in an era when the Western was a popular genre.
13. LCGEPP_210925_144.JPG: Creepy Magazine Inspired by earlier comic books such as Tales from the Crypt, and Creepy, hosted by "Uncle Creepy," the magazine printed stories of horror and suspense that were specifically banned under the Comics Code Authority of 1954, and included stories of werewolves and vampires. Creepy featured legendary artists and writers, including Frank Frazetta, Archie Goodwin, and Al Williamson, whose work previously graced the pages of EC Comics titles.
14. LCGEPP_210925_155.JPG: All-Sports Special Issue! Creepy In 1964, Warren Publishing began producing Creepy as a magazine rather than a comic book in order to circumvent the Comics Code. This poster advertises Creepy, no. 93, one of several issues that focused on a particular theme. Best known as a fantasy and marine artist, Don Maitz graduated from Paier School of Art in Hamden, Connecticut, before launching his career in both magazine and book illustration. He drew three covers for Creepy in the 1970s.
15. LCGEPP_210925_165.JPG: Sports Like many children, Stephen Geppi played baseball and dreamed of becoming a professional player. As a part owner of the Baltimore Orioles, Geppi interwove the theme of sports into the Geppi Entertainment Museum. One genre of comic books and cartoon art is sports, and several cartoonists have contributed to sports logos over the years.
16. LCGEPP_210925_168.JPG: Babe Ruth Sports After World War II, non-superhero comics -- such as sports, westerns, romance, and funny animals -- became increasingly popular with the public. Though Babe Ruth himself died in 1948, his legacy lived on with sports fans and the public alike. Running for eleven issues between 1949 and 1951, Babe Ruth Sports Comics featured stories about various sports stars, as well as quizzes, short highlights, and other illustrated articles on numerous sports including baseball, basketball, tennis, swimming, wrestling, football, and others.
17. LCGEPP_210925_173.JPG: Picture News Highlighting the news of the day in illustrated format, this "non-fiction" comic profiled superstar boxer Joe Louis prior to his major comeback fight against Billy Conn in the summer of 1946. This issue is significant for being one of the earliest comic book covers to depict a Black person without the use of negative stereotypes as well as featuring a Black celebrity. The news covered in each issue spanned a great range of topics. Other stories in this particular issue describe scuba gear, space travel, biographies of former president Franklin D. Roosevelt and musician Edward B. Marks, and advice on sun tanning and child rearing.
18. LCGEPP_210925_179.JPG: Gifts for Box Tops Sports, and baseball in particular, are an extremely important part of the Geppi Collection. This half-sheet newspaper ad featuring Babe Ruth listed a variety of "premium" collectible items that could be obtained by sending in cereal box tops as proof of purchase. The Geppi collection includes many premiums related to comics, sports, television, and other areas. Celebrities such as Babe Ruth licensed their image to sell products and collectibles that increased fan engagement and created a market for yet more selling opportunities.
19. LCGEPP_210925_187.JPG: Science Fiction With forerunners in nineteenth-century literature and fiction, science fiction stories about new inventions and technologies, aliens, space travel, and much more have been captivating audiences for hundreds of years. This broad genre particularly lends itself to visual expression, which heightens dramatic tales of new worlds with artfully rendered machines, landscapes, and creatures populating the pages of magazines and comics, as well as in film. Items in the Stephen A. Geppi Collection reflect the rich history and variety of science fiction with examples ranging from early-twentieth-century magazines to long running comic book series.
20. LCGEPP_210925_189.JPG: Weird Science Featuring the work of legendary comics artists Wally Wood and Marie Severin as well as adaptations of stories by Ray Bradbury, Weird Science and its companion title Weird Fantasy presented science fiction and fantasy worlds to comics readers. The two titles later combined in the short lived Weird Science-Fantasy (1954–1955), before eventually rebranding to Incredible Science Fiction. The restrictions of the Comics Code Authority led to the demise of this title and many other EC Comics Publications.
21. LCGEPP_210925_200.JPG: Weird Fantasy Published by EC Comics' Bill Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein, Weird Fantasy and its companion title Weird Science, were part of the publishers "New Trend" line that included famous titles such as Tales from the Crypt and the Haunt of Fear. Weird Fantasy, no. 15 features work by veteran comics artists Al Williamson and Marie Severin, who created tales of space travel and alien visitation.
22. LCGEPP_210925_206.JPG: Science and Invention Begun in 1913 as Electrical Experimenter and published by Hugo Gernsbeck (one of the earliest pioneers in the new genre of science fiction), Science and Invention featured articles on scientific advances and patented inventions alongside tales of future worlds and fantastical discoveries yet to be made. Magazines such as Science and Invention, along with other pulp fiction titles published in the 1920s, hugely influenced later comic books, especially those from the 1950s that focused on non-superhero genres such as science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
23. LCGEPP_210925_212.JPG: Pop Culture Visual arts have featured and promoted the work of musicians for centuries, but in the 1960s, graphic designers set out to promote concerts in eye-catching ways that led to a poster-collecting craze. As the national distribution of products increased, marketers capitalized on television coverage of performers by placing their images in comic books and magazines, and on lunch boxes -- even cereal boxes. Steve Geppi's passion for pop culture led him to acquire posters, magazines and collectibles that reflected the new culture built around rock music.
24. LCGEPP_210925_214.JPG: Monkees Often compared to the Beatles, the Monkees hold a unique place in music history. Originally conceived as a television show, the Monkees were an early manufactured "boy band," that hired actors/musicians to play musicians for a television comedy show. The Monkees eventually became one of the most popular musical groups of the 1960s, releasing albums after the end of the television show in 1968 before their initial breakup in 1971. The group reunited multiple times in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, recording new music and several world tours.
25. LCGEPP_210925_221.JPG: Dig Magazine Published in Hollywood, Dig, "for teenagers only," often featured rock and roll musicians such as Elvis and the Beatles as well as television and film stars from the 1950s and 1960s on its covers. Similar to other magazines of the period, such as Teen, Tigerbeat, and Seventeen, it also featured articles on popular culture, music, and fashion, along with advice articles and celebrity profiles. This type of popular culture material is a significant part of the Geppi Collection, which highlights the intersections between film, television, comics, and other areas of popular culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
26. LCGEPP_210925_228.JPG: Janis Joplin Still in publication today, Newsweek covers contemporary events, including pop culture and music. Janis Joplin, who was known for her performances at the Monterey Pop Festival and at Woodstock among others, was a contemporary of rock and roll legends Jimi Hendrix and the Doors and one of few successful women in the industry at the time. Her career would only last five years, but during that period before her death in 1970 she made a lasting impact on rock and roll with her unique voice and larger than life personality.
27. LCGEPP_210925_237.JPG: Jimi Hendrix Experience During the 1960s, psychedelic concert posters became so popular with young collectors that printers quickly began to market them inexpensively. Like the musicians whose work they advertised, artists sought new ways to convey the information, with a mind-bending explosion of color and lettering that seemingly obscured the intent. This particular poster by Richard Tolmach went through three printings. Printed in green and red on white paper, it features a portrait of Jimi Hendrix with the names of the bands appearing that evening forming his shoulders.
28. LCGEPP_210925_245.JPG: Jackson 5 Groovy Buttons As the Jackson 5 topped the Billboard charts in 1970, marketer Gordon Gold placed plastic stickers bearing their likenesses and song lyrics into boxes of frosted Rice Krinkles. Advertisers boosted sales of food products by placing premiums, or giveaways, inside food packaging, often taking advantage of the popularity of family-friendly performers. While the stickers were truly ephemeral, this uncut sheet provides a sense of how Jobete Music's Berry Gordy collaborated with advertisers to increase the visibility of the Jackson 5 in American households.
29. LCGEPP_210925_265.JPG: Superheroes Larger-than-life heroes have been a staple in American literature, but when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster introduced Superman to the pages of Action, no. 1 in 1938, a new genre of comics literature was born. With merchandise, motion pictures, television shows, and comic strip tie-ins, its publishers built an empire. Stephen Geppi found his passion for comics in Batman. As an adult he brought his passion to collecting, and when he started selling his duplicates, Geppi discovered he could support his family with his hobby. As the owner of Diamond Distributors, he sells comic books and related merchandise nationally.
30. LCGEPP_210925_288.JPG: The Avengers Featuring Captain America One of the most popular comic book characters today, Captain America, created by legendary creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, originally debuted in Captain America Comics, no. 1 (1941). The decline in popularity of superhero comics after World War II, however, resulted in publisher Timely Comics dropping the Captain from its comics series during the 1950s. Formally re-introduced in The Avengers, no. 4 (1964), Captain America would take over the leadership of the Avengers in issue no. 16 and has been associated with the team ever since.
31. LCGEPP_210925_303.JPG: Black Panther After debuting in Fantastic Four, no. 52 (July 1966), Black Panther made guest appearances in various Marvel Series before starring in Jungle Action beginning in 1973. Black Panther's first self-titled series debuted in 1977, written and drawn by original co-creator, legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby. Most recently, the 2016 Black Panther series has been written by award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates and drawn by Eisner Award nominated artist Brian Stelfreeze. This series and the award winning Black Panther film (2018), has sparked renewed worldwide interest in one of comics' earliest Black superheroes.
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