Friday, September 08, 2006

Entertainment Museum Opens

The New York Times has published a noteworthy article concerning the grand opening of Steve Geppi's Entertainment Museum in Baltimore. The new museum celebrates popular culture and, specifically, chronicles comic book history in a variety of ways. This includes showcasing a copy of the first appearance of the Flash. Geppi's Entertainment Museum officially opens today. It sounds like a wonderful place to visit.

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. “Whether you’re 8 or 80, you’ll find something here to light you up,” Mr. Geppi said during a recent tour of the museum, which opens here to the public on September 8.

The 16,000-square-foot space takes up the second and third floors of the former Camden train station here, whose main floor is home to the Sports Legends at Camden Yards museum. Geppi’s Entertainment Museum celebrates the colorful characters and collectibles that have emerged from comic strips and comic books since the late 1800’s. Its packed displays — of movie posters, animation cels, action figures, board games, advertisements and more — chronicle the evolution of these characters, often reflecting the periods of American history from which they emerged...

The collection of comics is boldly colorful, wide-ranging and presented alphabetically within each era. It begins, appropriately enough, with Action Comics No. 1 (1938), the first appearance of Superman. It ends with more contemporary comics, like the gimmicky Superman No. 75 (1992), which chronicled his apparent death and was distributed sealed in black plastic, and the more somber “9-11” (2002), whose proceeds were donated to relief agencies. In between are comics that commemorate the first appearances of Captain America, the Flash, Green Lantern, the Hulk, She-Hulk and Wonder Woman.

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