Yes, it's more than just comics!

Steve Geppi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Comic Distributors, has announced the formation of Geppi's Entertainment Museum at Camden Yards, which will spotlight the role of entertainment in the mainstream culture over the past 130 years. The new 16,000-square-foot museum will be situated on the second and third floors of Baltimore's historic Camden Station, located adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards and just upstairs from the newly-opened Sports Legends at Camden Yards museum.

The Maryland Stadium Authority voted Wednesday to lease space, and approval is pending from Maryland's General Assembly's Legislative Policy Committee, who must finalize the deal. The new facility is expected to open in about a year.

"Geppi's Entertainment Museum will focus on the impact of popular culture on society as a whole by showcasing the important developments in the various fields of entertainment, particularly how they have impacted children," Geppi said. "Beginning with Puck, Judge, and St. Nicholas magazine, among the earliest American magazines to regularly use comic illustrations, and developing through the Roaring Twenties and birth of radio, the growth of movies, and then eventually television, as well as the influences of advertising and transportation, our new facility will take participants on a guided tour through a focused tour of history with a special nod to the role of the comic character."

Covering each segment in its purview with a special room or exhibit, the museum will detail the momentous impact of comic characters on the children who connected with them. Chronicling the earliest comic characters through the highly recognized creations of recent years, the facility's different segments will immerse partakers in its unique American experience.

The development and use of licensed characters, the connection with the products on which those characters appeared, and the ways in which they have been marketed will be showcased by the new museum as well.

"For years I've dreamed about being able to do something like this," Geppi said. "Not only for the people of the city of Baltimore, which I love, and the industry that's been so good to me, but for the incredible forms of entertainment, which I also adore. I think it's important that this material not only be preserved for future generations, but that it should be highlighted for them."

The museum will be developed from Geppi's extensive private collection, which spans the range of vintage collectibles. It includes rare toys, comic books, animation cels, movie posters, oil paintings, and many other pop culture artifacts.