By 1981 / 82 Geppi had four comics retail locations and was already " doing a little informal distributing ... for smaller retailers.

In what Mile High Comics ' Chuck Rozanski describes as an " incredibly risky and gutsy move ," Geppi took over New Media / Irjax's " office and warehouse space " and, recalled Rozanski, had to " sort out the good customers from the bad overnight " negotiating with creditors to continue Shuster's distribution business as Diamond Comic Distribution.

Most notably, in 1988, Geppi bought up early mail-order distributor Bud Plant Inc., who had himself bought out Charles Abar Distribution in 1982.

Plant had, since 1970, been selling underground comics ( a field which Geppi and fellow distributor Buddy Saunders had tended to steer clear of ).

Cochran, like Geppi, was a particular fan of Carl Barks ' Disney comics, and had previously-published EC reprints in association with Disney-reprinter Gladstone Publishing.

In April, Geppi responded to the uncertainty, noting that while there had been " a reduction in staff at Gemstone ," such moves did " not the end of Gemstone Publishing.

In late 2000, Alan Harvey sued Steve Geppi over his 1984 acquisition of the Sad Sack original art, charging that Geppi had plundered Harvey's warehouses.

Geppi countersued, claiming that he had legal title to the original art.

The suit was settled in late 2002 ; at the time of the settlement, the New York Supreme Court had dismissed Harvey's claims against Geppi.

" Geppi hinted at " new developments " for the Overstreet Price Guide in 2010, and stated that while " no final decision has been made regarding The EC Archives or our comic books featuring Disney's standard characters ... it seems certain that both lines will continue in some form.

" Geppi found himself " one of the biggest accounts " for New Media / Irjax, and when the distributor " relocated to Florida, he asked Geppi to service more accounts for a bigger discount.

" One of the " last loyal customers " when New Media began having fiscal difficulties, Geppi made a deal: " he owner was going into retail ," so Geppi agreed to provide New Media / Irjax with " free books for a period of time in return for his account list ," buying parts of the company, and founding Diamond Comic Distribution.

In 1995, Geppi " opened Diamond International Galleries ," a showplace for comics and collectibles, part of Geppi's attempts to " see ... collectibles attain serious respect.

In the summer of 1984, Steve Geppi ( owner of Diamond Comic Distributors and Geppi's Comic World ) paid $ 50, 000 for, among other properties, Harvey's entire archive of original art from the Harvey comic Sad Sack.

In 1993, Angelos led a group of investors which included Tom Clancy and Steve Geppi that purchased Baltimore Orioles for $ 173 million from Eli Jacobs.

* Victor Victoria, late night weekday show hosted by Victoria Cabello, Geppi Cucciari, singer Arisa and MelissaP ( 4 seasons );

The company was formed by Diamond Comic Distributors President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen A. Geppi.

In 1982, Baltimore-based comics retailer Steve Geppi founded Diamond Comic Distributors.

Geppi named his new company ' Diamond ' " after the imprint Marvel Comics used on non-returnable comics ," and although the " publisher discontinued the symbol " months later, the name remained.

Many fans " with little experience " started rival distribution companies only to " find they were in over their heads ," allowing Geppi to " out the smart ones or pick ... up the pieces after the stupid ones went out of business ," according to Herr.

In early 1997, when Marvel's Heroes World endeavor failed, Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with the House of Ideas — giving the company its own section of comics catalog Previews ( not least because the DC / Dark Horse / Image deal gave contractual prominence to those companies ) — making " Geppi ... the sole king of comics industry distribution in the summer of 1996.

In 1987, Geppi responded to " a graphic childbirth scene in Miracleman # 9 by Alan Moore.

" Geppi recalls compromising, and accepting " that as a distributor, I owed the retailers the product they wanted.

Geppi 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 1994, Geppi purchased Baltimore magazine, " a 50, 000 circulation monthly and one of the nation's oldest regional publications.

In 1993, Geppi bought Russ Cochran Publishing.

Geppi included Cochran's publications — and Cochran himself — under his new imprint, Gemstone Publishing.

In 1994, Geppi bought Overstreet Publishing, taking up the publishing reins of official-Blue Book priceguide The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, and other related publications, bringing them under the Gemstone imprint.

In 1995, Geppi founded Diamond International Galleries, which acquired Hake's Americana & Collectibles auction house ( 2004 ), and in 2005, Pennsylvania-based Morphy Auctions.

If he had married her, he'd have been asking for trouble.

They had been seen as soon as they left the ranch, picked out of the darkness by the weary though watchful eyes of two men posted a few hundred yards away in the windless shelter of the trees.

They greeted the news angrily, as though they had been cheated of purpose.

With every leaping stride of the horse beneath him he crossed one more patch of earth that had been his, that he would never see again.

He had been carrying an Enfield rifle and a holstered navy cap-and-ball pistol.

But the luck that had been running their way left him.

His shout had been taken up and repeated.

A sizable supply of powder had been touched off.

The worst part had been the waiting ; ;

The war captain had been badly wounded and was fighting to hold his seat.

And one had been too many.

That afternoon when they had pulled up in front of the broken-down ranch house, his hopes had been high.

The place had been cheap -- just the little he had left after Amelia's burial -- and it would serve its purpose.

I had for some time been hoping, in vain, for one of the dim figures to pass between the fan vents and myself.

Although I had been inside it I had not yet seen it functioning.

No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.

He had been worried that with Miller and Rankin added to the escape party they would be short.

He had been one of the original Night Riders, one who had escaped the trial.

He had been the auditor for the mining syndicate, and he had stolen fifty thousand dollars of the syndicate's money.

Then the vein had petered out and the whole project had been abandoned.