The AP is reporting that the Maryland Stadium Authority has voted to lease space at Baltimore's Camden Station, the gateway to Camden Yards, to Steve Geppi, a minority owner of the Orioles and the founder of Diamond Comic Distributors, for a comic book and pop culture museum.  The lease will have to be approved by the Maryland General Assembly's Legislative Policy Committee, but approval is expected and the museum should be open in about a year.

The proposed Geppi's Entertainment Museum (GEM) would be located on the second and third floors of Camden Station, a restored brick train station, which also hosts a sports museum, Sports Legends at Camden Yards, a museum dedicated to local sports icons such as the Baltimore-born Babe Ruth and the Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr.

Geppi's personal collection, a portion of which is on display at the Diamond International Galleries at Diamond headquarters in Timonium, Maryland, would form the core of the new Geppi Entertainment Museum's collection.  Although a number of previous attempts to create a viable comic art museum, such as Kevin Eastman's Words and Pictures and the International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton, Florida, have failed, the GEM's location in the tourist-friendly confines of Camden Yard and the Hollywood-driven increased visibility of comic book heroes could well make Geppi's effort a success.