 | |
| Parent company | Geppi Family Enterprises |
|---|---|
| Status | Defunct in November 2008 ascomic book publisher; continues to publish thecomic book price guideOverstreet |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Founder | Steve Geppi |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Timonium, Maryland |
| Distribution | Diamond Book Distributors (books)[1] |
| Publication types | Annuals |
| Official website | www |
Gemstone Publishing is an American company that publishescomic book price guides. The company was formed byDiamond Comic Distributors President and Chief Executive OfficerSteve Geppi in 1994 when he boughtOverstreet.[2]
Gemstone published licensedDisney comic books from June 2003 until November 2008. The company has also reprintedEC Comics of the 1950s.
BOOM! Kids acquired all comic publishing licenses regarding Disney characters in the second half of 2009.
Gemstone's flagship publications were comic books featuring Disney characters; particularly theDonald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics of such Duck artists asCarl Barks andDon Rosa, and theMickey Mouse comics ofFloyd Gottfredson,César Ferioli, andRomano Scarpa, among others.
While popularly known as a reprint house, Gemstone's comics were actually dominated by stories that were new to United States audiences. Vintage material, though popular with readers, was not the majority of the content.
| Name | Number of pages | Format | Status | Stories featuring |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walt Disney's Comics and Stories | 64 (68 w/covers) | Prestige | Ended | Donald Duck,Mickey Mouse,Goofy,Big Bad Wolf,Brer Rabbit,Bucky Bug,Fethry Duck,Grandma Duck,Jr. Woodchucks,Scamp |
| Uncle Scrooge | 64 (68 w/covers) | Prestige | Ended | Scrooge McDuck,Gyro Gearloose,Beagle Boys,Launchpad McQuack,Magica De Spell, Fethry Duck, Donald Duck |
| The Barks/Rosa Collection | 72 (76 w/covers) | Prestige | Ended | Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck |
| Donald Duck Adventures | 128 (132 w/covers) | Digest | Ended | Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse,Duck Avenger |
| Mickey Mouse Adventures | 128 (132 w/covers) | Digest | Ended | Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy,Minnie Mouse,Pluto,Ellsworth |
| Donald Duck and Friends | 32 (36 w/covers) | Standard | Ended | Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Goofy |
| Mickey Mouse and Friends | 32 (36 w/covers) | Standard | Ended | Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto |
Gemstone issued annual editions ofChristmas Parade,Vacation Parade, andSpring Fever; a giveaway forFree Comic Book Day; and occasional special editions (including comic adaptations ofMickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers andMickey's Twice Upon a Christmas).
Gemstone's first large-size book collection,Mickey And The Gang: Classic Stories In Verse, was issued in November 2005. It was a compilation, edited by David Gerstein, of Disney cartoon story pages published from 1934 to 1944 inGood Housekeeping magazine. Gerstein later edited two Gemstone softcover books that were official tie-ins to theWalt Disney Treasures DVD collections:Disney Comics: 75 Years of Innovation (2006) andUncle Scrooge: A Little Something Special (2008).
Gemstone has also published reprints of EC Comics. Gemstone'sComic Book Marketplace-editorRuss Cochran had previously published (in 1973) a dozen reprints of EC titles includingCrypt of Terror,Weird Science,The Haunt of Fear,The Vault of Horror, etc., before moving toGladstone Publishing and then to Gemstone, which has been the home of Cochran's EC reprints for over 15 years.
Reprinting the Cochran/Gladstone-reprints ofThe Haunt of Fear,The Vault of Horror andWeird Science (all 1992), Gemstone also republished (in single issue and 'annual' – four issues per 'annual' – format):
Oversize, hardback, slip-cased collections of these comics had been previously published in black & white by Cochran during the 1980s as "The Complete EC Library". This Library was then added to by Cochran/Gemstone with 2005'sPicto-Fiction collection, comprising the EC comics:Confessions Illustrated,Crime Illustrated,Shock Illustrated andTerror Illustrated, along with "18 previously unseen stories, never published before".[3]
In 2006, Cochran and Gemstone began publication of a series of full-colorEC Archives editions. Promising that "[e]ach EC Archive volume will reprint six complete issues (24 stories)",[4] the first volumes ofWeird Science andShock Suspenstories both saw print in December, 2006, with forewords from (respectively) EC fansGeorge Lucas andSteven Spielberg. Ostensibly beginning to publish two volumes every two months, the schedule changed to one-per-month and recently one every couple of months.
In addition, "Deluxe" versions ofWeird Science Vol.s 1 & 2 (both signed by artistAl Feldstein),Shock Suspenstories Vol. 1 andTales From the Crypt Vol. 1 have been published.
In early 2009, the future of Gemstone Publishing was unclear, after reports of unpaid printing bills, particularly for the EC Archives.[5] In April, Geppi responded to the uncertainty, noting that while there had been "a reduction in staff at Gemstone", such moves did "not [signal] the end of Gemstone Publishing".[6] Seven months after Geppi's optimistic statements, the last batch of Gemstone's Disney comics appeared in November 2008, complete with previews for next month's issues that Gemstone was to fail publishing.BOOM! Kids acquired all comic publishing licenses regarding Disney characters, and started publishing comic titles previously owned by Gemstone in the second half of 2009. In 2013,Dark Horse comics began to reprint E.C. comics picking up where Gemstone left off, in the same full color hardback format.