The event will be held, at no charge, in the former Newcomerstown Public Library at 123 N. Bridge St. next to the new library building.
The name Robert L. Ripley has become synonymous with his “Believe It Or Not!” cartoon panel that became a staple of American newspapers in the first half of the 20th century. The cartoon featured true-life oddities from around the globe, and always with the tagline “Believe It... Or Not!”
Ripley’s first cartoon appeared in the New York Globe in 1918, and as his readership grew, he began traveling abroad to find tidbits for future cartoons.
Ripley, who was born in 1890, became famous as a globetrotting adventurer, eventually claiming visits to 198 different countries. The cartoon’s success spawned radio and TV shows, books and museums that continued into the 21st century.
One of Ripley’s most ardent supporters is Mickey Ivanovitch of Dresden, who has one of the world’s largest collections of Ripley memorabilia with more than 60,000 items.
Ivanovitch notes that he has the first two books that Ripley illustrated and the second series paperback printed in 1933 with Abe Lincoln on the cover.
He also has 99 percent of Ripley’s cartoons from 1908 until 1948, and most of the ones published after his death. And almost all are original.
Some of his other items include a Ripley tablecloth, napkins, Ripley Jim Beam lamp, Ripley wrapping paper, odditorium posters, all comics after 1950 and some of the 1930 Ace comics, museum guides and brochures, glasses, plates, pins, photographs and postcards.
Ivanovitch is being joined by Glenn Carlisle of New Philadelphia and Dan Paulun of West Lafayette to dedicate a display of Ripley cartoons featuring people from Coshocton, New Philadelphia, Newcomerstown and West Lafayette.
“There are several,” Ivanovitch said. He added that he encourages people to take their ideas for Ripley cartoons to him at the display.
Prizes and brochures of the many Ripley museums throughout the world also will be available. Also to be included with the Ripley Extravaganza will be a display by Don Keating, the village’s own Sasquatch researcher.
Keating will have an 8-foot cutout of a legendary Bigfoot creature, and plaster casts of footprints he has obtained.
“It’s going to be a blast, we have a good time,” said Ivanovitch, who will be in costume as Ripley.