Sam Petrucci

Sam Petrucci (December 22, 1926 – September 27, 2013 ) was an American artist, known for his uncredited box art for the original G.I. Joe figures. He also created The Land of Ta stickers for Dennison.

Personal life Sam Petrucci was born in Medford, Massachusetts, on December 22, 1926, to Salvatore and Mary Petrucci (née Dunn). He worked as a bellhop at the Ritz Carlton as a teenager. Petrucci joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 16; he became a radio operator on the USS Willard Keith.

After World War II, he studied art at Vesper George School of Art in Boston. He married Leona Petrucci and together they had five children: Maureen, Ken, Lisa, Linda, and Steven. Leona Petrucci died in 2008.

Career Petrucci's career as an artist began in the 1960s. His early work was for the Hassenfeld Brothers Toy Company (Hasbro) where he illustrated board games for Superman, The Mighty Hercules, and The Banana Splits. He also illustrated the packaging for Mr. Potato Head.

A 1978 Lassie lunchbox he designed for Thermos is displayed at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. He did design work on the team yearbooks for the Red Sox and Boston Bruins in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1981, Petrucci did the artwork for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rub-down transfers produced by FNR International Corp. He retired in 1994. and 2011.

In 2002, he appeared in G.I. Joe Documentary: The Story of America's Movable Fighting Man and created the original cover art for the documentary.

Design and logos Petrucci designed packaging and logos for numerous companies, including Charleston Chew, Ocean Spray, Veryfine, Gillette, Newport, Titleist, Marshmallow Fluff, Converse, Polaroid, TJ Maxx, Prince Spaghetti, Salada tea, Bose, BASF, the World Wildlife Fund, Friendly's, Poland Spring, Smokey Bear, Sunkist, Dunkin' Donuts, Gorton's Fishsticks, the Massachusetts Lottery, Venus Crackers, Jose Cuervo, Boston College, Harvard University, Liberty Mutual, and Hewlett-Packard This included The Land of Ta sticker sheets. block=yes

On August 1, a scan of The Land of Ta sticker sheet that included Geedis was rediscovered on a Flickr page. Speculation about the pins and stickers being merchandise for a wider media franchise grew but no further information about The Land of Ta or the identity of the artist was available on the Internet. Fernald bought upwards of 80 Geedis pins from the eBay seller

On Reddit, the subreddit r/Geedis was created on September 4, 2017, and became dedicated to solving the origins of Geedis. A June 3, 2019 post on r/UnresolvedMysteries and a subsequent June 8 comment on an r/AskReddit thread caused the r/Geedis subreddit to increase from 250 subscribers to over 15,000 subscribers.

The Reddit-focused WBUR-FM podcast Endless Thread discovered the Geedis mystery from the growing r/Geedis subreddit. In their August 23 episode "Geedis: An Internet Mystery For The Ages... Gets Solved!", co-hosts Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson interviewed Nate Fernald, r/Geedis Redditors, Framingham History Center staff, and former Dennison staff. The duo contacted former Dennison Art Director Tom Manguso and his son Bill recognized the Land of Ta stickers as the work of Sam Petrucci. Petrucci was a coworker of Bill Manguso at Gunn Associates and a peer of Tom Manguso at school. Tom Manguso was the one who brought in Petrucci to work for Dennison. as slang for money, giving a possible origin to the name "Geedis". Former staff members on a Dennison Alumni Facebook page claimed Dennison never produced enamel pins. The creator of the Geedis pins remains unknown.

Death Sam Petrucci died of natural causes on September 27, 2013, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.