On Friday, April 1, 2016 Geppi’s Entertainment Museum (GEM) hosted a wacky, wonderful opening party for their two new exhibits: The Artistry of Amanda Conner and The Alice in Wonderland Exhibit. Despite coming from different mediums, the exhibits embody a trip into the imagination filled with fantastical creatures, clever characters, and infectious energy.

GEM was transformed for the two exhibits with giant playing cards, tea party style, and harlequin accoutrements. The opening party on Friday night was a grand success with invited guests from the community and around the country. Special guests in attendance were Amanda Conner, her husband and Harley Quinn collaborator Jimmy Palmiotti, colorist Paul Mounts, Matt Crandall – the owner of the Alice in Wonderland collection, and Kathryn Beaumont – the original voice of Alice from the 1951 Disney movie Alice in Wonderland.

As the evening’s festivities began, before the gallery was completely filled, Scoop spoke to Crandall about the process leading up to the opening. “I think it’s great, everybody is very enthusiastic. Everybody has been very supportive throughout the process and I think everybody is going to have a good time tonight,” Crandall said.

The Alice in Wonderland Exhibit begins in GEM’s lobby with movie posters, then follows the white rabbit into the hallway where art and posters are displayed, including a large TV monitor playing a feature on Alice, then into an exhibit room where dozens upon dozens of figures, games, toys, purses, and other collectibles are showcased.

“I think the exhibit is beautiful. I’m really impressed with the wonderful things that you have that are displayed so beautifully. It really is nicely done,” Beaumont said.

While surrounded by the Alice memorabilia, Scoop asked Beaumont what her favorite thing was about Alice. “That’s a very hard question, because you know each sequence was very special in its own way,” Beaumont said. “The designers worked with me and the directors and the voice coach helped with the audio part of it. I didn’t really think about what a favorite part was because everyone, every part was unique in its own way. So there were all kinds of interesting experiences.”

The Artistry of Amanda Conner showcases her talents on original comic art pages with some compared to finished covers, as well as statues based on her art, and banners for her two covers on the upcoming Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #46. Harley Quinn is the anchor to the exhibit, featured on several pieces, framed in creative ways with vibrant colors that add to the brilliant eye appeal of Conner’s art.

Conner herself was a fan of how the exhibit turned out. “Oh, I am loving it. I think it’s absolutely beautiful, the way it’s framed, the way it’s all laid out, it’s gorgeous. Surprisingly, I’ve never been to the museum before and I just want to spend a whole week in here and have a slumber party,” Conner said.

“It looks fantastic,” Palmiotti echoed. “The attention to detail is a very fitting tribute to Amanda’s madness all in one room. We already have a room like this in our house except it’s not this neat and organized and cool looking, but it’s definitely fantastic.”

Conner went on to praise GEM and the journey it presents through pop culture. “It’s so great. My parents are here and I think they are enjoying it too. I think they ran off to look at the stuff they used to have. I think they’re having a lot of fun. It’s one of those places where you go, ‘Oh my God, I had that when I was a kid,’” Conner added.

As with any good party, GEM presented delicious food through Rouge Catering. They had everything from potstickers, spinach ravioli, and creamy crab dip to an assortment of cheeses and fruits. There was a cake too gorgeous to eat inspired by the Mad Hatter surrounded by a sea of cupcakes glistening with white and red icing. The bartenders even created concoctions inspired by Harley Quinn and Alice.

Both Conner and Crandall praised GEM for the work they did on the exhibits and the opening party. “I like it very much. I like the way [Mike's] kind of put different genres of items together, but it makes a cohesive whole. I especially like the theater display. I thought that was very cool, the way he did that with the marionettes,” Crandall said.

Collections and Exhibits Manager Mike Solof wanted to get a feel for Harley Quinn through The Artistry of Amanda Conner exhibit. When asked if she thought that came across in how it’s framed and displayed, Conner said, “Mike did an amazing job with it, and I thought he framed things in a really clever way that just screams Harley. The roller skate on top of the display kind of screams it too. I think he did an amazing job and I commend him for thinking, ‘Oh, I have a great idea, let me do it this way.’ And then going ahead and doing it.”

In addition to talking about the exhibits, the special guests gave insights into their respective projects. “It’s exciting to know that something we spend so much time on is appreciated,” Palmiotti said about Harley’s popularity. “It’s a wonderful character from the get-go. We got lucky getting to work on her. It’s still overwhelming. We go to the cons and there’s a million cosplayers. It’s one of the few characters in comics that you can literally change the costume every issue and nobody gets upset over it, so we just got lucky. It was the right team on the right character. Sometimes in comics you can go your whole career and never have that and we’ve been lucky enough to have that once or twice and Harley is the biggest one of them all.”

He even offered a teaser on upcoming Harley story arcs. “Harley goes to issue #30 and then with the Rebirth books ours starts again in August then comes out every other week. The first story arc is bad cow disease. Coney Island gets overrun by zombies, so Harley Quinn and all her crew have to deal with the fact that the living dead are right outside her house. Harley decides that it’s time to clear the streets of these guys, so her and her crew go out to clear the streets of the living dead. It’s got some fun, but everything becomes a zombie – seagulls, other birds, alley cats. It becomes very complicated for her because she doesn’t like to hurt animals so it becomes pretty insane. And we’re going to see a lot more Ivy in the book. We’re going to see Power Girl come into the book more. Plus the gang of Harleys. We’re going to see a lot more DC characters coming into the series, especially since we are now doing it every other week. We can do some crazy stuff,” Palmiotti said.

While discussing Alice in Wonderland, Beaumont talked about the process of making the movie and the attention it received from the growing legion of Disney fans. “Well you know, I was very young and everything was a new experience for me. So, I didn’t really look at it that way, I started working for Walt Disney Productions and I found that everybody was so helpful and willing to give me more information about the background of their studio,” Beaumont said. “The animators would invite me up to their offices with my teacher to talk about what part they had in putting the movie together. I think part of it was to show me what the process of animation was all about. But it also made me feel very comfortable with the people I was working with. They were being very helpful with me so I just loved working there with everybody. I did the voice work but they also wanted me to do the live action, which was not for an audience it was only to show my movements that they could draw and make the characters look very realistic. I just had wonderful memories of how great everyone was.”

A few days after the party Scoop talked to Solof about how the exhibits came together and the responses he received from the guests. “Amanda ran up to me on Sunday morning when I went to brunch with her, threw her arms around me and said ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is an amazing exhibit.’ And she had the best time. Jimmy said, ‘Dude, you did good,’ which, if you know Jimmy is high praise. And Matt was ecstatic. That was payment enough for all the hard work,” Solof said.

The Artistry of Amanda Conner and The Alice in Wonderland Exhibit will be running at GEM through October 2. GEM is located at Camden Yards, 301 W. Camden Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. More details can be found at www.geppismuseum.com or by calling (410) 625-7060.