A while back we got an advertisement in the mail for the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County, which featured a special exhibit on Marvelocity: The Art of Alex Ross. I had never heard of Alex Ross, or Marvelocity, or the Dunn Museum. But I enjoy all things Marvel, and the ad had very cool artwork of Captain America, so I was intrigued.
Friday we both took the day off, went out to lunch, and then visited the museum. It's in Libertyville, which is within a 30 minute drive of our house. The museum traces the history of Lake County, starting with a small dinosaur exhibit (which includes an enormous rock with fossils embedded in it) followed by short exhibits on Native Americans, European settlers, the Civil War, and the railroad boom, among others. At the end we came to the Alex Ross exhibit.
Apparently Ross is a famous comic book artist who lives in the Chicago area. The exhibit featured his life-like artwork, and some busts and statues he's made. The most adorable display showed artwork and dolls he made as a child:
The superhero art he's created as an adult is amazing. Here's the artwork of Captain America that was printed on the advertisement we got in the mail:
But, for me, the crown jewel of the collection was a Galactus helmet he made in the early '90s:
I cannot get over how awesome this is. It is sheer brilliance, born of cardboard and duct tape. For those who don't know, this is Galactus: (not drawn by Alex Ross, just an image from the interwebs)
He is a cosmic force in the Marvel universe. A giant being known as the "Devourer of Worlds", who must destroy planets and consume their energy in order to survive. Woe upon you if he chooses your planet! Woe, misery, and doom!
My favorite superhero has forever been the Silver Surfer, who is deeply connected to Galactus. To prevent his planet from being devoured, a man named Norrin Radd offered to become Galactus' herald, and search the universe for planets ideally suited to the giant's appetite. Galactus agreed. Norrin was transformed into the Silver Surfer and saved his planet and his people, but he himself was now slave to Galactus. Until, that is, Galactus tried to devour the Earth, but was foiled when the Fantastic Four managed to convince the Surfer to rebel against his master and help them save the planet.
So yeah, I thought the Galactus helmet was cool.
After we finished the Ross exhibit, I scored some loot in the gift shop. I bought a small trilobite fossil, estimated to be around 400-500 million years old:
And a magnet, featuring Thor and Galactus himself:
The magnet now lives on our refrigerator, right next to a Silver Surfer magnet I bought many years ago:
I enjoyed our trip to the Dunn Museum, and I enjoyed the Alex Ross exhibit a lot.