Mick Duckett, a local artist, is to draw a 40 page comic to celebrate the work of frontline staff on the Tyne and Wear Metro. The comic book will tell the stories of Metro’s frontline employees as they look after customers, challenge ticketless travel and provide a reassuring presence on stations and trains.
Mike, from Bardon Mill in Northumberland, is taking inspiration from a range of comics including those of DC and Marvel. He has been travelling over the network to meet with and bring to life the stories of some of the Metro’s 120 customer service advisers.
He commented: “Usually you see superheroes like Batman and Spiderman in the pages of comic books, but I want to capture the everyday jobs of frontline Metro workers as they perform their duties – they are the real superheroes. The brief I’ve been set is to bring this vital job, and the challenges that it presents, to life through the medium of comic book art. The customer services staff on Metro do a brilliant job. I’ve already got know many of them and it’s pretty cool to think that they will be immortalised in the finished comic. As an artist this is a great project for me to be involved in. I love comic book art and it’s fantastic to be able to get out there and start sketching ordinary Metro staff while they’re at work. They are the going to be the stars in their very own comic, whether that is helping a customer use a ticket machine or helping a person with the gatelines. It’s all part of the everyday that I aim to capture in my drawings.
“The Metro is an iconic transport system and I don’t think it has ever been represented through this type of artwork before. It’s a new and very contemporary way of celebrating the Metro and its staff. I’ve already started sketching the comic and I am planning more trips out with my paper and pens before I sit down and get to work on the final draft, which will be published for people to buy and keep.”
The project is part of the Metro Takeover programme which involves major regional arts organisations running community projects and commissions which are being showcased at stations across the network.
A final version of the comic book will be made available as part of Metro’s 40th anniversary celebrations.