Hundreds of children across Southport are being inspired by an amazing new Southport Superheroes initiative.
A growing number of their pictures now adorn a mural inside Cambridge Arcade in Southport town centre.
They are all part of ‘The Fab 4,000’ group, in an empowering initiative which is being led by former Marvel Comics artist Tim Quinn, and John Savage, who runs the M.I.H. Bazaar social enterprise and the Cambridge Walks Art Gallery.
Tim Quinn is the former editor of the Spiderman comics, who lives in Southport after moving to live here from New York.
Their mural, which features landmark buildings from the town, was created by local artist Neil Prior.
Part of the display is a moving poem by Stan Lee, the former creative leader for Marvel Comics.
The number of pictures is growing fast, with the aim that one design will ultimately be selected to become the official Southport Superhero with a costume made and a prize for the winner.
Tim Quinn said: “The whole idea about being a real hero is carrying no knives, no guns, no weapons. Real superheroes don’t need them.
“This all happened because John and I got talking one day and we thought ‘let’s create something’.
“We had the idea of having a mural painted of Southport and then we could invite kids, when we go into schools, to think about what would make their ideal superhero, and to draw them, draw themselves in a new superhero costume.
“And it just took off across Southport. It was a delight to go into classes.
“I would openly ask the question ‘what makes a hero’?
“And it was really moving to hear kids saying ‘You’ve got to care’. ‘You’ve got to want to make the world a better place’. ‘You have to have compassion’.
“To hear those words was exactly what I wanted to hear.
“I wanted to do something that would be a landmark here in Southport. It’s beautiful here, I just love this arcade. It’s fantastic.
“Bit by bit, this has all come together.
“We have been into primary schools, we have been into secondary schools, we have been into colleges.
“Whether they’re five years old or 18 years of age, it got them, the idea got them.
“This whole thing has grown thanks to John, and it has grown, and grown, and grown.
“He gets up and makes things happen. Before I knew it, this mural was being painted by this wonderful artist, and I thought ‘we have to do this!
“I could not be happier, and to do this in Southport is special.
“I grew up in Crosby and Southport was this joyous place I would come to on the train. And it was so different to anywhere I’d been on the planet.
“I saw The Beatles for the first time in town, it’s a very, very special place for me.
“After living in New York in America with my wife for over 25 years we came here to live and we let some of my American friends know, and said ‘We’re living in Southport’ and they’d say ‘Where’s that?’
“But after the tragedy, suddenly everyone knows Southport now.
“So this again was an attempt to do something that is fun, and connected to children.
“And it’s part one of what we are doing, because part two is that we are going to choose one of these designs and we are going to say ‘This is Captain Southport’.
“Captain Southport will then become the mascot of the town, and if we can make this work, we’ll get the costume drawn up, and we will create the winning costume.
“We’d love to produce a book as well featuring some of the designs, which we can take into schools and libraries.
“We have ‘The Southport 4,000’ and every time I go into a school I tell the children ‘You are now part of the Southport 4,000’.
“To be in that, you have to follow the fives rules, which are:
“Rule 1 is to be kind. Rule 2 is to be kind. Rule 3 is to be kind. Rule 4 is to be kind. Rule 5 is to be kind.
“So they all become members of The Fab 4,000 and we would like that to grow.
“At some point we would like to make badges so that every kid could wear a Fab 4,000 badge.
“The strapline is real heroes – no knives, no guns, no weapons.
“It’s a subliminal message. And I realised that that is something you have to do. You can’t go in somewhere heavy-handed and tell people what to think. It has to be something that sinks in.”
While Southport is the birthplace of Tim and John’s superheroes concept, it is something which will inspire children everywhere.
Tim said: “Southport Superheroes is something which is really capturing people’s imagination.
“It is an idea which has been born here in Southport, but it is an idea which would work well anywhere in the world.
“Since we started this project, all of a sudden we have started being sent superhero pictures from Thailand; from Germany; from other countries.
“We are one world, one people, and Southport is a beautiful part of that.
“It’s that kind of thinking. In this kind of age where you see flags being run up lampposts, and people saying you should build walls and all that nonsense, the simple fact is we are living on a circular globe, in a beautiful world. That reminds me of the story of King Arthur, ‘the one great true king’, who said ‘We will sit at a round table because we are all equal’.
“I think it is an obvious message when the astronauts go out, and the spacemen look down and see a perfectly round circle. They don’t see a single wall. They just see a single race, the human race. This all ties into that kind of thinking.
“That is the beauty of comics. I love the fact that comics can communicate globally to everybody and every age.
“The first comics were cave wall drawings. As soon as men and women realised they could pull their knuckles off the ground, they wanted to communicate.
“This project is communication, that is what we are here to do, to communicate, not to say ‘Well we don’t speak to them because they are this colour’ or all this nonsense.
“We have been amazed at the ideas that children have come up with.
“There are 8 billion people in the world, which means there are 8 billion ways of drawing. Everyone can draw.
“We are so excited to see the Southport Superheroes project come to life and look forward to seeing more superheroes being created.”
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Do you need advertising, PR or media support? Please message Andrew Brown or email: [email protected]
