Newcastle University Students Emma Cummins (left) and Victoria Hey get a sneak preview of Kartoon Kings at the University's Hatton Gallery.

The Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University has been transformed into a walk-in comic strip in a bid to encourage young people to visit the art collections.

Until November 13 visitors are able to walk through three rooms holding nine giant murals presenting some of the gallery’s paintings in a different light. Covering 80,000 square feet, Strange Cargo is the work of international artists Simon Grennan and Chris Sperandio, otherwise known as the Kartoon Kings.

“This is one of the biggest projects ever undertaken by the Gallery”, said Karen Chapman, Hatton Gallery exhibitions officer.

The exhibition is the work of 'Kartoon King' Simon Grennan, seen here (left) with gallery assistant Liz Ritson, putting the finishing touches to one of nine giant murals which fill three rooms of the Gallery.

Earlier in the year the Kartoon Kings were commissioned to create a comic book for teenagers based around the 3,000 paintings and artefacts in the Hatton Gallery collections. The duo interviewed young people who had visited the gallery about their reactions to works on display and presented the results in narrative comic strip form.

The 24-page comic book, also entitled Strange Cargo, was produced with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and 30,000 copies are being distributed throughout the North East.

The current exhibition at the gallery is based on stories from the book and the actual works of art that inspired them are playfully incorporated into the murals.

Simon Grennan putting the finishing touches to his exhibition

Strange Cargo also takes as a running theme the ‘Dance of Death’, a popular motif in paintings during the later Middle Ages in which sinister skeletons dance off with their victims. In the murals rather more benign-looking skeletons are shown running away with paintings and surprising unsuspecting gallery visitors, linking past and present.

Artist Simon Grennan explained that the aim of the exhibition is “to invite the whole Hatton audience to reflect upon larger themes in art and life, tracing a line from cartoon images, through familiar characters from daily life, to a selection of artworks created from medieval times to the present”.

The Kartoon Kings expect that the exhibition will have wide appeal but are particularly hoping to target the 11-18-year-old audience.

“The idea of the exhibition, and of the comic book it is based on, is to encourage young people to think of art, and art galleries, not as stuffy and intimidating, but as somewhere to be inspired and, above all, have fun,” Karen Chapman explained.