Wolverhampton graduate Joe turns train travellers into cartoon characters

Perhaps you get stuck into a good book, read the Express & Star, furiously try to smash your high score on Flappy Bird or maybe you have a snooze.

But one talented Brummie illustrator has found a new way to kill time on his train commute - by turning his fellow travellers into cartoon characters.

University of Wolverhampton graduate animator Joe Butcher, who is better known by his Twitter handle and pen name @OctoberJones, has been using sticky notes and his seemingly boundless imagination to transform strangers on a train into hilarious cartoons.

The unwitting victims of his pranks have been given the features of beloved characters such as Batman, Spiderman, and, in one ingenious snapshot, Wile E. Coyote even appears to be chasing Road Runner.

The clever creations are doodled onto the small pieces of paper, and then held in just the right position for a funny photograph to be taken - the image is then uploaded to social network websites.

When asked on Twitter why he did took the time, Mr Butcher wrote: "I did them to combat boredom on my long commute.

"I posted them on Twitter because I thought they might brighten other peoples' train journeys.

"Also, I've never been caught doing it. I'm pretty stealthy."

He has seemingly shared his journeys with a gruff Winnie the Pooh, Danger Mouse's soft-spoken sidekick Penfold, Kermit The Frog, Daffy Duck and comic book favourite Hellboy.

People-cum-cartoons include an annoyed Mickey Mouse, with the caption: "Howdy. I'm on a train. This guy just caught me laughing at his squeaky voice."

ET the Extra Terrestrial also appears to be slightly miffed. The Twitter caption reads: "On train. Found seat. I just told this guy off for using his phone in the Quiet Zone. I don't care who he's phoning."

The drawings are often created to match the stranger's outfit or posture, including The Incredible Hulk for a man in a green puffer jacket, and Batman for another train rider in a long black coat.

In one such example, a commuter in a red-and-white-stripy top is turned into a favourite children's picture book character, with the tweet: "I'm on the train playing 'Where's Wally?'. AH-HA!"

The drawings have been getting world-wide attention, having been reposted thousands of times on a number of social websites after initially being tweeted to October Jones' 77,000 Twitter followers.

Mr Butcher, under his pseudonym, is also the mastermind behind the highly-popular Texts From Dog, an internet craze that has led to two published books, called Texts From Dog and The Dog Delusion, the latter being published in October.

In the simple yet hilarious series, Mr Butcher takes screen shots of his mobile phone following text conversations with his slightly passive aggressive 'dog', Cooper the British bulldog, before posting them to Facebook and Tumblr. After starting the series, such was its popularity that his followers on Tumblr jumped by 80,000 in just one month.

In fact the daft and sometimes rude conversations are made up of texts Mr Butcher sends to himself.

Born and raised in Birmingham, Mr Butcher ironically spent most of his childhood afraid of dogs. After leaving school he attended the University of Wolverhampton and left with a first degree in animation, before joining a media company in Derby designing learning software for children.

He is still also a keen animator, and his YouTube videos have a total of around one million views.