PUCK is stirring in Mordor.

Artist’s Real-Earth Quest Eludes M.T.A.

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: July 14, 2013

Demetrius Freeman/The New York Times

A man who goes by William Puck holds up an example of his work at the Astor Place station at Lafayette Street. He has made about 200 signs.

The quest began in winter, as legend has it, coaxed along by an especially unkind day aboard the R train to Brooklyn.

“I sat there and started thinking, ‘My God, it’s like getting to Mount Doom,’ ” the traveler said. “That’s when it clicked.”

And so since January, the man, an artist who goes by William Puck, has specked the subway system with an array of posters and would-be service announcements that resemble the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s in every detail but one: they are all about “The Lord of the Rings.”

A safety advisory has warned riders to “Watch out for the Mirkwood spiders.”

A service notice detailed the “Tunnel high above Minas Morgul.”

Even a fake MetroCard — nearly identical in color scheme and shape, but labeled “Middle Earth Card” — has found its way onto the rails, strewed by Mr. Puck across assorted corners of the system.

“I’ve seen people try to swipe them,” he said, as he placed a sign on a No. 6 train platform at Astor Place last week.

To date, Mr. Puck has remained all but untraceable, his deeds known only to family and close friends. There have been close calls with officers in stations — who have at times observed his posted signs, he said, only to chuckle and walk away — and with transit personnel under strict orders to discourage the work.

“I don’t care if it’s cute, I don’t care if it’s funny,” Adam Lisberg, the authority’s chief spokesman, said on Friday. “Anyone who does anything that could potentially confuse one of our customers is doing something that we cannot and will not allow.”

The authority reached out to a William Puck at a New Jersey address, officials said. But the name is a pseudonym — a pair of nods to William Shakespeare — according to Mr. Puck, who asked that his identity be withheld for fear of being caught.

Under New York City Transit rules, no one is allowed to post signs, posters or other notices without the authority’s permission. Doing so subjects an offender to up to 10 days in jail and possible fines.

The authority has encountered rogue underground operators in the past, from the era of graffiti-choked train cars to signs promoting a “Metropolitan Etiquette Authority” in 2010. (Riders were reminded not to clip their nails, grope their neighbors, or enter trains before passengers on board were able to exit.)

Mr. Puck said he had spent roughly $200 so far, much of it on printing, to produce about 200 signs using programs like Photoshop. He said he works alone.

“It’s a little bit of being a kamikaze, jumping in and waiting for the right opportunity,” he said. “It’s almost like an addiction.”

A graphic designer from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, Mr. Puck said he was introduced to “The Lord of the Rings” as a child, when relatives read him J. R. R. Tolkien’s works. He described himself as a serious but less-than-obsessed fan.

“I could never go up against someone like Stephen Colbert,” he said of the comedian, whose reservoirs of Tolkien knowledge are often revealed on his show.

Still, his posters suggest more than a passing familiarity, with both Tolkien and the authority. A recent campaign advertised a new “Mordor Express service,” modeled on the authority’s Cannonball train to the Hamptons.

Like the true transit signs, Mr. Puck’s creations can include several translations. His, though, come in “Elvish” and “Dwarvish.”

He initially listed a Web site on the posters as “puck.info” — an echo of the authority’s “mta.info” site. But this address rerouted to a Polish travel service, beguiling Mr. Puck’s followers.

“Is it just an oversight,” the Web site Gothamist asked in April, “or is Puck secretly working to spread viral marketing for a Polish travel Web site?”

An oversight, Mr. Puck said. Nor is he in cahoots with Peter Jackson, the director of the film series, as some have accused, though he does plan to send Mr. Jackson some samples of his work.

“One fan to another,” Mr. Puck said, “to see if he approves.”

 

A version of this article appeared in print on July 15, 2013, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Artist’s Real-Earth Quest Eludes M.T.A..