Heroes in the Night is really coming together rapidly now- out of 16 chapters, Chapters 1-7 are now done, so are Chapters 10-11. Chapter 9 is getting wrapped this week.
Each chapter has several sidebars. Some of these are reflective, some informative. I just got the illustration by David Beyer, Jr. for one of these, so I thought I'd share the sidebar here as a bonus.
CH. 3- EARLY PROTOTYPES-SIDEBARS
SUPER- GRANDPARENTS?
All of these early prototypes indicate that the idea of adopting your own superhero persona in real life is an idea that has been floating around since at least the early 1970s. But these are just the documented cases.
It is impossible to say how many more undocumented RLSHs were out there and how far back it might go. Could Golden Age RLSH have existed, inspired by the old superhero serial silent films or old radio programs? Perhaps George Reeve's Superman or Adam West's Batman inspired unknown RLSH? If they did exist, it's even possible there was media on them- think of how many editions of newspapers sit in archives, untouched for decades.
Who knows, maybe someday you’ll be going through your grandparent’s attic and find a dusty, neatly folded RLSH costume inspired by the Golden Age version of Batman or Captain America.
Knight-Hood here. It's funny you should mention this as I just met a new member over on http://reallifesuperheroes.org named Circus Jaxx. He tells me that his grandfather way back in 1948 in New York used to perform in blackface ala Al Jolson. One night while still in make-up he thwarted a mugging. After that he started going out on regular patrols in greasepaint as Circus Jack. So far this is the earliest rlsh I have yet found. He said he is trying to locate some old photos of his grandfather in make-up and if he sends them to me I will contact you and share the info if you wish. I thought you might enjoy this bit of info.
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