Heroes in the Night is "A Great Example of the Promise of Creative Non-Fiction"

Wow, Heroes in the Night got a spectacular review from the fine folks at Popmythology.com!

Reviewer Matt Hlinak writes:

"Krulos combines solid journalism with colorful storytelling to shed light on this bizarre and utterly human subculture...

Heroes in the Night is a great example of the promise of creative non-fiction. Tea Krulos lays a solid foundation of fact and then builds an entertaining story on top of it. He is a necessary character in this story, but he never allows himself to overshadow the real-life superheroes, who are the real stars. He gives them a chance to explain themselves and deftly mixes humor and compassion in his treatment of his subjects.

This is an entertaining book that sheds light on the strange but timely, understandable and relevant subculture that is the RLSH movement."

You can read the review in its entirety here: http://www.popmythology.com/heroes-in-the-night-review/

And while you're there, subscribe to the site and get Pop Mythology articles delivered to your inbox.
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Table of Contents Revealed!

We got just got word that  Heroes in the Night is currently en route from the printing press to my publisher in Chicago! To celebrate, here's a sneak peek at the book's Table of Contents...

Introduction: Meet Your Friendly Neighborhood Real Life Superheroes...1

Chapter 1: American Superheroes...9

Chapter 2: Boy Scouts and Batmen...23

Chapter 3: Early Prototypes...41

Chapter 4: Great Lakes Alliance...59

Chapter 5: The Secret City...79

Chapter 6: Coming Out of the Phone Booth...95

Chapter 7: A Tapestry of Evil...109

Chapter 8: The Man in the Green Skull Mask...123

Chapter 9: International Justice Injection...145

Chapter 10: Challengers, Assemble!...163

Chapter 11: Brooklyn’s Ex-superheroes...181

Chapter 12: Mr. Jones and Me...199

Chapter 13: People Fighting and Pepper Spray and Superheroes and…I Don’t Know...213

Chapter 14: An Age of Heroes?...227

Epilogue...243

Acknowledgments...251

Online Resources...253

Notes...255

Index...265

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HERO PROFILE #10: Väktaren

Operates out of: Malmö, Sweden

Name Translation: Väktaren is Swedish for "Guardian"

Activities: Väktaren patrols criminal hotspots, looking to report crime to police and intervene in crimes in process.

Author's notes: I still hear about new RLSH all the time from all over the world. Today's Hero Profile comes from a tip from a Heroes in the Night Facebook fan, Xerxes Sockerstinn, who forwarded an article from a Swedish newspaper on Väktaren. The article reports that Väktaren, a comic book fan, was motivated to become a RLSH last month after he was mugged. The Swedish RLSH has found that his costumed appearance has frightened several Swedes, so he hopes the media exposure will garner some understanding of what he is trying to do.

Heroes in the Night has an entire chapter dedicated to different translations of the RLSH concept around the world.

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HEROES IN THE NIGHT, available for pre-order at IPG///BARNES & NOBLE///AMAZON///POWELL'S///INDIEBOUND
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Book available OCTOBER 1, 2013!

Heroes in the Night is "A Well Written and Intelligent Look"

Here now is our second review, by Patrick Challis, The Curiosity of a Social Misfit.

He says:

"Krulos takes a well written and intelligent look at this people and tries to get under their skin in order to see what makes them tick, what makes them want to be superheroes.  In fact, Krulos manages to blend the factual and exciting side of things with the humour in some of the funnier characters that appear along the way brilliantly.  That really helps the easy going flow of the book and creates one that you can't stop reading."

You can read the full review HERE.

HERO PROFILE #9: Phantom Patriot

Operates out of: Southern Nevada

Activities: Political protests, street patrols, charity hand outs

Team Affiliation: The Protectorate

Inspiration: various American folk heroes, the Human Fly, Captain America

Author's notes: The Phantom Patriot is one of the people discussed as in a chapter of Heroes in the Night titled "Early Prototypes." Here is a video in which he explains more about himself titled Phantom Patriot: An Inside Look.

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HEROES IN THE NIGHT, available for pre-order at IPG///BARNES & NOBLE///AMAZON///POWELL'S///INDIEBOUND
GOODREADS///FACEBOOK
Book available OCTOBER 1, 2013!

Heroes in the Night: First Review!

I'm very happy to report that Heroes in the Night got its first official review! It comes from Booklist, a review magazine published by the American Library Association and geared toward libraries and library patrons. This is from their Sept.1 issue and I think it is a nice, concise review that captures the tone of the book. Review follows.

Heroes in the Night: Inside the Real Life Superhero Movement.

Krulos, Tea (Author)

Oct 2013. 288 p. Chicago Review, paperback, $16.95. (9781613747759). 

If you’ve seen the movies Mystery Men and Kick-Ass, you’re familiar with real-life superheroes (otherwise known as RLSH). These are men and women who dress themselves up in costumes and patrol the streets of their cities, trying to combat evil. Clearly that sounds silly, and the author certainly explores the silly elements of RLSH, but there’s a serious side, too. These are ordinary people taking, in some cases, extraordinary risks, often motivated by a deep need to make their world a safer, better place. The notion of the real-life superhero dates back centuries, at least as far back as Robin Hood, and its modern-day incarnations have formed a community, with online forums, fans, even a “secret text” (a 1980 self published book called How to Be a Super-Hero). 

It probably would have been easy for Krulos to make fun of these people, but, for the most part, he treats RLSH with respect because, if you factor out the comicbookish elements, these are men and women who are risking their own safety to make others feel a bit safer. And it’s hard to make fun of that.— David Pitt

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HEROES IN THE NIGHT, available for pre-order at IPG///BARNES & NOBLE///AMAZON///POWELL'S///INDIEBOUND
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Book available OCTOBER 1, 2013!

Phoenix Jones Gets Cracked Reporting

This is the photo of Phoenix Jones by Lucien Knuteson that Cracked.com swiped from my blog and used on their site without asking permission or giving attribution. 

Internet reporting is so shoddy these days that I wouldn't be surprised to see a Cracked.com article titled "5 Writers Who Actually Spent More Than Ten Minutes Checking Over Their Work."

Apparently we have to give a free pass to people like Cracked.com-- "because it's satire!" as everyone exclaims. Still, I feel I have to speak out about the scenario Cracked suggests in their Triumph the Insult Comic Dog style report, "The 5 Most Spectacularly Failed Attempts at Superheroism."

RE: Point number 4: "A Superhero Maces a Bunch of Dancers." Other than a few nouns, this relaying of the "pepper spray incident," as it is commonly known, is a complete falsehood.

I should know-- I was there.

I was trailing Phoenix Jones in Seattle to get material for my upcoming book, Heroes in the Night, in October 2011 when we stumbled across a street fight. I don't feel iffy on this-- one guy was kicking another guy laying in the street in the head, one dude was punching another dude, there was angry screaming and shoving. After Phoenix Jones broke the group up, one person deliberately hit another person in the arm with their car.

If that was a dance, as this writer adamantly suggests, it was one hell of an electric boogaloo. So where does this report from Funkytown come from?

Well, when the police showed up and asked the group what had happened, they decided that saying they were "dancing" instead of saying they were "beating the shit out of each other in a street fight" sounded better. The police, who were none too thrilled with Phoenix Jones, decided to take their word for it, ignore what Jones had to say, and added the frolicking alibi to their report.

Toward the end of the short Phoenix Jones segment of the article, the incorrect reporting accelerates-- no, Phoenix Jones was not arrested and unmasked on live television. No, Department of Social Services did not ban him from ever working with children ever again. I think presenting that last sentence as fact is actually libel, but I don't know, I'm no lawyer.

Am I defending the actions of Jones that night? No. It is what it is and you can read my detailed account of that evening in a Heroes in the Night chapter titled "People Fighting and Pepper Spray and Superheroes and...I Don't Know."

But if there's anything I hate more than getting punched in the face by a pepper spray soaked Russian (it happened)-- it's lazy fact checking.
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HEROES IN THE NIGHT, available for pre-order at IPG///BARNES & NOBLE///AMAZON///POWELL'S///INDIEBOUND
GOODREADS///FACEBOOK
Book available OCTOBER 1, 2013!