Tea Krulos on Superhero Toy Drive and “Heroes in the Night”

Tea Krulos.  All photos by Lacy Landre.

Tea Krulos was kind enough to give TCD’s Lacy Landre a few words regarding his new book and about this Saturday’s Christmas toy drive sponsored by Milwaukee’s own Real Life Super Heroes: The Challengers.

TK: They don’t have a specific goal; I think they’re happy to get whatever they can. The first year I helped them out was 2010, and we were really successful that year. We got a lot of people stopping by to donate. Last year was kind of slow, so hopefully we can make up for it this time.

LL: Which charity are they donating to?

TK: Toys will be collected for the Gingerbread House in West Bend. They donate to low-income families that might not be able to buy Christmas presents.

LL: What kind of donations are they looking for?

TK: The other charity is the Meta House, which is here in Riverwest. They are a rehab program for mothers and their kids, and they have a specific need for art supplies since they do a lot of art therapy. We split toys and art supplies between the two charities.  Cash donations are always welcome, and will be used to buy new toys.

Members of The Challengers.

LL: I heard that the Milverine was scheduled to show up at the toy drive. Is this just a rumor?

TK: It’s still a rumor, and it’s a good one. I talked to Blackbird on the phone, and he said ‘You know he marches by my work almost every day. I’m going to grab him and tell him we’re doing this charity event and he should show up, because people would love to see him.’ So he’s being invited officially. I’m not sure what his answer will be, so we’ll leave that a mystery for now. If that happens, it would be an epic superhero team.

LL: You’ve kind of become the assumed spokesperson for RLSH groups due to your research and upcoming book. How long have you been working on it?

TK: A long time…in 2009 I read a short blurb in a News of the Weird column about a group of people dressing up as super heroes, and I thought ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ Then I thought, if there’s a local guy, I’m going to interview him. So I found our local guy, The Watchman, and sent him an e-mail. Our meeting was March 1, 2009 at Gordon Park at 10:00 p.m. I saw him walking through the park in his costume and my mind was blown. I decided a couple days after I wanted to write a book. I worked on it up until a couple days before I had to turn it in to the publisher on Nov. 15.

LL: How did you get to meet the other local super heroes?

TK: At first, The Watchman was the only one in Wisconsin. I wrote an article about him for Milwaukee Magazine and a couple other news sources found out about him. As word got out, other people were inspired to join him, so new superheroes started turning up in Milwaukee. Now he’s got a crew of like, six dudes. As I got to know them all, I really appreciated them letting me into their lives. I’ve been to their houses, I’ve gotten to know their families, etc. So the last few years I’ve helped them out for their Christmas event. I think it’s effective to use their flashy personas to get people interested in charity. I think that’s where they’re a success. Some of their crime-fighting attempts make me really nervous.

The Watchman.

LL: What about super heroes in other cities?

TK: I really love to travel and I thought if I wanted to write a very thorough book I needed to do that. I went to about 12 different cities coast to coast. I almost did not get into Canada. In Vancouver, I was sent to customs and I wasn’t really telling them the truth about why I was there; I wasn’t going to tell them that I was there to meet superheroes. They went through my stuff and found my itinerary about what I was going to do that weekend, and were like ‘What is this?’ I was grilled in customs for about an hour before they let me into the country.

I went to New Bedford, Mass. for their yearly conference. I also went to Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis a couple times, and a long string down the West coast to San Diego, Portland, and Seattle. There is a very enthusiastic superhero there called Phoenix Jones.  He loves to get in trouble. Phoenix Jones is always getting his nose broken, breaking up fights outside of bars, and just doing all sorts of insane stuff. I had the craziest night of my whole life there. That was the first night he was arrested.

LL: When/where will your book be available?

TK:  Sometime in September/October of 2013. There’ll be 5,000 print copies and an e-version. They’re going to sell the book on Amazon and some Barnes & Noble stores too.

LL:  Do you have any other projects in the works?

TK:  I have started some preliminary work on my second book, which I don’t want to talk too much about. It’s about conspiracy theory. It’s going to focus on a person I met who is a conspiracy theorist and the pretty wild world that he, and surprisingly a lot of other people live in. Heroes in the Night is charming, inspirational, and kind of frightening at some points…but the conspiracy theory stuff is a little more… whoa. I’m excited to see where it goes.

The Challengers Christmas Charity Mission will be held this Saturday, Dec. 15, from 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. at Brewed Café (1208 E. Brady St.). Can’t make it?  That’s ok.  You can donate online on their FundRazr page.

Tea Krulos is an award-winning freelance writer from Milwaukee. The title of his upcoming book is Heroes in the Night: Inside the Real Life Super Hero Movement.