REAL LIFE SUPERHEROES ON PATROL!!! (a photo essay)

Back on March 13, I joined my local real life superheroes for a patrol and photographer Paul Kjelland joined us for the first part of the evening.

We had both forgotten about the pictures over the last several months, both being the busy fellows we are.

We recently remembered the missing pictures and he burned a disc for me. I am glad to premier these for the first time on Forces of Geek in a short photo essay…


Three guys sitting around a kitchen table in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee, studying a hand drawn map of the neighborhood nearby. Two of them are clad in unusual attire, even for this artistic and open minded neighborhood.

That kitchen table is mine and the guy in the middle is me- Tea Krulos- a freelance writer from Milwaukee. In April 2009 I began working on a book documenting real life superheroes titled Heroes in the Night. The book is now nearing completion.

Favorite comic book hero: Flaming Carrot

This is The Watchman, and my journey starts with him. I did research seeing if Milwaukee had any RLSHs I could write about for a magazine piece and discovered him. Watchman lives not far outside of Milwaukee and in addition to doing safety night patrols he also does charity events both as The Watchman and in his “civilian” identity.

Favorite comic book hero: Superman

The two of us first met Blackbird, also of Milwaukee, in February. He is pretty much up for participating in whatever is going on, but his preferred activity is surveillance.

Favorite comic book hero: Batman

After going over the map and discussing our direction of patrolling, we made sure our walkie talkies were working and headed out to Center Street- one of the main streets of the neighborhood and where the night’s patrol was be focused.

Here are the three of us in a space code named “the bird’s nest,” a second floor art studio that a friend had allowed us access to. The plan was for Blackbird to watch the streets below with binoculars and stay in contact with me and Watchman on foot. Additionally, I had a car with three friends driving around the same area also keeping in contact with us. These guys were nicknamed “Team Cthulhu.”

The Watchman and I wait on a corner across the street from the bird’s nest to hand off a walkie talkie to Team Cthulhu.

Blackbird peers down at the streets below. On street level to the left you can see Team Cthulhu parked, making the pickup from us. We didn’t encounter anything noteworthy that night, but had put in an effort into having all bases covered and our eyes and ears open and looking for trouble on several different levels- by “air,” by car, and by foot.