Terragard/Terrorgard Origins

This graphic copyright Gary Dellar and the respective Reverie Artists. Used with permission.

The year was 1984. The place was Melbourne Australia. And the strip I was originally doing for REVERIE Comics was hitting a snag. My first published work was a strip called "Sandy Star: Rebel Force", a futuristic story set a thousand years in Melbourne's future, at a time when the place was ruled by the Science Lords.

Unfortunately, when I first started working for REVERIE, I'd let my now-EX-wife co-plot the story, and she'd effectively plotted me into a corner. There was also the fact even I was having a hard time relating to my own concept. But in the third Sandy Star episode, I introduced a time-travelling character from the 20th century, a super-character...and actually the SECOND Bloodgard, appearing out of sequence.

One slight snag again...I let my ex-wife name that character. She dubbed him "Bloodgard". Years later, I finally figured out where she got the name from. Which meant re-naming him over later years.

During 1984, I drew the first episode for a Bloodgard strip. At the top of its first page, we tied it in to Sandy Star, having her narrate an intro. However, it was Sandy Star's last appearance.

The first story detailed how a lone, young man found a suit of mystical armor in the Buchan Caves of East Gippsland, armor so ancient it existed before the Earth. There were two demi-gods monitoring it an providing comedy relief, while watching it from some other dimension. There was also some ambiguity over whether this super-being would be good or evil.

This was the episode which appeared in the above issue of REVERIE.

And the response from the Melbourne/Australia fan press to the strip was way more positive than it had been for Sandy Star.

Between issues 4 and 5, however, REVERIE publisher Gary Dellar had received submissions from a young artist named Mark Ryan. Mark was only 14 at the time, but boy, could he draw! So we contacted Mark and got him on board for all subsequent Bloodgard stories.

Issue 5 of REVERIE marked Mark's debut, and involved the continuation of the origin story. A certain Australian Prime Minister who was more popular than sliced bread, B*b H*wke was doing a campaign around the Buchan Caves region, and was astounded to see Bloodgard appearing from out of the ground behind him. Spectacular entrance.

The catch was what happened next. A weird coupling of an American agent and a Russian agent close by spelled danger for the beloved Prime Minister. Two miles above, Bloodgard's armor registered the problem. My favorite part was writing a new twist to the "faster than a speeding bullet" routine. "The poor bullet never gets an even break."

But then, the even bigger twist. An ASIO agent comes up, alerting B*b that the Soviets AND Yanks were BOTH firing nuclear missiles and that the world had only minutes to live.

Up into space zooms Bloodgard, locating and destroying all missiles from either side. He tunes into both sets of war rooms...then makes a fateful decision. Being INFINITELY POWERFUL...Bloodgard unleashes amazing energy on BOTH countries.

The final scenes were of our PM, crying over a LOT of beer and reading the next day's papers..."B*b's "Mate" destroys Super Powers." Behind him, a shadowed Bloodgard announces he's taking OVER.

This first set of episodes took place on an alternative TIMELINE. When NEXT we see Bloodgard in issue 6 of REVERIE, we're on ANOTHER timeline, and we find Bloodgard has dumped four versions of his civilian identity, from different timelines, all together.

Issue 7 of REVERIE, the FINAL ever issue, showed the start of the conflict between Bloodgard and these four. Had the series and comic continued, in issue 8, ONE of those versions would be dead.

In addition to the four dopplegangers, we had three of their ladies also taking part in the action.

But, by 1986/87, REVERIE would be cancelled. Which is a real pity, because Bloodgard (NOW Terrorgard, and intermediately TerrAgard) was actually ahead of his time at the point of his creation. He was actually AHEAD of similar trends in DC and Marvel Comics that would crop up a few years later, and during the nineties.

The beauty of the Bloodgard/Terragard/Terrorgard concept is that it was well-thought out, and had a clear direction. The characterisations were understood by me down to the finest detail. Even better, I could relate to the characters myself. This was why Bloodgard turned out so much bettter than "Sandy Star."

But that wasn't the end of the Bloodgard concept. And there was another Australian comic to contact...but that's a story for another time.