About

The WatchGuard© is the brainchild of Charlie McElvy, and has been in development for nearly 4yrs now. The first WatchGuard product to be made available is The WatchGuard Sourcebook for the Mutants & Masterminds gaming system.

WatchGuard’s actual beginnings go waaaaaay back to 1998 when I was working on trying to put out a comic book of my own. The market was ripe for a new entry, and there were several entries in the sci-fi/fantasy genre that proved it a reliable medium (i.e., Battle Chaser, More Than Mortal, Dreamsmith Studios’ Book, Lady Pendragon, Ascension, et al.) So, I created a couple of new characters, Asa & Kuan Ti, alongside comics pro (and my good buddy) Andy Smith, contacted Image Comics and got pre-approval to publish my comic — woot!

Alas, the venture proved too expensive at the time, and the lag time of getting my book done pushed the project into the dead zone: fantasy comics were already a dying breed, with few hanging on for life, still fewer being successful at it, and the “death” of CrossGen Comics (which, BTW, Andy Smith went to work for as an Art Director — so, I also lost my artist…) pretty much sealed it. The Prophecy (originally called The Covenant of Avalon) sat dead. I had one piece of finished art from Andy, and some final roughs, a pinup by Steve Ellis, John Beatty, and Mike Atiyeh, and no book…

Flash forward to 2007. I wanted to delve into these guys again, but I knew that fantasy wasn’t what I *really* wanted to write anyway, and it was just a nifty idea at the time. Back to my roots I go! Superheroes! Colorful & incompetent villains! BAM! BOOF! BASH!

…or, sumpthin’ like that…

I created a character in 2007 who was then known as Battalion. He was my patriotic hero. About the same time, incidentally, Marvel was revamping Captain America, and the final Alex Ross designed suit has/had some resemblances to Battalion’s. I made some minor tweaks since then, but that still gnaws at me… I’m just too slow to market!!! Darbit! Also, and this is a hoot, Battalion was to be the perfect apolitical, bi-racial hero (black + white), with a single mom, living in Washington, DC. A year later, we have our new President, and he kinda fits that billet, eh?

Battalion became Sentinel in the coming years, and the cast grew. I added team lead Voyager (everything I ever wanted to be as a superhero), then Garrison (my ideal strong guy), Mazer, Intrepid, and Stitch. Stitch is based on a character I designed in high school, but changed his name from Patch to Stitch (Patch was Wolverine’s alter ego in his mini-series, way back when), and I made some small tweaks to his costume & origins as well. And, so, the team was made…! But, what’s a team without super-cool villains??

…more on that another time.

~Charlie~