Battle Chasers


Battle Chasers is an American fantasy comic book series by Joe Madureira, launched in April 1998. It was one of the most popular American comics series in the late 1990s, but suffered from extreme scheduling problems, with an average of about six months between issues, including a delay of 16 months for issue #7. Madureira produced a total of nine issues in four years, a pace for which he was criticized.
Originally published by WildStorm under its Cliffhanger imprint, the series moved to Image Comics in 2001.
The last issue, #9, was published in September 2001 and had a cliffhanger ending that was never concluded, as #10 was never released and Joe Madureira left the comic industry to pursue a career as a video game designer. Joe Madureira has said he plans to release issue #10, starting directly where issue #9 ended, and two more issues as part of a 3-part story arc some time after the release of in October 2017.

Publication history

Battle Chasers was one of the initial three comic book series published under the Cliffhanger label, which Madureira founded with fellow artists J. Scott Campbell and Humberto Ramos for Jim Lee's Image Comics imprint, WildStorm. When, effective in 1999, Wildstorm was sold to DC Comics, the Cliffhanger titles moved along, and issues 5 through 8 of Battle Chasers were published by DC, until Madureira left the publisher, and released Battle Chasers #9 through Image Comics. Madureira canceled Battle Chasers #10, and placed the series "on hold" after forming a game development company called Tri-Lunar with Tim Donley and Greg Peterson.
When it was announced in August 2005 that Madureira would return to the comic industry, working on a then-unspecified project with Jeph Loeb for Marvel Comics, he also stated that a conclusion to Battle Chasers is "one of those things that I think about every once in a while, and not having finished it bums me out… I would love to do it at some point, but it would be very far out."

Overview

The story takes place in an "arcanepunk" setting. The story stars four main characters, including a nine-year-old girl named Gully, whose father mysteriously vanishes, leaving behind a pair of magical gloves. A warrior named Red Monika tries to enlist Garrison, a swordsman haunted by the death of his wife, to assist in freeing a prisoner, which Garrison turns down. Red Monika accidentally releases four extremely powerful villains during the breakout. Garrison overcomes his grief and joins Gully, the wizard Knolan, and the towering war golem Calibretto to stop the villains' rampage.

Characters

;Garrison
;Gully
;Calibretto
;Knolan
;Red Monika

Reception

Although issue 10 of Battle Chasers was not released, it was 14th in the Top 300 comics list with an estimated pre-order of 60,860.

Film adaptation

In March 2003, Twentieth Century Fox has optioned feature rights to the fantasy comicbook series with Gil Netter attached to produce.

Issues

Core issues

On September 9, 2015, Madureira started a 30-day Kickstarter campaign for a turn-based role-playing game called Battle Chasers: Nightwar that serves as a continuation and jumping-on point of the original comic book series. The game is being developed by Airship Syndicate and published by THQ Nordic. Maduriera will be the CEO and Creative Director along with Ryan Stefanelli as President and Lead Designer; Steve Madureira as Animation Director; Christopher Brooks as Technical Director and Jesse Carpenter as Environment Lead. 2D animation scenes in the game will be developed by Powerhouse Animation Studios. Nightwar is currently planned for release on PC and Mac, both on Steam and DRM-free on GoG, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions were eventually added as core goals. It was also confirmed for the Nintendo Switch in a Nintendo Direct in April 2017. In addition to this, new issues of the Battle Chasers comic book will be published and released digitally with pledges starting at $90 and higher.
Calibretto will also be a playable character in the upcoming funded crossover game Indivisible.