Battle Chasers
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| Battle Chasers | |
 Cover to Battle Chasers #1 by Joe Madureira |
|
| Publisher | WildStorm, Image Comics |
|---|---|
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Publication date | April 1998 – Sept. 2001 |
| Number of issues | 9 (and one prelude issue) |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Joe Madureira Munier Sharrieff |
| Artist(s) | Adam Warren (back story in #6, 9) |
| Penciller(s) | Joe Madureira |
| Inker(s) | Tom McWeeney (Prelude, #1–7) Jason Martin (#7–9) Vince Russel (Prelude) Scott Williams (#7, 8) Tim Townsend (#7) Trevor Scott (#8) Joe Madureira (#9) |
| Colorist(s) | Liquid Graphics |
Battle Chasers is an American fantasy comic book series by Joe Madureira, launched in April 1998. It was one of the most popular comics 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.
Originally published by WildStorm under its Cliffhanger imprint (founded by Madureira with J. Scott Campbell and Humberto Ramos), the series moved to Image Comics in 2001.
The last issue, #9, was published in September 2001 and had a cliffhanger-ending that never was concluded, as #10 (scheduled for November 2001) was never released and Joe Madureira left the comic industry to pursue a career as a video game designer.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Gully's father mysteriously vanishes leaving behind a pair of magical gloves.
Red Monika tries to enlist Garrison 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, Knolan and Calibretto to stop the villains' rampage.
[edit] Characters
- Garrison
- At the beginning of the series, Garrison is a drunk in despair with the passing of his wife. He is a legendary swordsman and owns a powerful magical sword. Trained in swordplay by Red Monika and mentored by Aramus. From Joe's original concept sketches of the characters, Garrison's sword was able to open similar to the Thundercats - Sword of Omens [1]
- Gully
- Gully is a nine year old girl whose father, Aramus mysteriously vanishes leaving a powerful set of magical gloves behind. Through the series she shares a friendship with Calibretto and Knolan while searching for her father.
- Calibretto
- An outlawed war golem with a very gentle personality. The last of his kind after all previous war golems were ordered to be destroyed. His arms can fire projectiles.
- Knolan
- A powerful wizard; around five hundred years old. His companion is Calibretto, a war golem.
- Red Monika
- A voluptuous bounty hunter; possibly an outlaw of sorts. She originally trained Garrison and has an apparent history with him. Joe's concept sketches compared her to the Jessica Rabbit of the BC world.[2]
[edit] 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 (Danger Girl) and Humberto Ramos (Crimson) 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 back at Image Comics (where the series was supposed to be published from thereon).
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 (which was later revealed to be The Ultimates 3), 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." [3]
[edit] Movie
In August 2003 it was reported that Stuart Hazeldine working on a script. [4] However at this point the movie is still in development.
[edit] 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. [5]
[edit] Issues
[edit] Core issues
- Battle Chasers Prelude (1998, Image Comics/Wildstorm)
- Story in Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated #2 (1998, Quantum Cat Entertainment)
- Battle Chasers #1–4 (1998, Image Comics/Wildstorm)
- Battle Chasers #5–8 (1999-2001, DC Comics/Wildstorm)
- Battle Chasers #9 (2001, Image Comics)
[edit] Reprints
- Battle Chasers: Collected Edition #1 (reprints Battle Chasers #1–2)
- Battle Chasers: Collected Edition #2 (reprints Battle Chasers #3–4)
- Battle Chasers: A Gathering of Heroes (ISBN 1-56389-538-2; reprints Battle Chasers #1–5, the Prelude and the story from Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated #2)
