Battle Chasers

Battle Chasers is an American fantasy comic book series by Joe Madureira, launched in April 1998. It was characterized by 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 (publishing two to three a year), a pace for which he was criticized.
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 was never 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. 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 ("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 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 (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."
Overview.
The story takes place in an "arcanepunk" setting. The story stars five main characters, including a nine-year-old girl named Gully, whose father mysteriously vanishes, leaving behind a pair of magical gloves. A rogue 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.
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.
"Battle Chasers: Nightwar".
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. Madureira 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 also had been announced as a playable character in the game "Indivisible" before the dissolution of developer Lab Zero Games.