MADUREIRA'S "BATTLE CHASERS" TO RETURN AS COMIC AND GAME

Polygon has announced that Joe Madureira's creator-owned comic series "Battle Chasers" will return as both a comic book and video game. The gaming endeavor will come from Madureira and Ryan Stefanelli's newly formed company Airship Syndicate. While the duo weren't yet prepared to disclose gameplay specifics to Polygon, they did say that the mechanics of the "Battle Chasers" game would be somewhat similar to "Darksiders," the 2010 video game produced by Madureira's former game development company, Vigil Games.

"Battle Chasers" will be a role-playing game featuring the series' characters Garrison, Gully and Calibretto. Airship Syndicate is reportedly targeting PC and consoles for the project and possibly even tablets. Funding for the game has not been secured "We're going to sort of let fate decide for us exactly how we should best pay for the game," said Stefanelli.

The original "Battle Chasers" series published nine issues between 1998 and 2001, primarily through Image Comics. The fantasy series marked Madureira's first creator-owned work following a blockbuster stint as the artist on "Uncanny X-Men" at Marvel Comics. The series experienced numerous lengthy delays and ended on a still unresolved cliffhanger in 2001's "Battle Chasers" #9. Madureira promises that tying up that loose end is the first thing he plans to do with the new "Battle Chasers" series.

After tying up the first iteration of "Battle Chasers," Madureira plans on shifting his focus to smaller, three-issue arcs. "I partially just want to update it," said Madureira. "I think it's going to get a visual overhaul too. My art style and storytelling style, everything's sort of changed and evolved over the years."

While both the comic and game are in the early stages of development, Madureira revealed that he's tempted to take his creation into other mediums as well. "I've always wanted to do an animated series, possibly," he said, "so there's a couple of different options that we're pursuing for bringing the franchise back in a big way."