Review: Catch Up On ‘Battle Chasers’ With This Anthology Before Reading The New Issue

Welcome to the table,

What did Garrison’s sword do to Brass Demure?

Let me rewind a bit.

In my early teens, I had amassed a collection of novels, TTRPG, and comics from various secondhand book shops, trash cans, and yard sales. Most of the stuff I was really into had to do with monsters or sword and sorcery, but in those days everything kinda had the same flavor. Conan,  Tarzan, Kull, and Solomon Kane are amazing but they have the same vibe.

So when I picked up my issue of Wizard Magazine, and bought it with my winnings from a Battle Tech tournament, the Cliffhangers preview sketchbook in the back blew me away.

No… it was not Red Monika in pirate garb on the cover.

The pages inside had some of the coolest-looking fantasy and sword and sorcery art I had ever seen. It was all the flash and style of the superhero comics that lined the shelves of the shop, but all that flair and then-modern style was being applied to worlds where magic and demons held sway.

Crimson, Danger Girl, and Battle Chasers were all showcased and each one looked phenomenal. I had already been a long-time fan of Humberto Ramos‘s work on Impulse, but the drawings from Joe Madureira in the pulpy pages of that free issue #0 comic were a revelation to me. They flipped a switch in my brain that was transformative and changed the way I thought about what could be in a sword and sorcery story.

When Battle Chasers #1 dropped I was the first person in the shop, long before the doors opened, perched upon the back case reading it cover to cover. By the time I had finished the issue, I was hooked. Hooked on Battle Chasers, hooked on Joe Mad, hooked on the weird arcane punk vibe the whole thing had. I knew this book was going to be the book that changed everything.

Battle Chasers, for those not familiar with the title, tells the story of Gully, a ten-year-old girl, whose dad goes missing, leaving her a pair of magical gauntlets that give her the strength of a titan and make her nearly indestructible. She soon finds herself in the company of a grumpy old wizard named Knolan, a massive yet weirdly peaceful war golem named Calibretto, a brooding and mysterious master swordsman named Garrison, and eventually an air pirate named Red Monika.

The story is fast and frantic with big moments of action and dazzling set pieces. Joe Mad swings for the fences and knocks it out of the freaking park.

The thing that messed up this perfect book is that it was plagued by all sorts of release issues. It would sometimes be months between issues coming out and I can think of more than three occasions where the guy who owned the comic shop got a little tired of me asking “So when is the new Battle Chasers going to drop?”

Who could blame me? The book had demons magically tethered to gauntlets, flying sky-manta-ray mounts, air pirates, necromancers, werewolves, zombies, and a blue-skinned monk named Brass Demure who was one of the most intimidating foes I had seen across any form of media at the time.

Just look at him! Look at this weird amazing powerhouse! This guy fought Garrison, easily the greatest swordsman in the land, to a standstill. Then, as he is holding Garrison’s sword blade in his hand, looking like a total badass, Garrison activates his sword, a thing we did not even know he could do. This energy comes out and does what I can only describe as a soul drain on Brass Demure. Then Garisson’s eyes do this weird red glow effect and then… it’s never mentioned again!

The issue is that the series ended shortly after. Somewhere around August of 2001, nearly 22 years ago, the last issue of Battle Chasers, Battle Chasers #9, was published. What’s more, it was a cliffhanger ending and we still don’t know what the deal with Garrison’s sword is!

We never found out though. The book just stopped coming out. Joe Madureira took a step back from comics and went off and started a career in video games*, and the world moved on.

Image Comics put out a fantastic Battle Chasers Anthology collecting every issue published of the series*. It’s a great way to read the existing issues #1-9 and honestly makes enjoying the series way easier than having to open each bag and board to read your coveted collection of original issues when you want to revisit old friends.

The Battle Chasers Anthology is a must-have for fans of the series and is stuffed cover to cover with arcane-punk offerings that will delight legacy fans and newcomers to the series alike.

Until next time, issue 10 dropped today! I am reviewing it! I am excited… #11 may finally tell me what is going on with the sword! Stay tuned to Comicon and I will keep you posted!

*Video Games – Joe Mad would go on to create many amazing games but the Darksiders franchise is one of my top three video game franchises of all time alongside Elder Scrolls and Dead Space. I love many videogame offerings but Darksiders is something I have sunk thousands of hours into playing the first two offerings over and over again. I think I own five copies of Darksiders 1 and six copies of Darksiders 2. That’s not a joke. Across digital downloads, various consoles, and remastered editions I have bought these games a lot.