1. What happened to Battle Chasers and Joe Mad?

A lot of people ask me this and it doesn't sound like they've read what happened to Battle Chasers and Joe Mad. After Battle Chasers #9 Mad! decided to leave BC and start a game company called Trilunar. Triluner created a game called Dragonkind. You can find images on my site from this game(for now the temp galleries). If you search for Dragonkind on some game sites you might also see the trailer that was made for the game, hopefully I will someday have that added on my site. The game eventually got canceled and Mad! moved on...

After Dragonkind got canceled Mad! worked doing games for NcSoft, which started with a game called Exarch. Again you can find images for this game on the site and again a trailer if you search game sites. Hopefully when I finish the site I will be adding the trailer for Exarch also. Exarch was also canceled, but Mad! stayed with NsSoft and started work on a game called Tabula Rasa...

Mad! did concept work for Tabula Rasa and you can find some of the images on the front page, but I do not have a section for that up yet with all the images.

Currently Mad! is still at NcSoft working on another game which has yet to be announced. As well as working on Darkstalkers and other recent covers, mostly for Udon. Please do not ask what the name of the game is as I do not know. Mad! said he can't reveal it for a couple more months..maybe earlier if Mad! is able to get permission from NcSoft, I will make an update as soon as I read anything.

This is the most asked question I get asked, yes! I do have Joe's email. A lot of people think I'm rude but I will not give you his email. He asked me not to give it to anyone and I will abide by his wishes and will not give it to anyone. Further this is a pretty rude question, I do not know you just from one email and I think it would be pretty obivous that I wouldn't give his or anyone's email out.

Again No, I have shared some requests for people in the past with Mad! and most of the time he is do busy to take on other projects and has asked me not to send him anymore requests for him to do covers and such.

For me personally people have responded very rudely because I have turned them away. I'm doing what Mad! has asked. My personal thoughts are you should be more aware of how to contact people for work, I am not Joe Mad's agent. If you're serious about having Mad! doing something for you I would contact companies that he has worked for and see if you can get in touch with him that way. Companies like NcSoft, Image, DC, Etc.

He went to a school called High School of Art and Design in New York.

I have helped people with this in the past, but there have been to many emails about this. I'm not a scout or anything and you really need to research this, other than just asking one person. I can only tell you where I went to school and where you can look for help. I would suggest going to a site called conceptart forums. Here you will find a group of artists(some pros) that will help you in basicly any of your art needs.

Please read and search their site first before posting. Most of the questions have been asked and many tutorials have been made. If your interest in just going to school, make sure you post in the right section and ask specific questions as to what you want in going to school illustration/comics/concept/design/etc.

This is taken from the old interview from the official site..

Pencils: A standard lead holder (I've seen pics of it and I believe it's a Koh-I-hoor holder). Please research the name if you don't know what that is..type the name into google.

Lead: 2h or 3h depending on the paper. He doesn't say the brand of the lead but I'm guessing it's Berol or Staedtler lead.

Erasers: Magic Rub, Staedtler or kneaded erasers.

Rulars/etc: T-square, circle template and French curve. Though he says he freehands most of his curves.

Paper: 11" x 17", 2 ply Bristol Board. 2ply is the weight of the paper, some artists use 3/etc.

Other: He says he has worked with Acrylics, Oils, and pastels also Conte crayons. He doesn't say the brand on any of those..

Again I would recommened checking out this site conceptart forums, for learning about tools and techniques. If you don't know the brand still try typing the names above into a search program and I'm sure you will find results. Art is not something one person can tell you a set of tools and you will get better. Yes you can judge how well you are doing by the same materials they have, so you can say whether or not it's the tools or you. But you should spend time researching artists, tools, all aspects of art if you want to be good. Many pros differ on what tools they prefer. I've heard artists that use basic yellow #2 pencils and on basic printer paper, it all depends on what you feel comfortable with. You should know things like what is 2h lead from a 2b lead and for that again you should do some research and not just ask one person.

Again from the old site interveiw. He recommends books by Andrew Loomis. You can find his books to download from the internet for free, one site is this saveloomis.org There are other sites and people on message boards that share them in many formats. Loomis books are probably one of the best.

Other books he mentions are Jack Hamms and Bridgeman's guide and also Stephen Roger Peck's book.

A lot of people ask what about the "how to draw manga" books. Mad! does not talk about that, but I will tell you what I've read from most pros. They don't recommened those books very much because it teaches you have to draw in a specific style. This does not mean they don't like Anime or Manga. If you want to draw a good Manga it is still better if you first learn how to draw anatomy realistically rather than starting in a cartoons style. Once you really start to have realistic anatomy down drawing exaggerated characters is a lot easier.

On the video on my site from E3 (bottom of front page), Mad! talks about this. On there Mad! says he does own most of the drawings he has done and would like to do one eventually.

For me personally I do not know the release dates or if these will actually ever occur. Joe Mad is in charge of that and I only get what he has given me as far as info or exclusive pics.

As much as I wish I was...I'm not Joe Mad! My name is Nathen and I run the site. I do it by myself and only by myself. Which means I answer your questions, write the code, scan the pics and pay for the site. I know my site design and code writting abilities might not be the best, so many of you have offered to help. I really appreciate the offer but I want to do it by myself. I want to learn code and make my designs better. What does that mean for all of you..well it means that I will be slower in getting up a design or older images. You can guarntee though this site will remain up and I will continue to update with anything I do come up with.

So please keep in mind I am one person running things. When you demand or reply rudely because soemthing isn't up, it really does effect me personally. I pay for the site and this is not my job I do this for fun and basicly for you. I have a near complete collection of Mad! comics/posters/etc and I can view them at anytime. So as you can see the site must be up for you to enjoy cause I view my collection at anytime I wish without having a site up.

Just like question #9 I will update when I can and I will take my time doing so. I pay for the site and I do this just for fun this is not a job, Mad! does not pay me to run this site. Plus as I said I am trying to work on things all the time. Please do not respond rudely with demands or with requests for putting pics up. I'm constantly thinking of the site and plan to add everything I had back up when I can. I want to make a great design first though. I've gotten replies saying "who cares just put the stuff up" I'm sorry but then people will just complain that the site is plain and boreing and that I need to redesign it.

Stuff to look forward to is of course the site redesign, I'm still in the early design stages I haven't even got to the coding yet. I'm still planning on making a mini Darkstalkers page and reworking the front page until I finish the final design.

I don't know when he's going back to Battle Chasers that is soley up to him. I also don't know if he is secretly working on it, a strong guess would be no. He is working on games and I know it's hard to believe but doing game concepts is a lot of hard work. I doubt he has time to work on both at the same time. I'm sure He will announce when he is coming back to BC when he wants..maybe through my site or I'm sure a comic book news site. Either way you will know from my site at least the day that it happens.

Some people say they have found images from BC that prove he is doing BC still. The images are old and they're even in my BC section on the site. They were unused images from an older issue.

The last pages he did for BC also were a pin up page that shows Maestro standing over Akiman only in pencils. There was no inked version of that pin up, some show me an inked page but it was done by a fan. The other images is the cover that's of Monkia on the pile of gold and it was used in an advertisement in other comic books. Other than that there was nothing else released.

There is some news on there being a BC movie..and that's bascily that..it's been mentioned and that's it. There hasn't been any new info on this in months and it looks like that it's probably been on hold or maybe canceled. If any new news is announced I will put it on the site.

First no, this is a rude question at least the way most people have asked it. I will not bark orders at Joe Mad! because you want BC to come back or don't like the work he's currently doing. Mad! will return to BC if and when he wants to. I'm not in control of that and I will not ruin being in contact with him just to tell him your rude comments. If you feel cheated that BC is not coming out and you wasted your money somehow, some things you could do are sell your books on Ebay or other places. Give them to a younger brother/sister that will enjoy them. The world does not revolve around you and what you want. If you haven't learned this by now it's a good time to learn. I'm sorry to be rude but a lot of people write this question and it's completely rude to Mad! and me. All people have goals and dreams in this world, if they decide to cancel their own "creator owned project" to go into games that's their business..they don't owe you anything or required to do what you want them to do.

Joe is doing 6 covers total for Darkstalkers all of which will be power foil covers. So far he has done covers #1 and #3 and number 4# which by the time this is posted will be out(update out now!). There will be 3 more covers coming, I don't know the numbers they are out of order or when they will be released. If Mad! sends me new pics or I find out through Previews I will post the news up as soon as I get it. I'm going to try to make a mini flash site soon I'm still working on it.

For other books again I don't know. If Mad! sends me info or pics or again I see some news I will post it right away. The only things slated for upcoming news is the Darkstalkers covers and the game he is doing for NcSoft which hasn't been announced yet. He will let me know stuff when he can about the game.