Joemadart.com Archives 2019

JoeMadArt.com update #45
Happy New Year with Darksiders Genesis!

What a month of December! it was full of Joe Mad stuff and surprises!

With the release of Darksiders Genesis (2019/12/05) the crew at Airship Syndicate shared a lot of artistic stuff on Artstation. Have a look if you don't care to be a bit spoiled. And you know what? Joe was also part of it! Yes! Joe Madureira created his own Artstation page! He shared there many pieces of art never revealed before, related to Battle Chasers Nightwar, Darksiders 3, Darksiders Genesis and some other miscellaneous stuff. This update is focused on those pieces of art. Not all were added to the site in this update but eventually they will ;).

So have a look to some more arts Joe Madureira did on Darksiders 3 and Darksiders Genesis:
The next huge news is that Joe Madureira announced during The Game Awards 2019 that Airship Syndicate will be the development studio in charge of a new game in the world of League of legends: "RUINED KING: A League of Legends Story". That game will be the first game "spin-off" of League of Legends and will be officially published by Riot Forge. Apart from the teaser trailer that you can discover below, what is known so far is that it will be a "turn-based RPG" taking place just after the events of the Burning Tides. You can read that story here and visit the official website for the RUINED KING game here.

Watch the RUINED KING: A League of Legends Story teaser trailer plus a short interview of Joe Madureira:

Final announcement for this update, UDON Entertainment announced "The art of Darksiders Genesis" available June 2020. Special note: this new artbook cover was done by Baldi Konijn. Remember that name! That guy did most of the character concepts for Darksiders Genesis. He did a freaking awesome work and won't stop just here! ;) I hope that you had some great holidays and that you played a lot to Darksiders Genesis. This is the game I played the most during those holidays and it's a gold nugget! The game has a metacritic score of 78/100 based on 56 critics. I think this is fair score even if it should probably be a lot more for a Darksiders fan. That War and Strife duo is just so fun, cool and funny! The gameplay is as fantastic as each cut scene and dialogue are. The only noticeable weak point of that game in my opinion is the camera but it's nothing compared to all its other fantastic assets.

And If you are still on the fence about buying Darksiders Genesis, then watch that "Accolades Trailer":

Again, Happy New Year to all of you!
Let's all work hard to make that new year as productive as possible!
Let's all be strong and persistent!

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #44
Darksiders Genesis release
and Battle Chasers #5 part 2!

Hi JoeMAd fans!

You may have noticed that there was no update for October... I'm sorry. No specific reason, it's all personal ;).
3 years and a half ago I said that I would do 1 update per month... So today I can say that... I failed yes, but it's not a reason to stop isn't it?

Ho no it's not! ;)

How could I stop now with Darksiders Genesis just around the corner!?
Darksiders Genesis will be available next week on PC and the 14 of February on consoles. You probably wonder why such a gap in the release dates? Well the answer is simple: "Quality".
The game code on console is a bit different from the PC version and THQ NORDIC decided to delay the release on console in order to fix some issues. Wise choice I would say even if some of you will probably be frustrated... I understand.

And for those still on the fence about buying that game (Really guys?) well...

THQ NORDICS released a new trailer presenting the "Abilities and Creature Cores":

THQ Nordic also released a very cool, beautiful and funny video to present Strife. Have a look!

On his side IGN did a great preview of the game with a super promising conclusion by Mitchell Saltzman:

Watch that Darksiders Genesis Final Preview: More Darksiders, Less Diablo

Not only that but Escapist Magazine and Gameumentary did a super interesting "first cover story featuring Darksiders Genesis" with some great interviews:

And finally, you can now buy some Darksiders Genesis (And Darksiders in general) posters made out of metal on Displate!. You can find there 4 Darksiders arts with lines by Joe Madureira (see the reference of the arts below):
That's all about Darksiders Genesis... for now ;). I expect to discover many cool sketches and drawings by Joe Madureira in the months to come because honestly the bestiary looks cool!
And I also hope that all those videos convinced you to buy that game on day one ;)

Apart that and just in case you missed the information the 4.86" tall Batman Black and White Limited Edition Statue (5000 units) Based on the DC Comics "Justice League Rebirth #1 variant cover" that Joe did in 2016 is now available everywhere. (See the JoeMadArt.com update #36)

To finish here is the part 2 of the Battle Chasers #5 pages ;) Note: Again a special thanks to Tom McWeeney for the scans of the original inked pages.
Special thanks to Alexander Lee too for the scan of the page 15!

Have a fun with Darksiders Genesis!

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #43
Battle Chasers #5 part 1!

Hi JoeMAd fans!

For this month the main info is the release of the Battle Chasers Anthology TPB, the "second" print of the legendary Anthology comic released in 2011! Except the brand new cover done for this second print, the content is exactly the same as the first print. This Anthology book collects all the Battle Chasers comics released so far (#1 to #9), the Battle Chasers Prelude comic (#0), the side story featured in the Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated book as well as all the covers and variants plus some sketches and unused pages!

For the occasion I updated the cover art with a bigger version, enjoy! And if you prefer the digital version of that Battle Chasers Anthology TPB, you can get it on Comixology with a good discount!

Following that cool release, the backers of the Battle Chasers NightWar game kickstarter campaign will also be happy to receive (if not already) their sketch done by Joe Madureira.

Bradym1 on the Airship Syndicate community forum shared his Garrison: I will share more in the next updates!

Apart that, Joe is still very quiet about the next comic issue of Battle Chasers... He is without any doubt fully focused on finishing Darksiders Genesis that should hit the stores for Christmas.

In the meantime, let's have another look to some Battle Chasers #5 pages! Note: Special thanks to Tom McWeeney who shared some of the original inked pages with me! Thank you Tom!

That's all for this update!

Well oh yes, I also found a slightly better image version of that Resident Evil PSM Magazine cover... ;)
And as usual, if you have some original pages by Joe Madureira, please send me (ulkhror@joemadart.com) some big and clean photos or scans of them! ;)

Stay tune!

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #42
Darksiders Genesis at GamesCom
and Avenging Spider-Man!

Gamescom 2019 ended one week ago and Darksiders Genesis, the game developed by Airship Syndicate (Joe Madureira) did a great impression! Some new gameplay videos were broadcasted and 2 new official trailers were revealed.

Darksiders GENESIS official announce trailer during Gamescom 2019 Opening Night:

Darksiders GENESIS "Stadia Connect" official trailer:

THQ Nordic has also officially shared 6 new HD Darksiders Genesis screenshots that you can find below: And if you want more, you can watch those interviews:

#1: Reinhard Pollice (THQ Nordic) and Billy Garretsen (Airship Syndicate) presenting the game and the Strife statue:

#2: Another very interesting interview of Billy Garretsen (Airship Syndicate) by IGN:

And if you just want to see the game in action then you can watch those 2 gameplay videos:
#1: Excellent one by Arekkz Gaming

Note:This trailer let you see Samael's portrait (Also called "Sammy" by Strife lol) into the game for the first time!

#2: 16 Minutes of gameplay with IGN

That's all about Darksiders Genesis...
Sorry, but no new art by Joe (Except that Samael portrait) and no interview of the boss...
But that's not yet finished with that update of JoeMadArt.com!
Let me share with you a few arts by Joe Madureira! I decided this month to wrap up the Avenging Spider-Man era.

So you will find below all the remaining pencil pages of the Avenging Spider-Man #3 comic:
And now to finish (for real): a small update regarding the cover of the upcoming Battle Chasers Anthology TP 2019 cover. It seems that a new colored version replacing the "orange scale" one is now displayed everywhere.
That's all!
Have a fun and Until next time! ;)

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #41
Avenging Spider-Man Vol1 issue #3 part 1!

After the announcement of Darksiders Genesis last month, THQ Nordic said that the game will be playable at Gamescom this year (21-24/08/2019 in Cologne). Will Joe Madureira and some crew members of Airship Syndicate be there too? Well nothing has been announced yet but Joe was present at Gamescom for Battle Chasers Nightwar so it's highly probable! In addition, THQ Nordic finally announced the Darksiders Genesis collector's Edition and the Darksiders Genesis Nephilim Edition! The Darksiders Genesis collector's edition contains:

• The Game Darksiders Genesis
• A collectible Steelbook case
• A 9-inch strife Figure
• A artbook
• The soundtrack
• Some stickers

The Nephilim Edition is the same as the collector's edition plus contains the board game Darksiders the forbidden land.
You can preorder The Darksiders Genesis collector or Nephilim edition here
For your information, all the figures included into the Board game were sculpted by Hector Moran aka "HEC".
Have a look to his work more in details on Artstation:
Unfortunately, no new Darksiders Genesis artwork to share with you in that update...
So let's get back to some older stuff... but not that old ;)

Enjoy below the first 10 pages of the Avenging Spider-Man issue #3:
And to finish, let's talk Battle Chasers for a change ;).
In the previous update of JoeMadArt.com and because that update was dedicated to the Darksiders Genesis reveal, I deliberately omitted to talk about the official Battle Chasers Anthology trade paperback new release! That new oversized graphic novel is coming this year on September 25 and will collect the Battle Chasers comics #0 to #9. The description also says that it will include some "never-before-seen sketches and new artwork" plus a fold-out poster! The preorders are already opened!

And here is the new cover of that Battle Chasers Anthology trade paperback featuring Garrison and his sword:
Also, some important information. In the last kickstarter update (June 4, 2019) Joe wrote a special message to backers with some bad news about the upcoming Battle Chasers #10-#12 comics:
Sorry to finish on such a note...
That's all for now! Enjoy your holidays and have fun!
Let's talk JoeMadArt again next month! ;)

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #40
Darksiders Genesis at E3 2019!

[Edit 2019 Jully 03]
E3 2019 ended just a few weeks ago and many fabulous games were revealed!
As suspected in the last JoeMadArt.com update, Airship Syndicate (Joe Madureira) and THQ Nordic presented their new game: Darksiders Genesis!! Yes!
So, do you want to know everything about Darksiders Genesis?
Well fortunately for you I did my researches and found nearly everything that Joe said about it!
I tried to gather the most relevant and interesting coverages and interviews!

And since nobody will be interested by anything else than Darksiders Genesis then this update of JoeMadArt.com will be dedicated to it! ... so it means you won't get as many arts as usual ;).

OK let's start with...
The impressive Darksiders Genesis HD announcement trailer revealed just a few days before E3:

Just next are the 2 official Darksiders Genesis arts done by Joe Madureira, Grace Liu and Billy Garretsen: Note: Regarding that "title screen" art that one above is in HD but cropped. The full version looks more like that one below... I'm still expecting to find it in HD ;)
[Edit 2019 Jully 03] Just after this update THQ Nordic accepted to share with me the super big HD version of this image. Thank you THQ Nordic! Also, just as in Battle Chasers NightWar, when some key characters talk, some portrait arts are displayed.
In the demo at E3 you can see the portrait of War and Strife that are obviously some pieces of art by Joe Madureira. I expect that I will be able to put my hands on some clean versions of those so I decided not to "officially" add those to the side for now. That being said I did a small mok-up from some screenshots of the game, Enjoy! ;) There's also another key art but that one looks like a photoshopped version of the model from the CG trailer and not a Joe Mad art. Still very nice!
For those who haven't heard of the game and who are wondering what it looks like...
I invite you to watch that 1 player HD gameplay walkthrough... a lot better than a few screenshots isn't it!?:

And just because playing co-op has nothing to do with the solo mode here is another gameplay walkthrough with 2 players:
Darksiders Genesis - 5 Reasons It's Good As Hell:

So now, do you have some questions about the game? You would like to know more? What about asking the boss?
You can find below the most interesting interviews of Joe Madureira done at E3 2019:

Video Interviews:
1) Joe Madureira, Ryan Stefanelli and Reinhard Pollice at the E3 Coliseum 2019 Panel presented by Geoff Keighley
2) Joe Madureira interview by Gamerhub.tv
3) Joe Madureira interview by Ultima Ficha... and speaking a bit Portuguese
4) Joe Madureira interview by Escapist Magazine and Gameumentary
5) Joe Madureira interview by TechRaptor
6) Joe Madureira interview by gamereactor.eu

Interview transcripts:
1) Joe Madureira interview by AllUSANnewsHub.com
2) Joe Madureira interview by gaminginstincts.com
3) Joe Madureira interview by rpgsite.net
4) Joe Madureira interview by usgamer.net

So, what did we learn from all that?

Darksiders GENESIS in brief:

• Darksiders Genesis is not Darksiders 4
• Darksiders Genesis is not an Action RPG
• As its name says, Darksiders Genesis is a prequel to the first Darksiders
• The story in Darksiders Genesis begins just after the four horsemen get their powers and kill all the Nephilims
• In Darksiders Genesis War and Strife must discover what the new plans of Lucifer are
• In Darksiders Genesis War and Strife will meet for the first time some returning guys such as Vulgrim and Samael
• You can only play War and Strife, not Fury and not Death
• Darksiders Genesis is a solo or 2 players cooperative action game where 1 player controls War and the other Strife
• In solo player mode, you can switch between War and Strife on the fly (There's a cooldown)
• The co-operation mode can be local or online
• Darksiders Genesis is not a Diablo-like game but is closer to the style of Tomb Raider: Guardians of Light
• Darksiders Genesis is loyal to the gameplay of Darksiders 1 with a top down isometric camera
• War has pretty much the same move set as in Darksiders 1
• Just like in the other Darksiders games, Darksiders Genesis includes many puzzles and interactions with the environment
• Gareth Coker (Ori and the Blind forest) is the music composer of Darksiders Genesis
• The camera in the game can't be controlled but you can still zoom in or out
• The dungeons aren't randomly generated
• The game will be available for pretty much all the platforms including the Google Stadia
• You can go back to previous levels and play them again to discover some secrets or loot some monster cores
• There's at least 1 secret in every levels
• The creatures drop cores that can be used as materials to upgrade the characters
• You can customize your character by using some skill and ability trees as well as combat upgrades
• There's no map to explore but just a hub where to get your new mission before jumping into a new or old level
• You can choose among 3 level of difficulties before entering a level (a bit like in Battle Chasers Nightwar)
• The level of difficulty of the game will be similar to Darksiders 1, not super hard
• The end of Darksiders Genesis will lead to Darksiders 1
• Airship Syndicate is targeting a 15 hours length game and more to complete it at 100%
• No DLC planned for Darksiders Genesis
• Darksiders Genesis will include an "arena" mode
• Strife will be able to find up to 7 different ammo types
• Darksiders Genesis release date is planned for this winter 2019
• Release price should be around 40$

Let's wrap up this update with a small photo gallery of Joe at E3 and the great team at Airship Syndicates!
For the record, Game informer did a nice Airship Syndicate tour of the studio! Have a look! I hope that you enjoyed that "as much complete as I could" summary about Darksiders Genesis.
Don't hesitate to leave me a comment on twitter or in the Facebook group (See links at the top)
Stay tuned and happy summer holidays to all of you!

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #39
Old and obscure stuff!

As you probably know the E3 game show is right around the corner (June 11-13 at Los Angeles). Chances are very good that the second game of Airship Syndicate will be unveiled during the event... and this game may be... Darksiders Genesis! While all this has yet to be confirmed, what is certain is that Darksiders Genesis will be revealed by THQ Nordic at this E3 2019! In addition to that, just a few days ago Airship Syndicate updated their twitter banner with a dark art of some Demons and fallen angels as you can see below... coincidence?:

Something not related and totaly different now, another cool thing that I didn't see coming is that the previously revealed "X-Men Gambit and Rogue art" done as a kickstarter backer reward will be also used as an official marvel comic cover for the upcoming (07/24/2019) "HOUSE OF X #1"! If you are interested by that variant cover, I recommend you to preorder it since that cover is 1:50! And for this month update I decided to pick here and there some old and sometimes obscure arts that Joe Madureira did. I apologize in advance for the quality or size of them. This is the best that I was able to find and get. That being said the never released Battle Chasers #10 cover is really nice, I hope that we will see that issue for real before the end of the year!

Random old and obscure arts from the 90s by Joe Madureira:
That's all for this month, stay tune for more after the E3 ;)

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #38
Inhuman 1 part 1!

Let's focus this update on the Inhuman #1 comic, the latest comic series that Joe Madureira worked on before jumping on Battle Chasers NightWar. For the record, Battle Chasers (the comic) is still planned but no date was announced yet.

For this month update, I don't have any recent sketch or art to share with you but I have something else, something a bit old and a bit special too. You all know that Joe is rather quiet, but in April 2013, Joe took his pen and wrote a long post intended in particular to Artists. That post is still accurate nowadays and will probably remain accurate for ages. So if you've never red it then I do encourage you to read it even if you aren't an artist yourself.

But since I know that some of you are more interested in "the product" then becoming "a producer" then ok!

Here are the first pencil pages of Inhuman #1:
Also, here is a little extra: I added to the site that beautiful "pencil variant page" of Avenging Spider-Man #1; Note: That one is one of my favorite pages of that comic! The black web zones are white on the original pencil page but here, panted in black the contrast is higher and the art look even stronger! Love it!

That's all for the arts but I let you know enjoy this very long and unique post from joe:

source: Joe Madureira post on Facebook (April 26, 2013)
I hope that those words will help some of you. One personal side note to that post and in particular about that last "BIG ONE": That big advice is aligned with the values that you can find in the speeches of some fantastic motivational speakers. If you haven't heard any, I do encourage you to correct that. Search for some speeches by Eric Thomas or Greg Plitt(RIP) those guys can inspire you.

Sorry for that difference but that last advice also means a lot to me and also because I know many great artists that will recognize themselves into those words.

I will now wrap up that update with that quote by Greg Plitt:

"Even if you fail, you get back up... and you continue to try and fail ,continue to try and fail... and ensuring you never fail to try".

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #37
Ultimates 3 issue #2 part 2!

After the formidable "Gambit and Rogue" art that Joe Madureira did for a Kickstarter backer, no new kickstarter reward has been unfortunately revealed... however, Joe shared the preliminary sketches he did for that beautiful art! Enjoy!

Joe has also shared a "lost" Gully sketch that he did during the production of Battle Chasers Nightwar: Note: I say "lost" because Joe said that he found that one on his phone while scrolling back lol. I'm certain that Joe has many arts and sketches here and there waiting to be revealed lol ;).

Apart those recent news, here is the part 2 of the pages for the Ultimates 3 issue #2 comic:
And to complete this update here are 2 art studies done back in the days:

I keep my fingers crossed to discover many cool new JoeMadArts soon!

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #36
New cool arts: Unnatural cover, Kickstarter sketches and more!

3 years already! Each additional year that JoeMAdArt.com lives on make me so happy and proud. I hope that things will go on for many years and that the best has yet to come! I know there's no connection to that but I have many cool things to cover in that update! ... just as if it was a birthday present ;).

OK so let's start with that beautiful UNNATURAL #8 variant cover that Joe Madureira did for Mirka Andolfo in collaboration with Grace Liu.
Coming just next is that Gambit and Rogue art that did a nice buzz on twitter!:
Another Kickstarter Backer art was revealed just a few days later, a Joker head sketch:
But that's not all! Udon Entertainment on its side announced the release of a 2nd edition of The art of Darksiders and Darksiders 2 in addition to The art of Darksiders III HARDCOVER. While the cover of The art of Darksiders III was done by Edwin Huang (lines) and Gonzalo Ordoñez aka GENZOMAN (colors) the artbook for the first Darksiders get an alternate cover compared to the first edition with the reuse of a key art of the first game by Joe Madureira.
All those who missed the very expensive 1st editions can now buy them for 50$ each! Go grab them!

Something else now that I didn't see coming is the announcement of an official 7" Batman Black and White Limited Edition Statue (5000 units) Based on the DC Comics "Justice League Rebirth #1 variant cover" that Joe did in 2016. That statue was revealed during New York Toy Fair 2019. It was sculpted by Paul Harding (HardingStudios) and painted by Michael Cowart. (Release date: November 2019 / Price: 62-80$)
Here is the original pencil cover used as the reference for that Batman statue:
You can buy that DC Collectibles Batman Black & White: Batman by Joe Madureira Statue on Amazon.

That's all for the news but that only the beginning for the regular monthly addition of arts to JoeMadArt.com!
And since that update is a bit special I decided to share some really good stuff!

Let's start with 2 Battle Chasers Nightwar art updates:
Let's continue with some more Battle Chasers Nightwar arts:
And to wrap up that special update, let me share with you the final pieces of art that Arnold Tsang sent to me!
Thank you Arnold!

Have a look in particular to that Thundercats and Darkstalkers comic covers in HD!
Until next time!

@Ulkhror

JoeMadArt.com update #35
Ultimates 3 issue #2 part 1!

Let's start this year 2019 with one of my favorite comic that Joe Madureira did: The Ultimates 3!
I really love all the great poses and expressions in that comic!

Here are the first 11 pages of the issue #2 with lines by Joe Madureira and colors by Christian Lichtner: Note: if you have the pencil version of that double pages 02-03 with Spidey, please let me know! ;)

OK, that's all for that first update of 2019.
While I would like to share more arts and news about Joe, I have to admit that during the last few months Joe and Airship were very quiet... I really hope that this year will be more dynamic. I keep my fingers crossed that we will see Battle Chasers #10 and maybe the new game Airship Syndicate is working on!?

Anyway, there's still one cool thing that has been announced in December: Joe will do a variant cover for UNNATURAL #8, the comic of Mirka Andolfo. No image has been revealed yet but Mirka said that the cover was finished already and that it will be revealed "Sooooon ;)". The release date is planned for March 6, 2019.

I expect a lot from this year! Fingers crossed!
Talk soon!

@Ulkhror