Merge:Joe Madureira

Jose Madureira (born December 3, 1974, in Philadelphia. Surname pronounced /mædərærə/), often simply called Joe Mad!, is an American comic book artist and writer, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' Uncanny X-Men and his creator-owned comic book Battle Chasers.

Biography
In 1991, Marvel hired Madureira as an intern at the age of 16. His first published work was an eight-page story for the anthology series Marvel Comics Presents, starring Northstar. In the next few years, Madureira completed various assignments for Marvel's sprawling X-Men franchise. He became the regular penciller on Uncanny X-Men in 1994 and soon rose to become one of the most popular artists in the industry. As the Uncanny X-Men artist, Madureira designed the Age of Apocalypse uniforms, new manga-inspired costumes for the regular title (after Onslaught), as well as the Avengers' brief new designs after The Crossing.

He left Uncanny X-Men in 1997 to work on his own series Battle Chasers for Wildstorm Comics' creator-owned Cliffhanger imprint (before it was sold to DC Comics). Nine issues of the constantly behind schedule comic were released. The number 10 was announced but was finally never published. Joe Madureira gave up publishing it because this number was the first part of a new cycle which he would not have been able to end given his new activities. Joe then went on to work for the video game industry. Starting with the start-up company Tri-Lunar, he created concept art on a game called Dragonkind which was cancelled when Tri-Lunar folded. He then went on to work for NC Soft, on two games, Exarch (which was also cancelled) and Dungeon Runners. During this time, he would occasionally contribute cover artwork for gaming magazines and comic books.

In early August 2005 it was revealed that Madureira would return to the comic industry, working on The Ultimates Volume 3 with Jeph Loeb for Marvel Comics. 

Impact
Madureira was dubbed one of the ten most influential comic artists of all time in the May 2002 issue of Wizard magazine. This position was instantly contested by many comic book readers, for this list didn't included many artists who had a profound influence on the comics industry for a much longer time than Joe Madureira (for example: Hergé, Moebius, Katsuhiro Otomo, etc.). Dreamwave Productions founder Pat Lee said of Madureira, "when people think of the late '90s in comics, they will think of Joe Madureira."

Inspirations
Madureira remarked early style was heavily influenced by Arthur Adams in an interview with Wizard Magazine. But his style evolved into one more influenced by manga and anime. In interviews Madureira has mentioned that series such as Ghost in the Shell and Bastard! are among his favorites. His popular run on X-Men helped fuel the growing interest in Japanese entertainment during the late 1990s.

Selected bibliography

 * Uncanny X-Men (Marvel Comics)
 * Battle Chasers #0, #1–9 (Cliffhanger, Image Comics, 1998–2001)