He left Uncanny X-Men in 1997 to work on his own series Battle Chasers for Wildstorm Comics’ creator-owned Cliffhanger imprint. Joe then went on to work in the video game industry. Starting with the start-up company Tri-Lunar, he created concept art on a game called Dragonkind which was canceled when Tri-Lunar went out of business. He then went to work for Realm Interactive, another start-up company, on Trade Wars: Dark Millennium. When Realm Interactive was acquired by NCsoft, he continued to contribute to the game as it evolved into Exarch, and was eventually released as Dungeon Runners. During this time, he would occasionally contribute cover artwork for gaming magazines and comic books.

Madureira returned to the comic book industry as the artist on Marvel’s The Ultimates 3, with writer Jeph Loeb. After leaving NCsoft, Madureira founded Vigil Games with several other ex-NCsoft employees. Vigil was acquired by THQ in March 2006. Madureira was dubbed one of the ten most influential comic artists of all time in the May 2002 issue of Wizard magazine. His inclusion was instantly contested by many comic book readers, as this list did not include many artists who are considered to have had a far more profound influence on the comics industry over a much longer period of time. Dreamwave Productions founder Pat Lee claimed of Madureira, “When people think of the late ’90s in comics, they will think of Joe Madureira.”

Madureira remarked his 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 run on X-Men helped fuel interest in the United States towards Japanese entertainment during the late 1990s.

Check out his breathtaking and stylized work at a comic shop near you!