Wildstorm Cliffhanger Sketchbook #0
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Wildstorm Cliffhanger Sketchbook #0 served as the public debut of the Cliffhanger imprint — the creator-owned wing of WildStorm Productions that Jim Lee assembled around three of the most in-demand young artists of the late 1990s. Because it arrived ahead of any of the imprint's regular series, it gave readers their first published look at the characters and visual worlds of Battle Chasers, Danger Girl, and Crimson simultaneously, making it the single document that announced a new chapter for creator-owned art-driven comics within the Image ecosystem. The Wizard World Chicago exclusive variant adds a convention-artifact dimension, preserving the moment the imprint was physically launched in front of a live collector audience. Though modest in page count, the sketchbook captured a genuine inflection point: three creator-owned properties, each destined to become a defining artifact of late-'90s comics culture, gathered in one promotional package before any of them had shipped a single regular issue.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Cliffhanger was founded in 1998 by Joe Madureira, J. Scott Campbell, and Humberto Ramos as a creator-owned imprint operating under WildStorm Productions, at the time still part of Image Comics. Jim Lee, eager to platform a new generation of superstar artists without folding them into the more retro-styled Homage Comics line, brokered the arrangement and Wizard Magazine — then the dominant trade publication of the direct market — served as a co-promotional partner, distributing the sketchbook as a supplement tied to its coverage. The book exists in at least two distinct editions: a standard version inserted into Wizard Magazine issue #79, and a Wizard World Chicago convention-exclusive variant, both featuring black-and-white sketch art on slick paper stock. The imprint itself was announced in Wizard #77 (January 1998), meaning the sketchbook arrived in the immediate wake of that announcement as a tangible preview artifact.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published by WildStorm/Image Comics in 1997–1998 as a promotional sketchbook in partnership with Wizard Entertainment.
- Founded by Joe Madureira, J. Scott Campbell, and Humberto Ramos, Cliffhanger was a creator-owned imprint of WildStorm Productions, intentionally separate from the shared Wildstorm Universe continuity.
- The sketchbook features black-and-white sketch art across approximately 16 pages on slick paper stock, spotlighting all three founding titles: Battle Chasers (Madureira), Danger Girl (Campbell), and Crimson (Ramos).
- Cover art depicts three characters that would become defining figures of those series: J. Scott Campbell's Sydney Savage, Joe Madureira's Red Monika, and Humberto Ramos's Scarlet X.
- A standard edition was distributed as a special supplement inserted into Wizard: The Comics Magazine #79; a separate Wizard World Chicago convention-exclusive edition also exists.
- Some sellers and databases characterize this issue as containing the first published appearance of Danger Girl characters, predating Campbell's Danger Girl #1 (March 1998).
- The Cliffhanger imprint officially launched its first regular series — Danger Girl — in March 1998, followed by Battle Chasers in April and Crimson in May 1998.
- The Cliffhanger imprint ran until 2004, when it was merged with Homage Comics to form the WildStorm Signature Series.
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