Cliffhanger is an imprint of
Wildstorm Comics, published through
Image Comics. The line was made for young writers and artists in the comic business to create their own projects, over which they had full control. The first title published under the Cliffhanger banner was
J. Scott Campbell's
Danger Girl #1, in March 1998. This was followed in April by
Joe Madureira's
Battle Chasers. May 1998 saw the release of the first issue of
Humberto Ramos'
Crimson.
When Wildstorm Comics was bought by DC Comics in late 1998, the Cliffhanger imprint moved along with Wildstorm to DC. Fortunately, DC let the creators maintain control over their own comics.
It started off well, with three titles. Unfortunately, Danger Girl soon fell behind in the publishing schedule, since Campbell got sick for a while and was unable to draw for a while. He also spent too much time on his Playstation, which led to more delays. Issue 7 was published at the end of 2000. This means there were 7 issues published in over 30 months, while it was supposed to be an ongoing monthly series. Issue 7 was the last of the normal series, and they will continue as mini-series in the future. As strange as it may sound, the title maintains to be one of the top sellers, whenever an issue is published.
Joe Madureira's Battle Chasers awaited the same fate as Danger Girl. Madureira too spent too much time playing on his Playstation and all sorts of things except drawing his comic. To date only 6 or 7 issues have been published. Madureira is a very funny guy, since he now wants to move back to Image Comics, and make Battle Chasers a montly series again. Nobody takes him serious about that last part, but J. Scott Campbell made it clear that he wants to follow Madureira to Image Comics. Just as with Danger Girl, each issue sells extremely well, even though new issues hardly ever see the light of day.
The third title, Crimson, had a better publishing schedule then the other two. After little more then two years, the series has ended with issue 24, and Humberto Ramos is currently busy working on a new title for Cliffhanger. While Crimson wasn't such a huge success as Danger Girl and Battle Chasers, the title had a loyal fanbase.
A fourth title was added over the years. This was Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo's SteamPunk. Joe and Chris had learned from the other titles, and at least tried to maintain a regular publishing schedule.