| Industry | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Genre | Superhero |
| Founded | 1993 (launch) |
| Founder(s) | Clive Barker |
| Key people | Clive Barker Marcus McLaurin |
| Products | Comics |
| Parent | Marvel Comics |
Razorline was an imprint of American comic book company Marvel Comics that ran from 1993-1995. It was created by filmmaker and horror/fantasy novelist Clive Barker, with its characters existing in one of the many alternate universes outside the mainstream continuity known as the Marvel Universe.
Contents |
The Razorline imprint consisted of four interrelated titles, based on Barker's detailed premises, titles and lead characters. These were:
Marcus McLaurin was the editor. The four titles were preceded by a one-shot sampler: Razorline: First Cut.
As Barker described:
I wanted to do a superhero comic, something which would be my take on what superheroes were going to be like in the '90s... Hyperkind fell into that category. I wanted to do something that was magical and mystical in the way that Doctor Strange was and still is. Doctor Strange was one of my favourite comics from when I was a kid. So I suppose Hokum & Hex is my take on that. Ectokid, which is perhaps the second weirdest of the bunch, is a kind of dream story for the 15-year-old that's still alive to me — the tale of an adolescent who lives in two worlds and has access to a whole other sphere of reality. And Saint Sinner is just a wild one, the series which hopefully will press the limits of what comics can do.[1]
In 2005, the appendix page of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe one-shot involving alternate universes revealed that the Earth of the Razorline imprint is designated "Earth-45828". Relatively real-world, without other superheroes, it includes Marvel Comics as a comic-book publisher, with Razorline characters making references to "X-Men comics" and to Marvel editor Stan Lee's Fantastic Four writing.
Although two titles were superhero series and all were released with a Comics Code seal, they were often racked with horror and unrated comics, a factor that entered into the Razorline's short run of seven to nine issues each.
Two one-shots followed: Hyperkind Unleashed (which included a "Hokum & Hex" prose short story) and Ektokid Unleashed (which included a "Saint Sinner" prose short story).
Before the cancellations, several issues of four subsequent series were in various stages of completion: Wraitheart[2] (written by Frank Lovece, art by Hector Gomez),[3][4][5] Schizm (written by Fred Burke), Mode Extreme[2] (written by Sarah Byam), and Fusion Force.[2] These were to have begun blending the Razorline into primary Marvel continuity; Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents including Jimmy Woo, for instance, guest-starred in Wraitheart #5; the Punisher was to have guest-starred in "Mode Extreme" #5.
A 2002 Barker telefilm titled Saint Sinner bore no relation to the comic. "I was always disappointed with the way that Marvel handled that entire line of comics, particularly Saint Sinner. I thought that's a waste of a good title. It was something that called for finding a new life in some way or another".[6]
Clive Barker: "I loved many of the Razorline characters, and it was always a sadness to me that our work in the medium was ill-timed. As you probably know, the Razorline material was produced at a time when the comics industry was about to go through one of its worst shake-ups. Marvel almost disappeared entirely. Razorline was a victim of Marvel's downsizing. Very sad".[7]
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