Clive Barker’s imagination has always seemed pretty limitless, and he has also left an indelible mark on just about any genre or medium that he’s turned his mind to.

That said, his Marvel comics imprint, Razorline, was unfortunately short-lived; it was primarily a victim of a downturn in the comics market, after publishers big and small had been largely driving their sales by attracting collectors and speculators, only for the bubble to spectacularly burst.

It’s a real shame, because in Razorline: First Cut #1, Barker himself writes an introduction to the entire Razorline comics range, hinting at many more to come and also the fact that there are deeper connections to the titles than may at first be apparent.

He then introduces the story samples with a very well written synopsis of each title’s concept, and really sells them in a way that, perhaps sadly, transcends the snippets of each that we get. Each set of sample pages is followed by a further pitch, by a creator involved with the actual writing of each comic (though Barker wrote the concepts of every Razorline title, he handed the reins to other writers and artists to create each issue).

First up is Hokum & Hex, which Barker himself describes in his introduction as “…Doctor Strange meets the Comedy Channel meets Aliens”. The problem with our preview here is that we don’t even get to meet the protagonist of the comic, not (barring one panel of slapstick that feels very out of place) do we get any sense of the fun or comedy that Barker promises.

Next is Saint Sinner, which has a bafflingly intricate introduction and a frankly confusing few pages to sample, with an outro by the series writer that doesn’t do much to explain what we’ve just witnessed. It’s something that definitely requires more than the few pages here to grasp, in any case.

Hyperkind is exactly what you’d expect X-Men to be like if Clive Barker ever got his hands on it. Of all the four samples here, it’s perhaps the most obviously ‘of-its-time’ piece, both in terms of its concept and its art. Each element places Hyperkind very firmly in the 90s, whereas the other Razorline titles, art and colouring aside, could quite easily slot into just about any other modern era of comics.

Finally there’s Ectokid, which I’ve already reviewed the first issue of. It’s an intriguing teen drama/superhero title with supernatural elements; these days, it’s perhaps most well known for being the first professional work of the Wachowskis, who went on to create The Matrix (with Ectokid artist Steve Skroce providing concept art for their films too). Lana Wachowski, credited under her deadname, even writes the outro text for the Ectokid chapter in Razorline: First Cut #1.

Though the few pages we get of each comic aren’t nearly enough, it almost doesn’t matter, as Barker’s enthusiastic, characteristically beautiful prose does a great job of selling each title to the reader.

Razorline seems like a great, ambitious idea for a comics imprint that was, perhaps, doomed to failure in an era where style far outweighed substance, and gimmick covers were the order of the day (the Razorline comics weren’t immune to this; Ectokid #1, for example, has an embossed foil cover). Yet what I’ve seen of the imprint and its titles so far have made me sad that it didn’t really get a chance to expand and truly deliver on the promises of the so-called ‘Barkerverse’; ten titles were planned, but only nine issues (at most) of each of the four titles featured in Razorline: First Cut #1 were published, and none of Barker’s other planned titles made it to print.

It’s a tantalising ‘what if’, and though the artwork and even writing style may be dated by contemporary standards, I’d still love to see the work that was already completed and never saw the light of day. Who knows? Stranger things have happened…

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