Ectokid is a fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series published by Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

' Razorline

Razorline

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...

 imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

, created by filmmaker and horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

/fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 novelist Clive Barker

Clive Barker

Clive Barker is an English author, film director and visual artist best known for his work in both fantasy and horror fiction. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories which established him as a leading young horror writer...

.

Publication history

Ectokid ran nine issues (Sept. 1993 - May 1994) before being discontinued with the rest of the Razorline titles. The art for all nine issues was by penciller

Penciller

A penciller is an artist who works in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms.The penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and may require several steps of feedback with the writer. These artists are concerned with layout to showcase...

 Steve Skroce

Steve Skroce

Steve Skroce is a Canadian comic book and movie storyboard artist. He is of Croatian origin.-Biography:Skroce broke into comics in 1993 on the Clive Barker series Ectokid for Marvel Comics' Razorline imprint. He went to work on the Marvel series Cable and X-Man before moving onto The Amazing...

 and inker

Inker

The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...

 Bob Dvorak. The writing was split between James Robinson (issues #1-3) and Larry Wachowski (issues #3-9), future co-creator of The Matrix

The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...

film trilogy. Although uncredited, Wachowski's brother and filmmaking partner Andy Wachowski co-wrote with him.

Though carrying the Comics Code seal, Ectokid and the other Razorline titles were often racked with horror and unrated comics, a factor that entered into the imprint's demise. A subsequent one-shot, Ektokid Unleashed (Oct. 1994), was written by Dan Abnett

Dan Abnett

Dan Abnett is a British comic book writer and novelist. He is a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and is known for his work on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since the 1990s, including 2000 AD...

 and Andy Lanning

Andy Lanning

Andy Lanning is a British comic book writer and inker, known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and for his collaboration with Dan Abnett.-Career:Lanning works primarily at Marvel Comics and DC Comics as an inker...

, with artwork by penciler Hector Gomez

Héctor Gómez

Héctor Alexis Gómez is a major league baseball shortstop currently on the Colorado Rockies active roster....

 and inker John Strangeland. It included a prose short story starring another Razorline character, Saint Sinner

Saint Sinner (comics)

Saint Sinner is a horror/fantasy comic book published by Marvel Comics as a part of the Razorline imprint. All of the Razorline titles were creations of horror/fantasy writer and filmmaker Clive Barker and he described the series as "Saint Sinner is just a wild one, the series which hopefully will...

, written by Elaine Lee

Elaine Lee

Elaine Lee is an American actor, playwright, comic book colorist and comic book writer.-Theatre:She received a 1980 Daytime EMMY nomination for her role on NBC-TV’s The Doctors and was a founding member and artistic director of Manhattan-based theatre company, Wild Hair Productions.Wild Hair began...

.

Fictional character biography

Ectokid is centered around 14-year-old Dextor Mungo, whose father was a ghost. Dex, as he is called, sees the world as it normally is through his right eye, but through his left he can see into the Ectosphere, a dimension similar to Earth but with a number of crucial differences. All the regular-Earth buildings are in the same places, but have a crusted and coral-covered appearance, and this world is populated by creatures and races out of myths, legends and nightmares.

As Barker described, "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".