AxeBear

Episode 0

Axe Cop's tragic childhood. NOTE: This episode is best read in order after episode 4

Front Kick Test

Ethan Rolfe, a big fan of Axe Cop, submitted this video to us of him performing his front kick to find out if he is good or evil:
 
 
I would have liked to see Malachai do a video response to this, but I don't think that will happen this time around.  I did talk to him on the phone though, and he said that Ethan is a good guy.  Malachai did not seem at all disturbed that Ethan was practcing his kicks on little girls.  In fact it seemed to make him all that much more excited about him as a prospective crime fighter.  Malachai says Ethan could kill a bad guy with two kicks, then eat a sandwich and get real huge and smash him.  From the video Ethan does not look like a huge kid, so I guess the sandwiches he would eat to perform this move might be some sort of wizard sandwiches.  In any case… welcome to Axe Cop's team Ethan… and nice name by the way.
 
Ethan

Axe Cop Learn-Out

The new Ask Axe Cop is all about family bonding:

 

 

It would be interesting to hold a real Axe Cop learn out.  Penny Arcade has their big video game convention, we could do an annual Axe Cop learn out where we all learn awesome moves.  I really don't know how we would pull that off since Axe Cop is not a real person, and very few people would be willing to replace their arms with socks, but it is a nice dream.

 

If you haven't been in the store, well, you should because the best shirt in shirt history is now available (in my arrogant and self serving opinion).

 

Lastly, here is an updated image of that Wexter poster in the coloring process from my man Jamie:

 

More Twists Than a Bag of Twizzlers

Today's episode is now up.  The plot thickens!

 

(spoilers)  When Malachai started giving me all these plot twists to work in I knew people were going to think it was me trying to spice things up, but I swear to you this is all Malachai and it was all his idea to turn Sockarang into a villain only to reveal that he is actually Dr. Stinkyhead – te adult version of Stinko who went to school with Axe Cop as a kid.  Yes, the plot thickens!


This is a special message for GIRLS who want WEXTER SHIRTS.  Please READ:

Girls, we wanted to get you shirts so we are going this… for the next 4 days, order the Wexter girl shirt in the store and it will ship with all the others.  It will be available after that, but it could take months to get to you if you order after Sunday, March 21.  Basically, we have a lot of girls who say they want girl shirts, but they do not actually order much of them and they cost us extra so it is not worth it to order many of them because so far they don't sell well.  So every time we order a batch of shirts we will order a small amount, but basically only based on what has already been ordered.  In short… order your Wexter girl shirt by Sunday or wait a really long time. 


At the time this blog goes up the shirt will not be in the store, so keep your eyes open.  I will notify via Twitter, the blog and Facebook when they are available.

 

EDIT: Shirts are now available here.


Ethan

Sharks and T-Rexes

Today, Axe Cop says a prayer:

 

Now, to be totally honest, this was not originally an answer to an Ask Axe Cop question.  This was a genuine conversation Malachai had with me about how he would pray for the sharks, and that ending was really his ending to his prayer.  I have a truly awesome little brother.  The prayer was so awesome I decided to dig up the question from the question file and make it official.


Of course, that is not the only big news of the day.  Today we release the new WEXTER T-SHIRT DESIGN.  Check this out:

 

The new Wexter T is four colors (black, white, orange and brown) on a sand colored t-shirt .  It is now available to be ordered in the store.  As with most of our merch, patience is a virtue, though we are going to try to get this one out a little faster than others since we are a bit more caught up and the tidal wave has calmed a bit.  So please, go order your Wexter shirt!

 

And that is not all!  Here are some updated progress shots from the Wexter project, still in progress.  I got an awesome colorist, Jamie Noguchi,  to take over on coloring this piece and it is looking awesome.  This first image is a gray scale overpainting to work out the general
lighting.

this next image is just the beginnings of laying down the color, breaking the image into two pieces to conserve on file size, so starting with Axe Cop and Wexter.

 

And that is today's update.  Thanks for reading Axe Cop.  Tomorrow… why Sockarang, WHY?!

Ethan

Gettin’ Sketchy!

Finally, after a day off (thanks for being so cool about it) Axe Cop returns!


 

Been working hard packing up these prints, and I have the paper cuts to prove it.  Here they are all ready to roll out.  Thanks to everyone who bought them, and sorry about the wait!


 

…and yeah that is a pair of underwear strewn on the floor on the bottom right, but I promise they are moderately clean.  I like to roll posters au naturale.

 

Also, Sketches!  Thanks to everyone who has bought sketches, I finally have taken the time to sit and draw  most of the ones we have had ordered so far.

 

 

There are still a LOT of “first time ever on paper” characters to claim.  Avocado soldier, Telescope Gun Cop, Baby Man to name a few.  If you want to know if a character has been claimed, just email and ask.  It doesn;t cost any extra, you just have to order the characters from our store.  The sample ink skecth of Sockarang (which is his first time ever on paper) has still not been claimed, all Sockarang orders so far have been full body.


Some of you who bought pencil sketches, in absence of mind I accidentally inked your image, so a few of you got hooked up. 


Onward we go!  Malachai and I had a great writing session on Friday so I have a lot of this story locked and we should be able to keep things on schedule for the next few weeks.  Thanks for reading Axe Cop!

 

P.S. Wexter T Shirt should go on sale this week!

Delayed!

Hey friends of Axe Cop,

I do intend to get you a new episode here, but today marks my first road block in the adventure of creating a comic with a 5 year old in control.  Basically, I just don't have enough info out of Malachai to really make today's episode solid, so I do not feel like I should finish it and post it until I can get him interested in talking about it again.  I think maybe him seeing that there is no new episode up will help, but as you can imagine, he has to want to do it, or it is no fun.  Last time I called him he was engrossed in a video game and did not want to talk.


So hold tight, if I can get it figured out today and get you a new episode I will, but it will probably be up later tonight.  If not, it will probably come out on Monday.  We'll see what happens here.  Sorry for the delay but them's the rules of Axe Cop.  Once Malachai stops writing, we stop reading.


Ethan

Mother of Axe Cop’s Children

In today's Ask Axe Cop episode we find out if Axe Cop would ever have kids…

 

 

(spoilers) So I liked the timing of this comic, since we just found out about Sockarang going bad in the Axe Cop story, we now find out here how close of a friend Sockarang is to Axe Cop.  He is such a good friend that Axe Cop would marry him if he was a woman.  What I love here is how Malachai is basically turning is best friend into a wife.  He doesn't get why you need two sexes… but he figures rather than find some new girl to marry, just turn your friend into a girl.  The fact that he picked the most hideous and disturbing character out of the bunch (Sockarang) only makes it more hilarious.  We can also see that Axe Cop does not know about Sockarang's 2 new horns, so he only depicts him with the one horn in this hypothetical about having kids.


Another classic Axe Cop moment if you ask me.


Ethan

Absurdity for Absurdity’s Sake?

There is a great write up about Axe Cop over at CBR that just went up.  Apparently Axe Cop is one of the 365 Reasons to Love Comics.

 

I did what all really lame comic artists do and I was googled my own comic at 4:30am then found this article about it and joined in the discussion in the comments section.  Oh well, I felt like making my case.  I wasn't super offended or anything, but people were writing off Axe Cop as just absurdity for absurdity's sake.  Here is my response to that charge (as posted in the comments on this article):

 


ok I know it's super lame to comment on an article about your own comic, but I wanted to chime in on this for a couple reasons…

First, wow, thanks for such an awesome write up. This is one of, if not thee best write ups on Axe Cop I have seen and I love it.

Second… as the guy who draws Axe Cop, I have to say that the ironic thing about Axe Cop is that people are comparing it to all these comics I am not really into. I am not entertained by nonsense for the sake of nonsense, or absurdity for absurdity's sake. When a 32 year old draws a ninja werewolf, we all get it, he's crossing genres, being quirky, trying to make a cool t-shirt design. It's generally not my style but I can smile at it, though I did enjoy Street Angel as someone above mentioned, but for the most part these nonsense comics get old fast.

The fun of Axe Cop for me is that there IS a logic to it and the main point is not to be absurd, and that is what is fascinating to me about it, because sure, we all know kids who weave wild stories… but who sits there and asks “and then what happened?” and really digs into that world? Not that it is a genius world or a magical world, but it is just this sort of excavating of ideas where ninja werewolves are produced, but not to sell a t-shirt, not to be ironic… it's just my 5 year old brother taking what is awesome in his mind and piling it on, and combining it with what is logical in his mind. It becomes this interesting peak into a world most of us only have a vague recollection of, because most of us, when we were 5, did not have our imaginations chronicled. Most of us, when we started telling our stories, got ignored… which is fine. This is art based on a thing people often ignore… and to that extent I argue it is good art, because good art makes you notice what you grew used to not noticing. Maybe it doesn't do it for every one, but it does for many, and it does for me, and to that extent I am proud of it.

I'm not going to sit here and try to toot my own horn about how more than simply drawing pictures goes into making this comic… I've had some great defense in here and I really appreciate it. I was more surprised than anyone when this comic became as popular as it did, so it's fine if you aren't into it. But to dismiss it as absurdity for the sake of absurdity is missing the point. Malachai rarely sets out to just be absurd. To him, he is just thinking “what would be awesome?” Axe Cop is a study in 5 year old concepts of awesome and it tries to take that short attention span and limited sense of logic and force it into a world that takes itself seriously. I am not claiming it to be profound, but I am claiming to be making more than just a quirky, absurd comic that depends solely on non-sequiter. If that was all I was doing, I would not need to involve Malachai… I have my own ass to pull stuff out of. I don't think all comics should be this way, and I don't think it should go on forever… but it's a damn fun project and I'm thrilled so many people are enjoying it as much as I am.

Thanks again for the great article.

Ethan Nicolle


 

So there you have it.  I'd love to hear more opinions on this.  This whole Axe Cop ride has been fascinating for me… I am constantly suprised where these characters end up.  I mean, I do love abusrd humor but I never set out to make abusrdity my one trick.  Do you think I'm fooling myself? 

 

Ethan