Ask Axe COp number 13 shows us what Axe COp might have in common with Howard Hughs.  If you didn't read the blog a couple days ago, just remember that the new Axe Cop format is a new Axe COp episode every day.   A new story episode on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and a new Ask Axe COp on Tuesday and Thursday. 

Things have been crazy here.  I thought the frenzy had ended a week or two ago, but yesterday we had our highest recorded numbers ever and I have had a second wave of fancy people with brief cases emailing me and calling me this week.  Axe Cop!!

Ethan

The day I drew and posted Ask Axe Cop 8, a star was born.  We found out that Axe Cop has a pet Tyranosaurus Rex named Wexter who has robot machine gun arms.  He breathes fire and has a super-duper fast bite.

There was an image in that episode that has had a greater response than any other image in an Axe Cop yet.  It is an image that, I didn't honestly even realize at the time, summed up manliness and the 5 year old boy's imagination all in one drawing… It was the image of Axe Cop riding Wexter to the moon to fight bad guys:

I decided I want to enlarge this image and color it.  Offer it as a desktop at the very least… so I enlarged the small drawing from the comic and had a friend spot color it real quick and dirty.

But I was not satisfied.  I wanted to print this thing into an awesome giant poster.  I wanted the full color to be glorious.  I wanted to take time and really go in there and detail this thing.  So I decided to blow it up, then totally re-ink it at a bigger size:

Here are some close ups, comparing the old and new versions.  First, Wexter's head:

Then Axe Cop…

Then the aliens…

And because I made this image longer (to fit poster size) I added a couple more aliens.  One taking a round in the chest:

So, my next step is to add solid color to the whole image (colorists call it “flatting”) then from there start shading, lighting and all that fun stuff.  I will keep blogging my progress so you can see how it is coming, then when it is ready it will be available as a desk top, and as a poster in the store. Coloring is not my specialty but I like to give it my best shot every once in a while.

If anyone reading this is an awesome colorist and ever wants to collab on something, I am always looking for someone who is good at coloring and likes doing it.

Ethan

Hey y'all,

First off, thanks for faithfully coming to axecop.com and reading the comics, and for encouraging your friends to come.  The explosion of Axe Cop happened without the help of any publishers or commercials or promoters.  It was totally organic and word of mouth.

Of course, running a site with this traffic costs, and being able to create and produce these comics take up lots of time, so as you have noticed, we've finally got some ads up on the site.

The thing with having ads is this: you make more money where you have traffic steadily visiting your site every day.  The way we have been doing things, people come by in droves on the day the new episode is released, and many also come by when Ask Axe Cops are released.  The point is that to make the ads really work, we need to be putting up content daily.

So, I was looking at what I, a web-comic newbie, have been doing, and I have been releasing 3-page long episodes once a week on monday, then Ask Axe Cop half-pagers on wednesday and friday.  I realized that I could break that 3 pages up into three parts and release them one at a time.  It will feel different at first because you will not get the big long episodes you got before.  I will be numbering the epiodes differently too, by Episode, chapter and page.  But the point is that I will be releasing the same amount of content, but we will be able to pull more in from ad revenue this way.  I have learned since putting this site up that rule number one of a successful web comic is daily content, so I'm making the switch.

This is just to let you know we will be making this change starting tomorrow.  The new episode of the Moon Warriors will come out tomorrow around noon paciic time and it will be shorter then you are used to, but you will get 2 more pages, plus two ask axe cops throughout the week.  In the end, it gives you the same amount of content I have been shelling out, but it spreads it out.  There won't be new content on weekends but there wil be something new to see on the site 5 days a week (as long as Malachai is up for writing it that is.)

So that's what's new.  Look for the new episode of Axe Cop tomorrow.  The Moon Warriors touch down on earth. Will they get to be on Axe Cop's team?

Ethan

I was interiewed by the kind fellows at Sarcastic Voyage the other day and the episode is now up.  I think that, of the podcast interviews I have done, this one went preetty good.  Thanks for having me guys!

-Ethan

Today is the one month anniversary of AXE COP!  What an INSANE month it has been.

To celebrate… AXE COP fights Chuck Norris in today's edition of ASK AXE COP.

To all of you who have bought merch from us, here is a little behind the scenes… my dear friends Anthony and Amy Munoz are running the AXE SHOP out of their apartment.  Both of them work full time jobs but are working hard to organize this all so that I can keep updating content and we can still produce shirts.  This month has been the craziest month of my life.

living room:

office:

I have a lot more to say, but am doing a LIVE interview on SLG radio at 2pm pacific time.  If you are reading this and it is between 2 and 3 pacific today you can call in and ask questions at (646) 378-0737

Thanks to everyone for making the first month of Axe Cop so amazing.  Here's to month two!

Ethan

Ladies and Gentlmen, I give you the Moon Warriors.

This episode is a break from the norm… meaning, Axe Cop is nowhere to be found in it, but I think it still has all the charm we've come to expect from my crazy awesome little brother. 

I know I am going to get a bunch of people writing in freaking out wondering if Axe Cop will be back.  Of COURSE he will… if the hint at the end of this episode is not enough of a hint for you, then you probably were also surprised by the plot twists in Avatar and there is no hope for you.

Yesterday we released the first official Axe Cop motion comic.  Check out the blog before this one to see it.  We are hoping to turn each Axe Cop episode and each “Ask Axe Cop” into a motion comic eventually.  A big thanks to everyone who helped make the motion comic.

I am posting this episode atabout 4:30 am because I have been up all night working on it.  I have a busy day tomorrow so I would not have posted it till the evening if I had waited.  So here it is!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ethan

I am now realizing that as I started selling these sketches… this is the first time Axe Cop characters have been drawn on paper.  If you are a collector type this is your chance to own the first ever on-paper drawing of these characters.

All of the comics are drawn digitally using a Wacom tablet, and I have never done concept art or sketches for any of the characters… I just make them up on the spot in the story, and since Axe Cop has never been printed, these sketches are literally the first time these characters will be on paper.

So far someone has ordered the first Axe Cop ever (pictured above), the first Uni-Man, and the first Wexter (he got in before I made the no T-Rex rule.  I can't be drawing people T-Rexes with machine gun arms at these prices, I'll go insane).  The rest of the orders have either been more of those or digital.  So if you are a fan of Flute Cop, Sockarang (the sketch above has not been claimed yet)… basically any of the characters besides the three mentioned, this is your chance to get the first “real” drawing of them.   It will be one of a kind in that sense, and I will write on it “first ever [character] on paper” by my signature.

Sketches are available in the AXE SHOP.  And thanks to all who have already ordered

What's it take to get onto AXE COP's team?  Today we find out in a very informative ASK AXE COP #11 that is all about awesome moves.

Also, if you are into sketches, I am now selling Sketches in the AXE SHOP.  This will be for a limited time while I need the income to keep Axe Cop going while we try to cover the expenses of new merchandise and everything else involved.  Buy a sketch if you like to collect sketches, or if you want to send a little extra help our way to show support. 

Also, we are finally getting shirts shipped out, thanks for being patient with us.  If you ordered one of the newer designs it will still take a while, but we'll get you your stuff.  Thanks for buying Axe Cop stuff if you did, and for visiting the site.  You may have noticed we have some ads up now, clicking those puppies helps us too.

NO JABBERS!

-Ethan

Malachai and I were interviewed by Iain Lee on Absolute Radio in the UK. It was a lot of fun and Malachai was hilarious. You can download the podcast here. It's the February 18th show. Our interview comes in at minute 15 and is 10 minutes long and went really fast. My favorite quote from Malachai in reference to Axe Cop was “the whole world LOVES IT!”. Ethan