Author: Ethan Nicolle

Hey Head Choppers,

It's been strange not updating.  It's as much a highlight of my day putting up a new page as it is for you.  I took last week off after I had been working day and night on getting everything done for the Dark Horse book.

Malachai has noticed the change in pace too.  He has been calling me more than ever.  For the first time I have a wealth of material, rather than a scarce supply. 

Most of you who have been following know that in May/June I spent a month with Malachai writing a whole new Axe Cop story that will be the 3-part miniseries that we release via Dark Horse Comics in full color.  The series is tentatively titled “BAD GUY EARTH” and it's all sorts of crazy.  I took pages and pages of notes and sketches during that month with Malachai.  We had good guys days, where we pretended to be good guys.  We had bad guy days where we pretended to be bad guys.  We had car chase days, where we set up a toy city in his room and acted out a car chase.  We had aliens VS. Dinosaur days.  Time travel battles.  It was a ton of fun, but as much as I tried to keep Malachai on one path so that I could get a complete story out of him, he went off on all sorts of rabbit trails.

So over this last week, I have been sifting through all those notes and organizing them into an outline.  I just finished that outline and it's so epic.  The difference between this story and the Ultimate Battle is that the Ultimate Battle was written bit by bit and we had no idea what the end was going to be.  BAD GUY EARTH we wrote in a different way.  I set out to fill in all the blanks I needed to make a complete story from the get go.  I took the concept of the one page Axe Cop story and applied it to a three issue miniseries.  It has been often noted that more stuff happens in one page of Axe Cop then in one issue of most comics because it moves so dang fast.  Well, this new 66+ page story has SO MUCH in it that it will feel like you just read the Lord of the Rings when you are done. 

The other cool thing about having all this material from that month with Malachai is that I now have a bunch of left overs I can use for other stuff.  We basically did a massive month long brain storm session.  I have a couple more “Axe Cop Presents” stories, some Ask Axe Cop material, and some other adventures to share when the time is right. 

Expect something next week.  Either an Ask Axe Cop or a new Axe Cop Presents.  My goal will be to do something at least weekly on this site from here on out.  Thanks for your enthusiastic support and for giving me one of the coolest jobs on earth.  Time to draw this crazy book!

Ethan

The last page of the Ultimate Battle is here!

No, this is not the end of Axe Cop.  This is the end of THIS story.  As I mentioned a few blogs back, I am stopping here for a bit.  I will be switching gears to start working on that Dark Horse exclusive-to-print mini-series.  Remember when I went and spent a month with Malachai and we were writing some new story?  Well, that's what I am going to draw next.  The bad news for you poor people is it will not be online for free, it will be in stores in a book, and in color, for money.  As a man who has always preferred print comics to web comics it was a deal I couldn't resist, and since I actually get paid something for the print comics it made even more irresistable.

Is this the end of Axe Cop online?!??!  No way Jose.  But Axe Cop online will not be a 5-updates a week web comic for a while.  Ask Axe Cop will remain an exclusively online thing.  It is my goal to do at least 100 Ask Axe Cops, so you still have over 50 left of that.  I also want to explore doing some short stories with Malachai on line, a little more similar to the first five episodes of Axe Cop.  Maybe try to do some side-stories based on supporting characters like Sockarang and Ralph Wrinkles.  There is still a lot of explorng to do in the Axe Cop world.

I am going to take a break for a week or two then I will be diving into the new book and I will try to do at least one update a week here on the site.  I want to do two updates, but we'll just have to see how much I can do while I am still working on the miniseries and trying to meet deadlines.  The miniseries will be a 3-part story that will be another unique adventure in the Axe Cop universe.  It is something Malachai and I did a full month of work brainstorming and playing guns and goofing off to create.  I think I will probably have to go spend another couple weeks with him to refine it a bit, but in general it's the most epic thing we have come up with.  I can't wait to put it to paper for you guys.  

So, please stick around, join the forum, visit the Facebook page and I will keep things coming as soon as I can.  Thanks for faithfully reading Axe Cop and for sharing it with your friends and making all this possible.

Ethan

James, John and Ethan talk about Episodes 29, 30, 31 and Ask Axe Cop 18 and 19. Great stuff!

CHOP! 11 – Fishy Fish Makes A Cute Zombie

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Second to last page everybody!

I don't really have a whole lot to say except I thought you guys would have more plot holes for me to fill then you did in the comments in the blog post I put up recently.  There has to be more loose ends than that!  See you tomorrow on the last page!

Ethan

Not a lot of panels, but a lot happening in today's page…

Now I have a little public apology here.  Last week in the comments on one of the blogs, an Axe Cop reader named Keisha brought up some PC issued she had with the movie Scott Pilgrim and I kind of went off on her.  It's a subject I am a little bit passionate about and it had been kind of building up in me, and I sort of took it out on her.  I do need to be more sensitive to people when they are sensitive about things that I am not sensitive about.  Keisha, I apologize because I know you didn't come to AxeCop.com to get lectured by me.  Anyway, Keisha was saying she feels under-reresented in modern culture because she is bi-south asian and female.  Now, I am not going to lie and say that she should keep her chin up and expect a bunch of movies with heroes that fit that description… but I did do my part.  Among the zombie world heroes I have included… Keisha:

Tomorrow, watch as she punches off some doody soldier's head.  Of course, now people are going to think that if they can get me to go off on them I will draw them into the comic.  This is the last one.  You have to be more creative than that.

Ethan

I have been working on the final pages for the Axe Cop book all weekend and just turned them in at 5am this morning.  I was so relieved I almost forgot to post today's page:

You can consider this finale week.  Thursday will be the last episode, then I'll take a bit of a break, then we'll start posting intermittent new Ask Axe Cop episodes and start a new story.  I was thinking it might be kind of fun to do a special “fill in the gaps” series where I take the top ten biggest questions Axe Cop fans have about plot holes in Axe Cop, and I can go over them with Malachai and fill them in.  If you have ideas for plot holes you would like to see filled (like, when did Axe Cop really get his axe?) let me know.

Ethan

And, as promised…

That's right.  The Baby Family this whole time was on a hunting trip to eat these three creatures so that they could gain these exotic powers of launching explosive eggs, cars and telephones out of their butts to help Axe Cop in the final battle.  I know it was a lot to lead up to, but it's all about the journey right?  At least Baby Man can do more than just fly when he farts now.  He can really mess some people up now!

Well, next week is the big ending.  3 more pages I believe!  Then… break time for a while.  Have an awesome weekend and I'll see you here Monday at the Ultimate BATTLE!

Ethan

Yes, Malacha went there…

Poop jokes!  It's the staple of every young man's developing sense of humor, and it's really a Nicolle family tradition.  I mean.. read just about any of my other works (Chumble Spuzz, Jesus, Sumo Poop) and you will see it “runs” in the family.  Of course, you can accuse ME of being juvenille, and it is.  But by saying that you are only saying poop is only funny to five year olds… which is exactly what Axe Cop is all about.  So rather then get all uppity today, how about you remember when you first discovered poop jokes and laugh with my brother.

On another note, I don't know that our parents know Malachai came up with this story, when he told it to me he sort of whispered it.  He knew he was being gross but he was having so much fun he couldn't stop.  What are big brothers for if now to allow their little brother to engage in poo jokes?  Telling him it's gross and inappropriate is his mom's job. 

In other news… last night's podcast fell apart .  John was not there so we were already out of whack.  James was having technical difficulties.  I was pretty preoccupied with the deadline I am trying to make… and then in the middle of the podcast, James realized he didn't push the record button.  So the 30ish people who runed in live got a private broadcast.  We'll give it another go next Wednesday!  See you tomorrow… we have a jillion doody's to defeat!

Ethan

How do you defeat a Baby Head Squid with a plunger?  Better read today's page to find out…

In other news, Chris Hastings and I decided to team up on this image inspired by his awesome “LET'S GO” Moment in the Axe Cop / McNinja cross over and make it into a tshirt!

Another team up, like the print we released, I drew Axe Cop and the monster truck, then Chris drew McNinja and added the color and design elements.  It's like wearing a high five between Chris and I.

Tonight at 7:30 pacific, I THINK we will be doing the CHOP cast.  You can tune in if you would like… usually I try to interact in the chat room before the show. 

My last bit of info is something I have been sort of putting off, and it's not the greatest news, but it's not bad news.  The news is that once this chapter ends I will be taking a break for a while.  I won't actually be taking a break, but I will not be posting material for at least a week or two… then after that updates will be probably only once or twice a week while I dive into the real work of drawing the exclusive Dark Horse series.  So yes, I will be working on Axe Cop, it just won't all be going up online for free.  There will still be free stuff going up, and once I have finished the miniseries we may try to dive into another big online story arch, but for the time being, the web comics will slow down so that the Axe Cop miniseries can get made.  I know some of you will have a tough time not getting your Axe Cop fix five days a week.. .but I think that you will enjoy the delayed gratification of getting 3 monthly 22 page issues of full color Axe Cop in the most epic story yet.  Plus, paper comics is where my heart is at and I want to go back to it for a spell.  Not to mention Dark Horse pays a little better.  The Nicolle brothers've gotta eat!  (insert fat mockery here) .

So that's the news.  Also, while I really want to do some more Ask Axe Cops, right now my focus is getting this chapter done so that I can ship all the files off for the trade paperback.  So it will be all story for at least the rest of this week, but don't worry, Ask Axe Cop will be back soon.  See you tomorrow!

Ethan

As crunch time continues (and as my sweats get crunchier from sitting here and working around the clock), here is today's page…

Back to the grind!!

Ethan