Author: Ethan Nicolle

Your new page is here, the Ultimate Battle is upon us:

This week is my big deadline to get all the comic pages down for the Axe Cop web collection.  It collects everything to the end of the Ultimate Battle, so I really need to finish drawing that thing.

I would also like to take a moment to mention Scott Pilgrim VS. the World.  Apparentlyt it bombed, and it didn't deserve it, because it was a truly brillinat, hilarious and super fun movie.  I encourage those who have not seen it to go see it, if you have seen it, go again.  I have to admit, I really want Edgar Wright to succeed for a couple of reasons… for one this movie is awesome, and he is possibly my favorite comedic director alive today… and also because I really want him to direct the Axe Cop movie.  There I said it!  And no, there is no Axe Cop movie even optioned right now, but hypothetically speaking, if you watch Scott Pilgrim I think you'll see that Wright could do amazng justice to the Axey-verse.  There's a lot of great directors out there to be sure, I was just inspired when I came out of Scott Pilgrim.

lastly, if you have not seen the new Axe Cop Motion Comic, you should!!  It turned out so awesome, the guys who work on these deserve tons of praise for the work they do. 

Alright!  Back to work!!

-Ethan

Instead of a new page today you get a new motion comic!  This is Axe Cop episode 3.  It's the story Malachai and I were working on in the video I put online last Christmas.  If you have not seen that yet, you should watch it first:

I've been out of town since Friday to go to a friend's wedding up in Oregon.  I'll be visiting the boss (Malachai) for a couple days (in fact when you read this I will be with him and the family).  The pages are set to update each day this week,  but I won't be updating the blog with each page update.  Kind of pointless anyway.  If I have somethhing interesting to blog about I'll do it, but otherwise, just click that big picture up there where the most recent update is clearly shown.  I'll be back just in time for my Mindshare appearance on Thursday.

Ethan

Baby Man and Baby Daddy, the Egg fight continues…

Not much else to say today!  So… See ya tomorrow!

Ethan

It's been quite a while since I posted the last Ask Axe Cop episode… and the last couple have been mash ups.  Finally, we're back to a good old fashioned Ask Axe Cop episode about what the best job is:

I laughed all night long at this episode.  I think that the Bat Warthog is the most terrifying animal someone could imagine.  If you are one of the people who bought my Sketchbook volume 2 you will see a couple of bat warthog sketches in there from my time with Malachai recently.  I asked him to go through some animal books I brought him and come up with cool combinations of animals.  The only combination he came up with was the Bat Warthog.  He was convinced he had found the most awesome animal combo and had no need to look any further.  If you have not ordered my Sketch Book you should.  It will only be available for a little while longer online and I'll draw a sketch in it for you. 

Other than that, be sure to read yesterday's blog if you missed it to see new merch in the store, including an Axe Cop and Dr. McNinja print, and if you live in the L.A. area you can come see me next Thursday.  That's all for now!

Ethan

Lots to announce, but first let's see what's happening on Zombie World:

I really liked that episode.  I hope you did too.  And now this…

Now, if you live in the Los Angeles area, next Thursday night I will be giving a presentation on Axe Cop at Mindshare LA.  If all goes as planned I will be debuting the new motion comic there of episode 3 and I will go into the process of making comics with Malachai and the Axe Cop journey.  It's a 21 and over open bar event.  I should be selling some of my sketch books and Axe Cop merch there as well.

Also, in the Topatoco store we have some new merch in the store!  First there is the Axe Cop and McNinja on a team 18 x 24 print illustrated and colored by both Chris Hastings and myself:

Then there are now wall poster versions of these two popular Axe Cop images.  The Michael Maher painting is 18 x 24:

and the HUGE 22 x 39 inch Wexter on the Moon poster:

In case you are wonderng, the prints we have been selling in the art shop are high quality gallery quality prints made for framing.  The posters above are more like movie poster print quality.  If you are looking for something to tape up buy these, if you are looking for something to frame, buy the prints in the Axe Cop art shop.

Also… check it out, Blair Butler reviews the Axe Cop “Axe Can” from Comic Con on her Fresh Ink podcast:

And that's all for today!  By the way… a McNinja/Axe Cop tee shirt is on it's way also, designed and drawn by both Hastings and I, and it's awesome.  See you tomorrow when I MAY have an Ask Axe Cop episode for you.  If not, you'll at least get the next page of the Ultimate Battle.  See you then!

Ethan

Today is a special day because the Ultimate Battle (or as I refer to it, TUB) finally continues.  It is also a special day because the winner of our limerick contest dies in this episode.

Yes, his name is Andrew Wilkinson and he submitted the most original limerick in the sea of great limericks that were submitted.  His stood out because it was made up entirely of sound effects from Axe Cop.  The rhyme scheme all works and it's pretty fun to recite once you get the hang of it:

Spear impale foomp lop chop bachow
Rustle quack chuck scoop chormp eat kpow
Shoonk shink pok jab shpt phbt
Hitch thud sock fizzle phbbbt
Twirl shiv rumble plop stab chalk chpow

Congrats Andrew, and may your artoon likeness rest in peace.  See you all tomorrow as the story continues of Planet Zombie World!

Ethan

So… you may have noticed I didn't blog this morning when the episode went up.  I mean, I guess I don't really have to.  But my excuse is that I actually did all the updates from my Droid phone whilst still laying in bed.  To be precise, I house sat for Doug T last night and was laying in there playing with my phone and everything worked to update except the blog.  But… here it is in case you are one of the 12 people who reads the blog…

Yep, the last page of the story.  It started out as a one page idea for a guest strip and exploded into a 10 page, 2 week event.  It was a lot of fun.  As someone who has great love for both comics I have to say that while both does their own thing well, they are a great match up and I'd love to see Axey hit that button again some day when he really needs ninja or medical help (or a combination of both).

Well, the weekend is here.  Thanks to this cross over I have been able to get a week ahead of schedule, which is a great feeling!  Up to that point I was basically finished every page on the day I posted it up.  Let's see how well I can stay ahead here.  See you Monday… the Ultimate Battle continues!

Ethan

It's the second to last page of the big cross over, enjoy!

Some people were  a little concerned about the blatant product placement in yesterday's episode.  All I can say is we reallly don't have much to gain at this point trying to force the book on people when it won't be out for months.  Malachai simply desn't separate conversations or storylines out in his head, so if we talk about books, then the idea of the Dark Horse robot book comes up.  To him it is all one big story no matter where we tell it. 

In other news, I did a drawing for the Riff Trax guys and they are engraving it onto an iPad and selling it in a Sweepstakes.  I wish I could have it!  Check it out:

If you would like to enter to win this thing, go to the sweepstakes page.

See you tomorrow at the conclusion to the Dr. McNinja team up.

Ethan

Blatant product placement in today's episode…

Yeas, if you read the Comics Alliance interview with Malachai and I about our book deal with Dark Horse, you saw that Malachai proposed that the book be able to transform into a giant robot suit that can have it's own army.  So that got worked into the story here and is pretty genius product placement if you ask me.  Dark Horse still has not commented on how faithful they will be to Malachai's proposed schematics for the new book.

Two more days of McNinja madness!  See you tomorrow.

Ethan