Author: Ethan Nicolle

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:

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

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

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!

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

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

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):

So two days in a row we have our characters at the beach.  It was no intentional but at least the scenery is nice (and the backgrounds are easy)

I tried to get Malachai to give me more details on how the Moon Warriors would know that Axe Cop's axe can't chop off the Vampire Man Baby Kid's head, but he insisted this is just knowledge they already possess and no explanation is needed.  It's something everyone should know, sort of like that all mermaids are good guys.  I was hoping for a nice preliminary battle where Axe Cop tries to cut off VMBK's head, but it just won't come off and they have to give up.  I think this works just as well though, and it does show how the 6 year old prefers to get strtaight to the action, explanations be damned.   The older we get the more we want explanations.

There are currently 6 prints left in stock.  Just sayin'…

Also, if you didn't see them yet, we posted the new intro sequence for the upcoming Axe Cop motion comics on YouTube.  These guys have gone above and beyond the call of duty on these things, I can't wait for you all to see them.  Thanks for reading AXE COP!

Ethan

Read the new Ask Axe Cop episode, but I warn you, you may need a box of Kleenex.

(don't read the rest of this blog til you read the episode) When Malchai gave me the answer to this question it was pretty priceless.  First he said no, Axe Cop didn't fight Mermaids, then he said, well, yes he did but he thought it was a bad guy.  By the time he made it through all his reasoning, he realized Axe Cop had killed a good guy.  He paused, then quietly said “he cried.” then after another pause… “that was a sad one.”  Of course, it's brilliant and it shows a new side to Axe Cop we have not yet seen… the tender side.  He hates evil, but his heart breaks when the innocent are killed, especially when he chops their head off.

15 prints left in the store!  It would be nice if they got bought up so we could ship them all out at once.  Thanks for reading.  The Moon Warriors story continues tomorrow.

Ethan

Hey head choppers,

Sequential Tart did an interview with Malachai and I, and based on one of his answers I did an exclusive Axe Cop cartoon for the article.  Check it out!

Ethan