I'm in New York with my family.  My Dad rented a tiny one bedroom apartment and all 6 of us are crammed in here like sardines.  I'd like the people who think Malachai and I live the life of the richa and famous now.  We will be at Webvisions this afternoon.

Also, my Axe Cop and Wexter 16'x20″ walnut ink piece is still available on eBay.  You can bid on it for about 11 more hours!

Ethan

I spent a good amount of time drawing this piece of Axe Cop and Wexter and now I am ready to part with it.  It is one of the only large-format detailed originals I have done of the two characters together and this cell phone snap shot of it doesn't even do it justice.  Hopefully it will find a good home.  You can bid on it until Saturday evening.

We are covering a lot of new ground for Axe Cop here.  I am sure people will wonder where a lot of this stuff is coming from, because it's true, Malachai did not script these scenes.  A lot of this stuff he described to me in simpler terms and I pieced together the dialog from various sources.  For instance, some of the dialog here between Axe Cop and the Rainbow Princess is from conversations Malachai has had with my future step daughter, Lily, who is his same age.  She asked Malachai while he was dressed as Axe Cop why he fights bad guys and he slouched back, annoyed, sighing indignantly and answered just as Axe Cop did here.  As if it was the dumbest question he had ever heard.  Malachai looked at the drawing i did of the Rainbow Princess and said her pigtails are dumb, so i used that.

Well I will see Malachai in a couple days.  We will be speaking at Web Visions in New York on Friday.  It's going to be a really fun event and you should definitely come.  Our whole family will be there.  My Dad pursued an opera career in New York before I was ever born and has talked about his time there our whole lives.  It will be fun to  go back to the city he's talk so much about and spend some time as a family.  I am going to try to keep updates posting during this trip.  I may post a guest episode, we'll see.  Thanks for reading!

Ethan

i don't know how you feel. I know that this Axe Cop story is going a lot of new places, but I also feel like it is going a lot of old places.  I am loving it.  It is sort of like 8 year old Malachai is revisiting the concepts of 5 year old Malachai and starting to confront his more developed ideas about life and relationships.  I feel like this is one of those Axe Cop stories where every page stands alone and is just fun in itself.  I think some people are nervous that a story about Axe Cop getting married is “jumping the shark” but I think it's hiarious and fascinating to see Axe Cop attempting to seek “love” even though he still just wants to fight bad guys and not kiss and hug girls.

I spoke at Animex this week and it went really well.  This was only me second college lecture and it went great.  I think I could get used to the occasional lecture, it is a lot of fun and most of the time once I finish talking to a room about Axe Cop they all want to buy the book immediately after I'm done.  I'm actually still in the UK right now, that is why Americans will be getting this page much earlier than usual.  

Hats off to Kailey for single-handedly keeping up with the strenuous task of coloring two pages per week. Some of these pages are pretty complicated and she is keeping up and doing quality work.  I'm excited to keep this story going.  It's one of my favorites.

Ethan

I'm currently in England.  I spent two days pretty much traveling here.  I don't have a lot to say because I am really tired, but I managed to get today's page posted.  Enjoy!  Come see me at Animex if you live in the U.K.!

Ethan

I wish I had time to say more about this page, but I have  to get over to the Axe Cop TV show writing room.  I think Axe Cop is rare among super heroes being a divorced man.  Definitely being a man who has been divorced by a president of the United States.  That letter is verbatim what Malachai told me to write, including the part about the zoo, Axe Cop's response, and the fact that Abe likes to look at the elephants.  Malachai had new clue that the Elephant is the animal symbol of the Republican Party, he just took a wild guess at what Abe Lincoln's favorite animal would be.  Divorce is a pretty big reality in our family.  Without it, we wouldn't have Malachai here, since my Dad was divorced by my mom and that is what led to Malachai being born. 

I can tell you this.  This is not the last we will see of Abe Lincoln.

Ethan

One commenter on the last episode put it together, and here it is.  You wondered how in the world anyone could convince Axe Cop to get married, and here it is.  He was tricked into a catch 22 situation where he either pays exhorbatant prices for ice cream or adopts two mutant children.  Axe Cop of course chose the latter, but with his values and desire not to spend all his time being a dad decides he is going to have to get married.  Next episode?  The Abe Lincoln question is answered and we find out what happened between Axe Cop and old Abe.  If you haven't read that episode in a while, now is a good time to refresh your memory.

Things are going pretty good over at www.AxeCopWedding.com.  I am very thankful for all the orders so far and people who have emailed me.  I also really appreciate the comments on the blog I posted last Friday about the fame threshold.  

I have been in the writing room on the Axe Cop TV series since last week every day and it is going really well.  It is really fun digging through all the accumulated Axe Cop material and digging up ideas for TV episodes.  We have also been calling Malachai on a regular basis to get his input on the stories.  I have a feeling that a lot of people will be quick to assume that new material and characters in the TV series is stuff the adult writers wedged in, but we have done a good job of going to Malachai on this stuff and getting his input.  So even when old stories have been rewritten, Malachai has been involved in those changes and revisions.  Well, I need to draw some more pages. If you live in the UK I will be at Animex soon.  Check it out in the Appearances section, I'm excited for my first trip to the UK!

Ethan

I love posting two pages a week!  It's twice as much work but so fun to keep things coming like this.  You are probably wondering where Axe Cop is… well, he'll be here next week.  Our little introduction to Max and Sam is done and now we get to the story of Axe Cop, and why the heck he gets married.  We will also be exploring his past relationship with Abe Lincoln.  I'm excited.

I wrote a blog post over at AxeCopWedding.com answers the little bit of criticism I have gotten by people who think I am far too successful and make plenty of money and have no need to “crowd fund” my wedding.  The post is really for any aspiring creator who believes in the concept that there is certain level of fame you can achieve and be set for life.  I used to believe it too, and it's good to know the reality.  So if you are one of those people who assumed I was pretty well off, and that Malachai has a playground made of gold encrustd slides and a sandbox full of bling, please give it a read.  It is not a plea for sympathy, only to clear up this misconception that because lot of people read this free web comic we are somehow rich.

The Rugburn animated comics are on a short season break for four weeks, but when they return prepare for the Moon Warriors.  Also, prepare for the Vampire ManBabyKid, because I got to do its voice.  Thanks for reading!

Ethan

It's exciting when in the same day I am posting a new page, just before I head into the writing room for the TV show and today Mtv Geek released this image from ToyFare of the Axe Cop toys I have had to keep my lips sealed about for a while now…

these are actially all pending approval (i hadn't even seen the plushies yet!), so the final toys may not look exactly like this.  They are awesome though and I'm excited to hold one in my grubby little hand.

Well, commenting was already enough of a pain on this site, but I finally got trolled this last weekend and had to change the settings.  Now I unfortunately have to wade through all the spam comments and approve comments before they can be posted.  I have no problem with people who have differing opinions, but people who want to be demeaning and rude need to go somewhere else.  If anyone feels like they are skilled with Expression Engine and wants to try to help me fix the problem so the site is not so hard to comment on, send me an email.  For now, you may not see your comment after you post it for a while.  I want to switch Axecop.com over to a comic press site like Bearmageddon at some point, but that is a massive project that will cost a lot of time and money, but it will be nice to have better control and accessibility on the comments.  i know a lot of web comics friends who just shut the comments off.  I don't really want to have to resort to that, I like the interaction and in the four years the site has been up, this wasreally  the first troll we've had.  I'd say that's pretty impressive and shows that Axe Cop has a quality audience in general.  

Well the next couple weeks I'll be in the writing room again.  the TV show is looking awesome!  Can't wait for people to see it.  Life is going to be crazy this month.  Please check out my wedding campaign to buy original art and other rare items I am selling to help fund my wedding in May.  Thanks for readin, and thanks for not being a troll.

Ethan

Now, zombies.  We're covering a lot of bases here.  I'm excited because I recently asked Malachai what ever happened between Axe Cop and Abe Lincoln.  You are going to find out soon.

For now, here is a video I put together explaining the AxeCopWedding Campaign.