Bat Warthog Man

Bat Warthog Man is a man who was driven to a life of crime fighting when bad guys stole his friend. Seeking to gain the power of the bat and the warthog, he went into a forest, where he encountered a bat and a warthog who fused into a bat warthog which then bit and horned him. He gained the powers of the bat and the warthog but also took on their hideous fused looks (but only at night).

Powers: The powers of the bat and the warthog. Includes flight, horning and other powers. BWM is also restricted to fighting crime at night, since bats are nocturnal.

Appearances

Page 226 – Coffee Party

So, that’s it. This concludes AXE COP: REVENGE ON RAINBOW GIRL.

Thanks to Ethan and Malachai for letting us take a shot at our own AXE COP story. Thank you for reading. If you commented, thanks extra for that. This has been a long slog- I’ve been working on this comic for almost a year now, in between other projects. Getting feedback was the return on my investment and I appreciated all of it. …That was a lie. I didn’t appreciate the guy that said “I don’t like this artwork” a couple of weeks back. That guy can get eaten by sharks. The rest of you, though, you’re nice.

Now that my docket’s wide open, I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. I’ll be needing new art projects. Got one? Hit me up at my FB page. Don’t mind the zombie and skull art, I do metal album covers and that stuff is all over the place over there.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go treat the kids to a coffee party.

 KIDS’ QUOTES OF THE WEEK

We’re playing pretend.
“Okay, you be Spider-Man and I’ll be the King of Ostriches.”
-Charlotte, 3 years old

“Mommy! Mommy! …Mommy, listen!
Mommy, listen to this! Ready?
Are you ready?? Fish skipple.”
                                        -Amelia, 4 years old

Page 223 – The Kids Don’t Care

So I’m back from tour now. I’ll spare you any details or adventures, no one cares. The big event I’d like to talk about came up two weeks ago with Page 221. It seems I brought Fire Slicer back to life, and I didn’t even know it.

Fire Slicer was killed off in THE MOON WARRIORS GO CAMPING, a one-page story Malachai drew. I recall reading it back in 2011, but I apparently didn’t recall that the Moon Warriors were eaten by the God Of All Bears. I began to see the comments roll in about Fire Slicer being alive again and got all irritated with myself. I’ve been dreading this because in these big battle scenes, I’ve been drawing ancillary Axe Cop characters here and there and then wondering- are they alive? What’s the continuity, here? I had similar concerns about Leaf Man, Hand Cuff Man and Mr. Stocker. I’m pretty sure Mr. Stocker’s dead according to continuity, but I just couldn’t resist putting my favorite non-Axe Cop Axe Cop character in my story.

I went to Ethan a few times asking up on whether a character is alive, but the dude was planning a wedding, drawing a comic, overseeing a TV show and doing any number of other things. Eventually he just said “draw who you want, don’t worry so much about continuity.” That’s not a direct quote, mind you, I don’t feel like hunting through gmail to find that. Anyway. In a kid logic universe, death may mean even less than it does in the Marvel Universe. Hell, Axe Cop was killed on the same page where Fire Slicer returned and it meant almost nothing.

So, yeah, I brought back Fire Slicer by accident. Whoops. Ethan says not to worry about it for reasons that remains to be seen. Let’s just say that God Of All Bear stomachs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

KIDS’ QUOTES OF THE WEEK

‎”I’m gonna have the most beautiful wedding,
and if you guys don’t die by then, I’ll invite you!
But if you DO die by then, I’ll invite your
ghosts. Just don’t creep me out.”
                                        -Charlotte, 7 years old

Me: “I dunno Mia, this is a pretty scary story.
I don’t think it’s good for you to hear it before
bed, I don’t want you to have nightmares.”
Amelia: “It’s okay Unca Tommy, when you
say scary things, my head doesn’t
hear them. So I don’t hear them either.”
                                        -Amelia, 3 years old

Page 218 – Fresh And Yummy

Today’s page is entirely Amelia’s writing.

…

…having nothing else to say today, I’ll just leave you with that.

 

KIDS’ QUOTES OF THE WEEK

Singing:
“If you want to be with a girl like me, like me, like me,
You can’t be like that, like that, like that.
You have to be cool, be cool, be cool.
You have to be a werewolf.”
                                        -Charlotte, 6 years old

Amelia’s still in diapers. She’s got a distant look
on her face and that tends to mean only one thing.
Me: “Mia, are you pooping?”
Amelia: “No. …Are you pooping?”
                                        -Amelia, 2 years old

Page 215 – The Fight Begins!

UPDATE: the splash image is no longer found by clicking the image, but you can CLICK HERE for it.

Let the violence commence!

Today’s page is what’s known as a double-page splash, so it’s technically two pages. When I started plotting out the comic I did it based on how I wanted it to look in print. Ethan says that’s the way to go, but because I wasn’t paying attention to how to leave off for each page, sometimes the pages for the site will leave off on a boring panel. Keeping two media in mind when drawing these things is not easy. As a double page splash it doesn’t really fit in the page format for the site, so handy Axe Cop site-guy Doug worked up a way to have it work out. Click  above for the full-sized page.

The only dialogue here wasn’t written for the comic. In the telling, Charlotte merely started describing the fight. For the beginning of the battle, though, I wanted a big double-page dealie with an introduction to the action. I took the dialogue from something Charlotte said when she was four. We were on the couch and she attacked me, and we started wrestling. She yelled “THE FIGHT BEGINS!” I always liked it as a line that one combatant would yell as a battle kicks off, and it seems very appropriate to Axe Cop. So here we go.

Interestingly- or not- Axe Cop’s “get out of my way!” on Page 3 was likewise based on something Amelia said when she was three. I probably couldn’t communicate what was funny about it, but she was grinning and barreling at me at the time.

First (non-child) blood next week, as we learn how to kill bad guys Dinosaur Soldier and Army Chihuahua style.

KIDS’ QUOTES OF THE WEEK

The following was a playful insult:
“You’re a baby. You’re a baby that
was just born out of a belly.”
                                        -Charlotte, 5 years old

This was a song:
“i only had a sissy if you only had a sissy
with a gun, with a gun, with a gun”
                                        -Amelia, 3 years old

Page 212 – Showdown

Well, all right, all that art-talk over the last two blogs was a complete dud and no one cared. Sorry ’bout that.

 I don’t have the time to write up much of a blog this week, I’m under the gun on an art deadline and am cranking out pages. I wouldn’t leave you with nothing, though, so here’s the audio of Amelia telling an Axe Cop story. I requested it be in a smoothie shop because I was trying to tie it in to the comic story, and didn’t wind up using this at all. I definitely don’t have the time to draw it these days, but if anyone  has the time, this’d make a good guest strip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBiZBu5nkCw

KIDS’ QUOTES OF THE WEEK

Me: “I need to take a shower.”
Charlotte: “Why?”
Me: “I need one, I’m stinky.”
She gives me a hug.
Charlotte: “You’re not stinky.”
Me: “Aww, thanks!”
I sneeze.
Charlotte: “But you ARE gross.”
                                        -Charlotte, 6 years old

Amelia is going to get her room painted.
She says she’s going to have pictures painted
of “blocks and tigers and people and butts and people.”
                                        -Amelia, 4 years old

Next week, the first act of aggression in this street fight is about to go down, and it’s a doozy.

Page 201 – Here We Are Gathered

This page was a project.  Most of you, if you requested to be drawn “at the wedding” are in this picture.  A few people were in previous pages.  Thanks again to everyone who helped me pull that off!

 

So, I’m sure it is obvious this story is almost over.  What’s next? Well, I’ve got plans.  I will be focusing on the next Dark Horse miniseries “The American Choppers” next, which will be print-only.  But I have two things to keep you busy for at least the next  22 or so weeks after this story ends, and possibly I take a short break between “seasons”.

 

First, I have drawn Ask Axe Cop  #100, but I have only posted up to #86, so I have 14 of those to post.  I will post one per week after this story ends.

 

Also, Tom Martin and his niece Charlotte proved themselves to be a great team on guest episodes, so we have decided to team up and let them do a full-length guest story.  If you need a refresher, here is one of the comics they did for us.  More on this project later!

 

And, as I have said, new episodes on FOX start Nov. 2!

 

Malachai and I are currently writing the new story and it’s awesome!  I’m excited to draw the insane stuff he’s coming up with.  We have created so much together I often forger how fun it is until I do it again.  Thanks for reading Axe Cop and making it possible for me to have such a cool job.

 

Ethan

Page 189 – Wedding Crashers

Sorry for no post on Thursday.  I went out of town for a few days and did not leave prepared.  Happily, I have a bunch of Axe Cop comics done so you should get pretty regular posts for a while now.  Beyond the rest of this story, I have Ask Axe Cops all the way to #100 to post!  All in due time.

 

Have you kept up on Rugburn’s Axe Cop series?  They take the actual comics and animate the art and add audio.  It’s a nice enhanced viewing experience for Axe Cop purists.  The latest episode is the finale of the Moon Warriors story:

Thanks for reading.  Thursday, the adventure continues.
Ethan

Page 185 – Wedding Day

I can’t believe we have finally reached the wedding day in the comic.  I completely forgot to post today because I had some meetings and was not home all day.  Here is your page, better late than never.  I brought my new Windows Surface with me today, and every time I ended up sitting and waiting, I worked, and I managed to get 3/4 of the final page of this story completed!  I am in love with my Surface with Manga Studio installed.  It is the portable drawing tablet I always dreamed of.

 

The 5th episode of Axe Cop aired on Saturday.  Originally I wrote the first draft of the outline for this one.  A good amount changed, but this is a great episode.  It definitely brings out the darker, weirder side of Axe Cop which is creepy and hilarious.  There were a couple little details in this episode I was not crazy about, but in general I loved it.

I like this episode especially because it is not a story taken directly from the comics.  It just takes elements and makes a new episode, and that is fun to see come together.  I like the take on Bad Santa too.  Cobras on his sleigh, I am proud to say, was my idea.  We called Malachai to ask him what Bad Santa’s plan is and Malachai said without skipping a beat “to kill God and become Jesus.”  He said it like it was so obvious we shouldn’t even have had to ask.  Also, the ending is from an unused answer to an Ask Axe Cop question.  Someone asked what the best day, and worst day of Axe Cop’s life was.  Malachai said the day his parents died.  He was sad they died, but happy he didn’t have to eat candy canes any more.  Then he said he was just medium, but it was the happiest he has ever been… in my notes was the line “medium is the happiest I’ll ever be.”  I never made it into a comic, but it worked so well in this episode I’m glad we got to use it.  It was such a dark, weird answer.  It fit here nicely.

Oh yeah, and some of you guessed it last week, I did the voice of the Chubby doll in the babysitting episode.  In the Bad Santa episode, I was the voice of the upset merman.

Next Saturday is the last episode of the first set of 6!  It’s the summer finale.  I’m excited to see this episode, starring the rabbit who walks and eats coconuts. Don’t worry, another 6 are already being produced, but as of now I have no clue when they will air.

Oh yeah!  And the first appearances of some of my Axe Cop Wedding contributors are appearing here.  Above we have Adam Juda (aka Dr. Googleman) and Garth Matthams on the left.  Also, Thor the Bassett Hound.

Ethan