Appearances

Carnivorous Sheep Burgers (Songster LAST PAGE!)

And that is that! Thanks for following along on the adventures of Axe Cop versus the Songster. It was fun to revisit Axe Cop with Malachai a bit older and partnering with Parry Gripp was a privilege. We are going to come up with a cool package to sell this story and music as one item for those interested, I’ll post it on the blog here when it comes out. Thanks again to Parry for all his tunes. This was a lot of fun.

I won’t be posting new Axe Cop material for a while. Come see me over at Bearmageddon.com and keep tabs on me on Patreon, Twitter and Facebook to find out when other projects are being released.

Ethan

Royalties (The Songster page 24)

One page left, and one song left.

Parry and I are thinking of putting together a special highly limited edition cassette tape and full printed comic. If you would be interested in something like that, let us know.

Next week, the story shall end. I don’t have plans for more Axe Cop content at the moment. Thanks for following along with this story, it’s been a fun little experiment and working with Parry has been a treat.

Ethan

Axe Cop Never Says Uncle!

I’m excited to finally present to you BIRDS OF PREY! The first ever Axe Cop mini-game. To answer a couple inevitable questions…

1. YES it can be beaten.
2. NO, I will not give you any hints
3. The first person to WIN and email the victory screen to info@axecop.com gets this sumi ink drawing of Axe Cop riding a bear! UDATE: Congrats to the winner, Colin T.!

4. If the embedded game is not working for you, you can download the game for free here: Windows version, MAC version. I promise there is nothing malicious in that software, it’s just the game.

5. If some of the birds freeze in place, I told the game makers to keep the glitch because I like how old it makes it feel like an old glitchy NES game. You can still win if the birds freeze in place.

Huge, huge thanks to TBA Games! for making this game a reality and Parry Gripp for the amazing music, and of course Dave DeAndrea for the great voice work. This game is hilarious and I can’t get that song out of my head.

Also, PLEASE DO ME A SOLID! My other comic, Bearmageddon has been climbing the charts over at TWC.com. I am trying hard to get it to hit #1. I have never made it to the top 10 and I really want to see the effect it has on my traffic to reach the top 10. Please take a moment to vote, It is super simple and doesn’t require any sign ups or registering. You can vote DAILY. We went from spot #650 to #144 yesterday alone!

Good luck with those birds and thanks for reading Axe Cop.

Ethan

The Torture Master – Page 13

This week I had an amazing lunch with the amazing David Sandberg of Kung Fury.

There was a lot of mutual admiration in the air. I think both of us were wondering why we’d not connected sooner. I posted a little video message from the two of us to my Patreon page and I’ll talk more about the meeting in my next Patreon Pipe n’ Type on Friday.

Sale on commissions is live until May 12th, my anniversary. Your commission money will go towards a gift I’d like to get my wife, but we’re on a tight budget right now so I’m trying to generate some extra cashflow. I’m also be doing a limited number of digital commissions each month. If you’ve ever wanted me to draw you something, now’s the time! And if you are one of my Patreon subscribers, be sure to get a discount code based on your pledge level from me first!

Have you ever read my other comic, Bearmageddon? I’ve been reformatting it for Tapastic and Webtoons. Click those links to read the comic in a very mobile-friendly format. It’s a fun, cinematic way to read because each panel is hidden until you scroll down.

Also, if you enjoy Bearmageddon, please give it a vote on Top Webcomics. I’m working on getting Axe Cop on there as well, but one thing at a time.

That’s all for this week! Thanks for joining, see you next time.
Ethan

Songster #3: Commence Rocking

I’m excited to present you with the first musical page of comics in the history of my comic, and possibly the world.

This is a split song. The second half will come with next week’s page (or you are already jamming out to it if you are a Patreon head chopper).

Thanks for keeping up with Axe Cop. Make sure not to miss the latest Ask Axe Cop about Sockarang’s socks, and if you aren’t reading Bearmageddon, you should.

See you here next week for the next half of the song. You can’t trust a guy with a half mustache. I live by that.

Ethan

Ask Axe Cop #103: Ask Sockarang

If the site is looking wonked out for you, I apologize. We are in the middle of a bit of a coding crisis and the site doesn’t like to update instantly. Even when we get it fixed it can take a long time to update changes. I have no idea why, I just draw comics.

It’s the first time Sockarang has been asked a question. Finally we know the truth about his socks. You may remember from Bad Guy Earth that Sockarang’s family was made into sock fighters by the president. You may think there is a continuity error here because Sockarang was actually altered into a sock hero when he was a child and this comic says that after he had been fighting crime for a month, his socks wore out but in the picture he is depicted as a grown man. The reason is obvious. He didn’t start actually fighting crime until he was a grown up. See? Water tight.

Next week’s Ask Axe Cop stars Morgan Freeman and is here if you want to join up and get your Axe Cop a week early fr $2/month.

Have you started reading the new story? The Songster pages post on Thursdays. Here is the first page.

Never read Bad Guy Earth you say? Shame! It’s my favorite complete Axe Cop story. It’s not on the web site, it’s a print exclusive story in book form. I recommend buying it from me in a headchopper bundle with goodies and original art thrown in. If you are new to my store use the code IMNEWHERE to get 17% off your first order.

Get all 6 volumes or just one signed with bonus items.

Ethan

Songster #2: Red White and Black

Every great sitcom has an episode that begins with free concert tickets. Of course, every bad one does too. Whichever side we are on, this is ours. I can at least guarantee you this, it will be a wholly unique take on the old trope.

I decided to do this comic in red white and black with one or two shades of gray. I had to keep it simple. I didn’t want to worry about getting it colored, but I knew I couldn’t color it myself. Since I did the print in this color scheme and liked it so much, I stuck with it. I like it. It’s fun to allow yourself one color and use it in unique ways.

Want to see the next page and hear the first Parry Gripp song? Join Patreon for at least $2/month and you will get every page a week early, including Ask Axe Cop. Patreon members also get the pages in super high resolution, bonus materials and lots of other stuff. Try it out. If you like my work, you will really dig it.

Also, if you wouldn’t mind taking a minute to fill out this short survey it would really help me in my mission to understand my audience better. I really appreciate you doing this, it helps me a ton.

Check out my art-loaded conversation with PvZ designer Rich Werner about creativity and fatherhood titled Zombie Meatloaf.

Ever been to my store? Use the code ONETIME15 to get 15% off on your first visit. This shirt is now available and if you buy it with the print, you save even more.

Thanks so much for reading!

Ethan

Axe Cop #5: the Notes

I’m taking a break from my Making Axe Cop blogs this week. Instead, as a continuation in the history of Axe Cop, I am going to share with you the raw notes I took on my phone called with Malachai to write Axe Cop #5. Axe Cop #0-4 were written in person, so I didn’t have notes for those. This was the first time I tried writing with Malachai over the phone. I was amazed how well this went. I was afraif it wouldn’t have the same feel. In some ways it was different. It was a lot more information, less action. But it was actually a great way to work. I found this old text file in my Axe Cop folder.

I have a folder on my computer I started called “Malachai” when he was three. It includes a few drawings I let him do on my Wacom tablet, and a few drawings he dictated to me as I drew, then one day I added a folder called “Axe Cop”, because I drew a few Axe Cop comics with him. To this day, my “Axe Cop” folder is still inside the “Malachai” folder, and it is freaking massive. As you read, if you know the comic well, you will see how I organized this and did some editing.

Click here to read the original Axe Cop #5 Comic

Axe Cop #5 Notes
axe cop 5

malachai:
important mission
we need to save leaf man.
leaf man has powers but the bad guys stole his leaf powers
bad santa stole them (he steals the presents from santa)
bad guy gang… with an evil flying book that bites people and eats people
the book’s name: “evil flying book”
the book is actually a robot

(Malachai speaks as Axe Cop in first person)
at the sign up place someone was yelling for us, so we quit the mission
what’s your name? sockarang (boomerang socks) .. socks for arms
bad santa has christmas magic and the power to hurt ears (hurting ear power)
sockarang gets the blood of evil Santa and becomes super villain santa that is good

avocado cop touches the blood and becomes evil santa too

Follow up questions:
Q: Does avocado soldier use his horn for any magic? (maybe to change back into flute cop with a horn?)
A: He wishes to give leaf man’s powers back
Q: what does Ralph do?
A: he just watches and sings a loud song “tick tock the mouse ran up the clock”

Q: Does anyone die in the fight?
A: Good santa stole bad santa’s guitar
They go back to a try out: baby man.
“Shake what your baby gave ya.”
A baby that can fly when he gasses
A man who has a baby suit
The flying book is the hardest one
Uni man and a wrestler
Wrestler throws uniman at book

Q: Where are the bad guys? do they get leaf man’s powers back?
how do they get the blood out of bad santa?

(no answers recorded)

Random things axe cop says in a fight:

I think I’m gona chop your head off soon

I think I’m gonna go home and get something for dinner so I think I’m done with my job

My job is being an axe cop

I had a lot of work to do

I’m tired and hungry, so I am going to eat stuffed eggs with mayonnaise and yolk and mustard and then you put it in where the yolk was and paprika on top.

stuffed eggs with power potion

whenever I eat I get powers

one of the potions is called “transform”

turns into a gun pail buffalo and shoots out of his horns

____________________________________________________________________
reworked/organized:
Ralph Wrinkles’s important mission is this:
A guy named Leaf Man has had his powers stolen by a gang of bad guys
the gang of bad guys is Bad Santa (who steals presents from good Santa, he also has the power of Christmas and the power to hurt ears)
and also “evil flying book” which flies around and bites people.

in order to fight these guys they must have another tryout.
At the tryout, Sockarang joins the team. His arms are socks and they shoot off and return like boomerangs.
So Sockarang, Leaf Man, Axe Cop, Ralph, and Avocado soldier go to fight bad santa.

At the fight, ralph just sings “tick tock the mouse ran up the clock”.
Bad Santa hurts their ears with his guitar.
Evil flying book keeps biting them.
They retreat to hold more tryouts.

At the tryouts they recruit Baby Man, Wrestler, and Uni-man.
Uni-man says he took up crime fighting when his child was stolen.
Baby man’s motto is “shake what your baby gave ya.” and he can fly when he gasses.

In the fight they realize that the book is actually a robot.

The wrestler throws uni-man into the book and it explodes.
they defeat bad santa by taking his guitar… sockarang gets bad santa blood on him and gains his powers.

They win, but leaf man never got his powers back, so avocado soldier gives them back using his unicorn horn.

Hiatus Update

Hey there head choppers,

I apologize for the long time with no updates. I figured I owed it to you to at least post a little something to let you know where the axe stands and what the future may or may not hold.

One reason I have not posted or said much is because I don’t have much to report. You could probably deduct the reasons for Axe Cop’s hiatus if you have followed the comic at all over the past year or two. As it stands right now, I’m working on other things. Some of you know I have been a writer on the VeggieTales series on NetFlix for the last two years. That job (hopefully) has one year left on it. In my spare time I have been developing new ideas, trying to find more possibilities for my future beyond that year. I know right now that, as it stands, Axe Cop will not be able to cover me when this job ends.

So I have had to put Axe Cop off to the side indefinitely. Same with my other comic Bearmageddon. Until I have another ball rolling, I can’t consider myself a responsible husband and father if I am spending my time drawing comics that are not providing for the family. I need to invest that time wisely and when the time is right I can revisit projects like Axe Cop and Bearmageddon.

In truth, this is pretty close to what my vision for Axe Cop was from the start. I never knew how long it would last, and I made no predictions. But in my mind it made sense that, through Malachai’s younger years we would create a big body of work (six volumes. not bad!) then “retire”. Beyond that, I think it’s safe to say that every now and then we may revisit Axe Cop and do a story here and there. Who knows, maybe at some point Axe Cop can be my job again. Right now, it’s back to being a hobby. That’s fine with me, I’m proud of the work we did on it and it was never my plan to only draw Axe Cop for the rest of my life.

As for the TV show, I don’t know what is next for it. I suspect it is done but I have not heard anything.

Thanks for all your support and kindness throughout the life of Axe Cop. It has been a lot of fun. I look forward to revisiting Axey again in the future. If not at least to do a few “Ask Axe Cop” episodes. Until then, keep being awesome.

Ethan Nicolle

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