Appearances

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.

Page 217 – Bright, hot rainbows

“…and then Rainbow Girl shot a rainbow up in the air. It was so bright and hot that some of the good guys fainted.”

The last panel is one of Amelia’s contributions, and though it doesn’t happen often, the text there is exactly as she said it when she was telling me the story: “the dragon breathed fire and never died until the end.” It’s got that kid storytelling thing to it, where saying that a big bad guy doesn’t die while you’re fighting him is making the story exciting. I love it. Anyway.

Last week our GET REVENGE ON RAINBOW GIRL contest wrapped up. Our winner is… Aaron Pokoj. His revenge scheme is as follows:

“Rainbow Girl and the dragon fuse, creating Fire-Rainbow Girl, who then promptly eats Lightning Boy to steal his powers. At this point, Axe Cop is discouraged, but then Mr. Stocker reveals that he actually had super powers all along! He grows to a massive size and fights the new monstrosity, paralyzing it. Axe Cop kills it by chopping off its head. He then takes the monster’s bones to make a new surprise-proof suit, and takes the exact change needed to buy a smoothie out of its pocket. He then cuts off Mr. Stocker’s head for lying about not having powers.”

Poor Mr. Stocker. But really, if you’re going to be on a crime-fighting team, you have to divulge these things right away.

KIDS’ QUOTES OF THE WEEK

they’re eating dinner that daddy has prepared.
Charlotte: “I give this… a 10.”
Daddy: “Aww, thank you Charlotte.”
Charlotte: “…out of 20.”
-Charlotte, 8 years old

Walking around somewhere:
“Can you pick me up, Unca Tommy?
My feet are getting hurting.”
-Amelia, 4 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.