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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

 

Page 184 – Bridal Party

I decided to use some of Malachai’s mispronunciations of bridal party terms, like “Bride’s Mates” and “Ring Berrier”.  Hopefully it is funny and not simply confusing.  Malachai is a seasoned Ring Berrier, he bore the ring at our brothers Noah’s and Isaiah’s weddings, and then he was ring berrier coach to my step son, Ezra at my wedding.

Alright Ezra, get it together. THIS IS YOUR BIG MOMENT. -actually quote from Malachai at the wedding

 

And yes, Tom Nicolle is our dad.  The 72 year old father of kids ranging from me to Malachai.  If you have ever met my Dad he loves to talk about spiritual things, and so he will be officiating at Axe Cop’s wedding.

Well I am trying to get a lot done today, because tonight I am going to see Riff Trax Live: Starship Troopers!  Should be fun.

 

Ethan

Page 183 – Planning

I know that you read one or two pages per week, so maybe you forgot about the scene where Jauber talks about how they are trying to create an evil planet but they need to supply it with water somehow.  Well, that happened, and that look Jauber and Zelda are giving one another is why.  I know I shouldn’t have to explain this, but I think if you read the comic all at once it will make more sense.  I think if you read updates as they come you may miss that detail.

That wedding invitation up there is headed to your home if you ordered anything from me on the Axe Cop Wedding campaign.  I just dropped all that stuff off at at the post office yesterday.  I apologize for how long it took, but it feels so good to basically be done with that.

Did you see Axe Cop on Saturday night?  I love this episode, it is so much fun.  It’s very close to the original source material:  Axe Cop Babysits Uni-Baby.  We swapped some characters around, but content wise I actually like this execution better than the original.  I think Sockarang is hilarious as Axe Cop’s side kick on this adventure, and since the Uni-Family hasn’t been introduced into the TV show yet, Flute Cop and his wife are great as her adopted parents.  I voiced a character in this episode.  Can you guess which one?

 

 

Next week is an episode I haven’t even seen yet.   Bad Santa!  I’m looking forward to it.

 

Ethan

Page 182 – Shock

Welcome back!  Those of you who had your fists clenched in outrage at Axe Cop’s lack of moral fiber can now rest easy.  He would never decimate two provinces just to impress a girl.  OK maybe he would, but he didn’t this time.  Axe Cop only does that sort of thing when he has a bad birthday party.

 

Want to read the source material for the new Axe Cop TV episode coming up on Saturday night?  Read Axe Cop Babysits Uni-Baby.  The most obvious difference will be that we replaced Dinosaur Soldier with Sockarang, but Sockarang needed an episode and his personality really worked well for this episode and, though at first it felt weird for me to make that change, I love this episode and I honestly think it is better than the comic version.  If you went to our panel at San Diego Comic Con you already saw this one, but it is definitely worth a second watch!
Ethan

Episode 181 – Provinces

…And that is the Forbidden Move.  Forbidden mostly because it murders a LOT of people in the process of smashing your opponent with a state (or in this case province.  I think.).

Did you see Axe Cop on FOX last Saturday?  This is my favorite episode so far.  Book Cop.  It’s packed with secret attacks and is extremely epic.  The amazing voice performances of Jonathan Banks and Jared Harris also make it quite spectacular.  Here it is:

 

 

For reference, check out Ask Axe Cop #39 and #40.  We involved Malachai in choreographing that final fight.  He gave us a list of possible secret attacks, including the book eclipse.

We’ve been slowly putting the site back together (Or should I say, Doug has.  You will recognize Doug as the guy on our Facebook page who marks all his posts “DS”.  Thanks Doug!).  The downloads page is back with all sorts of wallpapers, icons and other stuff.  Also, the Store page is back up and running with plenty of options.

Well, I have a lot of drawing to do.  Thanks for reading Axe Cop, and if you came here because you saw the show and wanted to check out the original, thank you!

 

Ethan

 

Page 180 – The Forbidden Move

Continuing one of my favorite scenes in Axe Cop history, Axe Cop is always ready to one-up his opponent.  Of course, you don’t get to find out how until next Tuesday.  It was fun listening to Malachai describe this scene to me, how the whole restaurant watched, and they could see Axe Cop going into a specific stance that made them all freak out and run away because they knew he was about to do “the forbidden move”.

Malachai and I did a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) yesterday and it was quite eventful.  We both answered just about every question sent to us within the timeframe (and a little bit beyond).  The definite highlight was when Snoop Dogg (or is it Snoop Lion?) made an apparent appearance and asked who he had to “smoke out” to get on the TV show.  I asked Malachai if he had ever heard of Snoop Dogg and he had not, so I explained he is this rapper guy who is asking who he can give drugs to get on the Axe Cop TV show.  I asked what Axe Cop’s response would be and it was “No drugs.  I hate drugs.  I’m Axe Cop.”  Regardless of his run in with Axe Cop, Snoop Dogg would be a pretty funny cameo on the show, so hopefully it still works out.  I’m sure someone over at ADHD will take him up on his offer.  Malachai and I just aren’t into being smoked out.  Malachai would be more persuaded by video games and me, well maybe a nice cigar or a first edition G.K. Chesterton book or something.   You can read the entire AMA here, or check out some highlights on Bubble Blabber.

Saturday night a new episode of Axe Cop will air on FOX.  This time it’s Book Cop, and for a lot of us, this was our favorite episode to write.  It turned out so awesome and it features the voice of Jonathan Banks (Mike from Breaking Bad) as Book Cop.  If you want to do your research, read the original set of Ask Axe Cop’s (#39 and #40)about the 4th of July, which will be the source material for the show.

I think that is all I have for now.  Seems like so much is going on.  If you ordered a print or sketchbook or other stuff for the wedding campaign, I am in the middle of packing all that up while I simultaneously try to meet a deadline for Dark Horse on the next book.  This may be my last mailing spree for a while!  It is so much work.  Thanks for reading, and commenting!  I love your feedback.

 

Ethan

Episode 179 – Gong-Jo!

Sorry for the later-than-usual-in-the-day post, but we ran out to the beach this morning, then spent the day with the Cramp family, who we love.  Cliff Cramp, aka the guy who did the cover art for the Star Wars Blu Ray set, is one of the best men I know and has an amazing family.

 

It’s been quite a week!  The new Axe Cop TV show on FOX has been received very well, and episode 2: Zombie Island… In Space! aired Saturday.

 

Well, at the moment the kids are waiting for me to read their bed time story, but check in at http://www.reddit.com/r/IAMA tomorrow at 2pm Eastern time to catch an “Ask Me Anything” session with Malachai and me.

 

Ethan

Episode 178

It’s so nice to be back, and to have pages to post.  One of my favorite scenes in the history of Axe Cop continues.  Sometimes in an Axe Cop story we fly from scene to scene, but every once in a while it works better to follow the action from punch to kick to punch, and that just felt right in this scene.  I love the idea of a live action Axe Cop martial arts film.  Some day just maybe it will happen… after seeing Axe Cop come to FOX, airing right after Family Guy, truly anything can happen it seems.

 

Some interesting videos have been released.  Here is an interview with Axe Cop on USA Today.  This interview was actually scripted off of a recorded phone call between Malachai and me.  A video featuring Nick Offerman and me was posted on E! about voicing Axe Cop.  There were also a couple of other videos on TV Guide interviewing Offerman and Ken Marino (Flute Cop) as well as Matt and Dave (writers on the show) and Nick Weidenfeld (the head of ADHD).  This is all to lead up to the true premier of Axe Cop and FOX ADHD this Saturday night at 11:00 pm (pacific time).  The epsiode will be called “Zombie Island in Space” and it’s nothing short of epic.  This episode uses  the “Ultimate Battle” story line as source material, so review that if you want to do your homework.  Zombie Island in Space is its own story though, so don’t get all anal about where the two are different.  To fit the 40 page Ultimate Battle storyline into 11 minutes would not do it justice.  We decided the best thing to do would be to extract multiple stories from it… so this episode takes the Dr. Doo/zombie portions of the story and saves the Baby Man, Lobster Man and other elements for later.

 

I’d also like to remind you that I do another web comic called Bearmageddon.  It is not for kids, but it is a horror/action/comedy and those who give it a try seem to really enjoy it.

 

Lastly, if you ordered anything from me for the Wedding campaign, have no fear.  I am in the midst of order fulfillment now that Comic Con is behind me.  I’m going to try to get all that stuff mailed out in the next couple of weeks.

 

Ethan

 

Episode 177

What a week!!! Sunday night, the Axe Cop TV show aired for the first time ever on FOX, and 2.6 million people watched Axey help Bat Warthog Man find his stolen friends. If you missed the episode, watch it now online!  And make a GIF.

 

armyC

 

Comic Con was insane.  Here are a few highlights…

–ADHD panel footage where I sat among celebrities and talked about Axe Cop  (look in related videos for additional snippets)

-This:

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more on that here.

-the Axe Cop panel was probably our best yet.  Malachai was on fire as usual, Mike Nelson of MST3K/Riff Trax moderated, Ken Marino (Flute Cop) joined us, as did Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser (writers) and Ben Jones (creative producer) as well as a special appearance by the real Ralph Wrinkles.  Here is a play by play of the panel from Bleeding Cool.

I feel like I could report all day on what has been going on, but suffice it to say things are happening.  Malachai and the family just headed home after coming down here for Comic Con.

The new site continues to come together, but bugs are still being worked out, so bear with us.  Notice an issue?  Let us know.  This site is so much easier to update!!!

 

Ethan

 

Episode 176

IMPORTANT: READ THIS POST TOO.
-DS, 7/17

Welcome to the new Axe Cop web site! Can I get a round of applause for Doug and Mike who busted their behinds to make sure Bearmageddon and Axe Cop made it back online in time for Comic Con?

I won’t be around to update on Thursday, so this is going to be this week’s post, but as soon as I get home we will be back on the Tuesday and Thursday schedule. Kailey and I have actually been cranking away on these pages because the full book that includes this story is set to print and they need it soon.

The first airing ever of the Axe Cop TV series (if you are not at Comic Con) will be this Sunday night, July 21st at 9:30pm on FOX right after Family Guy! From then on it will be every Saturday night at 11:00pm.

Going to San Diego Comic Con? Come see me at booth #1603, right next to my best friend Doug TenNapel. I have some overflow of the wedding sketchbooks, prints and new Axe Cop books to sell! Also, Malachai will be there Friday and Saturday. Here are Axe Cop related events you won’t want
to miss:

Friday at noon, Mezco Toyz booth: Ethan and Malachai signing (they will have some cool goodies and Axe Cop toyz available for the first time ever!)

Friday 6:45pm Room 6DE, FOX Animation Domination High Def Panel: this panel will cover all of the stuff FOX ADHD will be bringing to late night on FOX, but Axe Cop is considered its “flagship” show and they will show the first epsode of Axe Cop at the panel. Malachai and I will also be present as well as other talent involved with the shows.

Friday 8:00pm Room 6DE Axe Cop Panel: The main event! Please take note, this panels is RIGHT AFTER the ADHD panel and is in the SAME ROOM. So it is the perfect double feature. We will also show the Axe Cop episode at this event and, this just in, Mike Nelson of RiffTrax/MST3K will be moderating. We have some awesome things planned for you guys, and Malachai is excited to choreograph some cosplayer fights.

Please note that FOX ADHD is hosting a special showing of Axe Cop at 8:30pm on Friday night in their tent, but that conflicts with the Axe Cop panel, so really, you should come to the panel it’s just going to be a lot cooler.