Axe Cop
Axe Cop is a webcomic by brothers Malachai Nicolle (age 5 when the series began, now age 7) and Ethan Nicolle (age 29 when the series began). Malachai is responsible for the ideas and stories, while Ethan turns them into comics.[1][2][3][4][5] The first four comics were drawn in December 2009 and posted to Facebook; the website was not launched until January 2010.
The site also features Ask Axe Cop, a series of comics where Axe Cop responds to questions from readers.[6]
The webcomic has been highly praised, leading to a publishing deal with Dark Horse Comics for both a limited online and print run.
Synopsis
Axe Cop is about the adventures of a police officer who prefers to wield an axe in battle. He's a gruff, tough man dedicated to killing bad guys. The comic focuses on the times he's called away from the daily grind to help with more complex problems, such as rescuing a child from a zombie dog woman, helping Bat Warthog Man find his friends, or babysitting. This generally involves fighting bad guys from other planets. Axe Cop has gathered a loyal team. His first ally is Flute Cop, who goes on to become Dinosaur Soldier and various other things.
Axe Cop is nominally set in the present day, enlivened with dinosaurs, zombies, robots, etc., and with a propensity to feature whatever topic happens to be holding the writer's attention, such as sea creatures, brains, and especially babies. Little effort is made to keep track of backstories, powers, and equipment. This is not to say that the comic is entirely chaotic: the main characters and their relationships stay consistent, there are persistent world-building elements (most notably the shape-shifting properties of being splattered with blood), and a number of powers and items recur (e.g. the hypnotize button on Axe Cop's wrist has not been mentioned again, but the robot arms in his mustache are explained.)
Background
Ethan Nicolle was already fairly well known for his critically acclaimed graphic novel Chumble Spuzz when he got the idea to write Axe Cop.[7] The idea arose when Ethan was playing pretend with his brother, who invented the Axe Cop persona.[8] At the time, the elder Nicolle was working on a graphic novel that he wanted to release as a webcomic, and he intended to use Axe Cop as a way of practicing the medium.[7]
Characters
- Axe Cop: The main character. He is a police officer who finds a fireman's axe and uses it when fighting crime. Married to his job, he works the always shift by sleeping for only two minutes. At night he wears a black cat suit and kills bad guys in their sleep. His battle cry is "I will chop your head off!" When faced with a challenge, he will hold "try outs" to build a team.
- Flute Cop: Axe Cop's first partner. Spilled dinosaur blood turns him into "Dinosaur Soldier". An avocado and Uni-Baby's misplaced horn turn him into Uni-Avocado Soldier. He returns to being Flute Cop, only to become Ghost Cop (thanks to a wish by Axe Cop), Drag-Tri-Ghostacops Rex, and Viking Cop. He's generally depicted as Dinosaur Soldier.
- Uni-Baby: A baby with a unicorn horn; she grants wishes. Her father is Uni-Man.
- Uni-Man: Father to Uni-Baby. Uniman can also grant wishes, though he doubles as Axe Cop's equipment specialist as he's a brilliant scientist.
- Sockarang: A member of Axe Cop's team, and Axe Cop's best friend. He has socks for arms that he can throw as boomerangs. He later acquires the powers of Christmas after getting Bad Santa's blood on him. He's in a relationship with the Best Fairy Ever.
- Wexter: Axe Cop's pet T-Rex. He has gatling guns for arms, breathes fire, and can fly. He also has a "super duper fast bite". He feeds on people trespassing on Axe Cop's property. Wexter gained the ability to turn into a dragon-T-Rex with robot wings in order to travel to Zombie World.
- Telescope Gun Cop: A recurring villain. Angered by Axe Cop's rejection during a team try out, he turns evil. He travels back in time and kills Axe Cop's parents. His weapon is a gun with a telescoping barrel, so he can always shoot bad guys in the face.
- Ninja Moon Warriors: Named Vampire Wolfer and Fire Slicer, they are allies of Axe Cop who live on the moon. They hunt down "Vampire Man Baby Kid". They have turned down world peace in exchange for new uniforms. They were eaten by the God of All Bears. [9]
- Ralph Wrinkles: Axe Cop's dog. Ralph originally belonged to the Snoward family, but was given to Axe Cop as thanks for saving their family. Ralph gained the ability to talk, and later acquired numerous other powers like healing lazers.
- Best Fairy Ever: The only girl allowed on Axe Cop's team. She carries poison shrink spray and poison giant spray, and can use her small size to attack bad guys from within.
- Dr. McNinja: Starting on July 26th, 2010, Dr. McNinja and Axe Cop teamed up for a two week event.
- Doctor StinkyHead: Impostering as Sockarang, he made a fell attempt at Axe Cop's head.
Critical reception
Entertainment Weekly listed the comic as their "Site of the Day" on January 28, 2010. In her review, Margaret Lyons described it as "all kinds of silly fun" and asked, "Are we looking at the next great comic franchise?"[10] Detroit News said in their review, "'Axe Cop' is a hoot."[11] GQ named the comic their "Time Waster of the Day" on February 4, 2010.[12]
In response to the success of the online comic, Nicolle was approached by several comic publishers to print an Axe Cop series. With help of the Gotham Entertainment Group, Nicolle found that both he and Dark Horse had the same level of interest in the publishing deal, and accepted their offer. Dark Horse published an ashcan copy of Axe Cop for the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, which included the first five episodes of the web comic and some of the "Ask Axe Cop" strips. Dark Horse published the 3-issue Axe Cop miniseries "Bad Guy Earth" in the second quarter of 2011.[13]
Collected editions
Dark Horse Comics are collecting the comics into individual volumes:
- Volume 1 (144 pages, January 2011, ISBN 1595826815)
Other media
An expansion for Steve Jackson Games' "Munchkin" featuring Axe Cop, with art drawn by Ethan.[14]
References
- ^ Collins, Sean T. (January 29, 2010). "'My five-year-old could write that!': Bow before the blade of Axe Cop". Robot 6. Comic Book Resources. http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/01/my-five-year-old-could-write-that-bow-before-the-blade-of-axe-cop/. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Yerman, Jordan (January 28, 2010). "Axe Cop: Ethan & Malachi Nicolle's Webcomic Strikes Meme Gold". NowPublic. http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/axe-cop-ethan-malachi-nicolles-webcomic-strikes-meme-gold-2565702.html. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Hudson, Laura (January 29, 2010). "Axe Cop: The Comic Written by a 5-Year-Old, Drawn by a 29-Year-Old". ComicsAlliance. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/01/29/axe-cop-the-comic-written-by-a-5-year-old-drawn-by-a-29-year-o/. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Rickmers, Dan (February 3, 2010). "Axe Cop: The Web Comic Written by a Five-Year-Old". NYU Local. http://nyulocal.com/entertainment/2010/02/03/axe-cop-the-web-comic-written-by-a-five-year-old/. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Banks, Dave (February 5, 2010). "Sockarangs, Pretzel Heads and Uni-Babies - A Glimpse Inside The World Of Axe Cop". Wired. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/02/axe-cop/. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
- ^ Hudson, Laura (February 2, 2010). "Axe Cop, The Interview: Talking with the 5 and 29-Year Old Creators, Malachai and Ethan Nicolle". ComicsAlliance. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/02/02/axe-cop-the-interview/. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ a b "Brother of Axe Cop!". Geekchicdaily. February 4, 2010. http://www.geekchicdaily.com/story/brother-axe-cop. Retrieved June 4, 2010.
- ^ Lee, Landon (February 1, 2010). "5 year old's comic 'Axe Cop' sweeps the Web!". KXTV. http://www.news10.net/news/watercooler/story.aspx?storyid=74409&catid=335. Retrieved June 4, 2010.
- ^ http://axecop.com/index.php/acepisodes/read/mal1/
- ^ Lyons, Margaret (January 28, 2010). "Site of the Day: Axe Cop". Entertainment Weekly. http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/01/28/site-of-the-day-axe-cop/. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Detroit News review
- ^ GQ Time Waster of the Day
- ^ Arrant, Chris (August 2, 2010). "Artist's Six Year-Old Brother Inspires DHC Series AXE COP". Newsarama. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/axe-cop-ethan-nicolle-100802.html. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ Doctorow, Cory (2011-03-11). "Axe Cop meets Steve Jackson Games". Boing Boing. http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/11/axe-cop-meets-steve.html. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
External links