Ethan Nicolle

Axe Cop is a cop who chops bad guys' heads off with his axe. His partner is Flute Cop, who, through various transformations, becomes Dinosaur Soldier, Avocado Soldier, and Uni-Avocado Soldier. In the world of Axe Cop, very smart people sprout unicorn horns that grant wishes, good guys always beat bad guys, and somehow the good guys are easily identifiable despite their tendency to, say, chop people's heads off and eat babies.

The important thing to understand about Axe Cop is that it all show more originated from the mind of a 5-year-old boy. The series started off as just play-time between Ethan Nicolle (29 at the time) and his younger brother. Ethan turned it into some comic book pages, posted it online, and it took off. Conversations with Malachai helped produce material for additional Axe Cop adventures. Each story and "Ask Axe Cop" strip in this volume includes commentary from Ethan with "behind the scenes" info about the process of translating Malachai's words and ideas into comics.

It's a wacky, weird series that's over-the-top even by the standards of the most over-the-top action story you can think of. Anything could happen. At the same time, certain things come up repeatedly, and young boy thought processes put certain limits on the story. There was a lot of poison, unicorn horns, zombies, and random exploding items. Ethan mentioned the difficulty he had with getting Malachai to create villains that weren't incredibly easy for Axe Cop to beat (from a "working with children" perspective, I found Ethan's notes about what did and did not work well when it came to getting new material from Malachai fascinating).

I loved the weirdness of it all, and I really liked certain strips and stories. Of the longer stories, my favorite was probably Baby Man's quest to acquire all the things on his "Hunting List." I laughed out loud at Malachai's ideas about the sorts of things that might lure adults to their doom (free cars, ringing phones).

That said, this was a little exhausting to read all in one go, and although I love the way this series originated (this seems like such a cool way for an older and younger brother to bond), I'm not sure I'm interested in continuing on with it.

Extras:

Includes a gallery with 7 additional black-and-white illustrations created by other artists.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Whoopingly hilarious! This collaboration between a 29-year-old comic artist and his 5-year-old half-brother is laugh-out-loud funny. The wild, little-boy imagination runs riot: there are plenty of beheadings, explosions, killings, superheroes, awesome weapons, and too-convenient plot contrivances. The artist gives respectful graphic vision to these wild imaginings which not only cranks up the hilarity factor but also unexpectedly reveals sweet moments of child-like innocence and naivete. The show more Axe Cop advice pages are absolutely hysterical. show less

This was interesting and occasionally bizarre. There is just no better way to put it. An experiment where a five year old writes the story and a thirty year old illustrates it. Sometimes it's great and funny with fabulous chases and crazy weapons. Sometimes there is a definite reminder that a child is writing the story as things get more and more convoluted and difficult to understand/remember.

OMG -- I can't believe I read this whole book. It was so stupid I couldn't stop because I had to see how absurd it could actually get. Overall, it was to absurd even for me. I really enjoyed a lot of the artwork. It got better as the book went. I liked the "Ask Axe Cop" sections the best. The stories are written by a 5 or 6 year old and it really feels that way. Some interesting characters, but then they would change into a robot or a zombie or something else and the inconsistency had my show more mind whirling. show less