In my pursuit of changing things up around here at Comic Binge, I’ve been trying to get my hands on stuff that is not DC or Marvel in attempt to do some graphic novel reading outside of superheroes. I didn’t quite make it straight out of superhero or action comic books, but I found something truly unique and absolutely wacky to review this week. The title I picked up and started, is called Axe Cop. Yes, Axe Cop. The first thing I saw when I looked at the cover with this title was a really bad horror/action movie about a cop that uses only an axe to fight crime, and that because of that axe, it was going to get bloody. Basically, I saw a little Asylum, a little B-movie ideas, and a lot after midnight kind of humor. After researching the title a little bit, I knew that I may not be in for exactly what I thought I was going to be. Axe Cop is a comic that’s mostly put together by Ethan Nicolle as a web series over at their own website. However, there is a special key ingredient that goes into Axe Cop and his stories. That secret ingredient, is Ethan’s little brother Malachai, who at the age of 5 helped contribute the basis and story for this outlandish title. As it is explained throughout the book, Malachai had a wild imagination, and Ethan felt what better way for his little brother to see his silly stories imagined than to have them illustrated by his own older brother. What apparently started out as something for just him and his brother, turned into an absolute frenzy and is now incredibly popular.
The very first thing that I came to appreciate about Axe Cop, is the fact that despite it being written by a young child, it’s still pretty enjoyable. Once I had figured out what exactly Axe Cop was, I imagined I’d be reading a ludicrous story still about a cop who uses only an axe, but I had wondered how Ethan would be taking his little brother’s ideas and translating them to the page. And really, it appears that Ethan sticks to Malachai’s word as close as possible, as the story is very basic and simple, but the humor stems from that. If you read this book without the knowledge of Malachai Nicolle as a significant contributor to the title, you’d be really disappointed with how poor of a writer Ethan is to match his insane ideas of Axe Cop and other characters present in the series. But with the knowledge of Malachai’s involvement, it’s really easy to put the childish writing and ideas aside for some good old fun. Axe Cop is a title that calls back to the days of newspaper strip comics, where the story goes from week to week, or edition to edition, if at all. Most of the strips are one-offs of things asked to Axe Cop, or situations he’s found himself in by fighting bad guys. I particularly found Ethan’s handling of what would normally be very violent and gory violence phenomenal, and turning Malachai’s ideas into something palatable for any generation. I found that Axe Cop was at times hard to stick with in a trade paperback form though, as some of the stories are very short and mount up quickly when reading them back-to-back-to-back. There were roughly 100 strips in this first volume, so it can be overload of “dumbed down” writing if you’re not prepared for it. I sat the book down several times, but with a smile. I have yet to watch the TV show on Fox either, but apparently there is one, which I didn’t know when I picked up the book.
I come away from Axe Cop a changed person, in the sense that it made me think about my childhood, like several other readers of the book have claimed. What Ethan captures in his art and from his little brother’s brain, is that time in our lives when the rules didn’t matter. When logic was something we had yet to learn and apply, and our imagination held no limits (though our limits are not as high as we believe at that age). This book is the product of basically any young boy’s imagination, when they’re coming up with stories and backgrounds for their action figures, or toys. This book, is exactly what every little boy and some girls think is funny when they watch cartoons, and reenact them for their parents. Axe Cop captures every little nuance of childhood, and the illogical imagination we all have at that age. It seems there are five more volumes of trade paperbacks that are collected from the website, and I plan to get into those at a much slower pace. I had to enjoy Axe Cop at a decent speed in order to have it for y’all to read about, but it’s a great slow burn trade out there to pick up if you’re looking for laughs. A perfect addition to the coffee table, and an excellent conversation piece at that. It takes a minute to get the tone of the humor and see why it’s so funny, but I think Ethan’s direction throughout the book is critical to enjoying the comics. Don’t skip what he has to say about his little brother Malachai, because it really puts things into perspective for you to enjoy as much as he and his family seem to. If only there were more family fun collaborations such as this one to enjoy this holiday season. Happy Holidays from this household, and enjoy your comics, gifts, and lovable people this week!
RATED : ( PG )
STORY : ( 6 / 10 )
ARTWORK : ( 7 / 10 )
COVERS : ( 8 / 10 )
AWESOME : ( 9 / 10 )
FINAL RATING : ( 7 / 10 )