In case you’ve been hiding lately, there is a webcomic sensation taking over the internet, and it’s written by a five year old.
The comic is Axe Cop, and its origins are about as original as the comic itself. While visiting for Christmas, 29 year old comic artist Ethan Nicolle was playing with his five year old brother Malachai when Malachai came up with the ideas for the comic.
Check out more after the jump.
I visited him for a week during Christmas, and he was playing with a toy axe. He always wants me to play with him, and he usually wants to play dinosaurs, but he comes up to me with the axe and says, “Do you want to play Axe Cop?” And I say, “You have no idea how genius that is.” So I ask if I can be a cop, and he says sure, and comes out with this recorder. So I say, “Flute Cop? I don’t want to be Flute Cop.” So he trades with me, because he doesn’t care. So we’re Axe Cop and Flute Cop, and I say, “What are we going to do?” And he says, “Sign up here, we’re gonna fight dinosaurs.” So I said, let’s go cut their heads off. And I go, “Oh, now I’ve got blood all over me,” because a guy my age thinks it’s funny for blood to squirt everywhere. But then he says, “I got it on me too, and I turned into a dinosaur soldier!”
By the time we got to that point, I realized that if I were to draw this out like an old school comic and take it totally seriously, it would just be so funny. I figured I was just being partial, though — I drew the comic for my family so I never really expected to share it. But I posted it online on my Facebook, and my friends thought it was funny, so I asked [Malachai] what would happen next. He had a friend over that had a telescope, so suddenly we had Telescope Gun Cop. I just started quizzing him on what happens next in the story, and then I translated it onto the page.
So basically, it’s the most absurd thing ever. It follows Axe Cop and Flute Cop/Dinosaur Soldier/Avocado Soldier as they attempt to fight dinosaurs, Bad Santa, giant robots, and killer snowmen. Whenever they are overmatched, they always have a tryout. This of course brings more ridiculous heroes to their side, like Sockarang or Leaf Man. In many ways, be it art or sheer absurdity, it reminds me of Eric Powell’s The Goon. Ethan’s art is eerily reminiscent to Powell’s work, while Malachai’s concepts are just bizarre enough to mesh with Powell as well. I suppose in some ways it makes perfect sense that the most comparable imagination to Eric Powell would be a particularly imaginative child.
