Axe Cop is Getting Married, and so am I.

In the last year, all of Malachai’s older brothers have gotten engaged or married.  He has been the ring bearer at two weddings and has become a step-uncle overnight.  He has also been introduced to the woman I am now engaged to, Jessica Vedhuis, and her two children Lily and Ezra, to whom he will also become uncle Malachai, though he has already taken on much more of a big brother role with them.  He already worked Jessica into Axe Cop as the Water Queen in Axe Cop: President of the World.

With the topic of marriage so constant, finally writing a story confronting Axe Cop’s issue with the ladies seemed timely.  Up to now all we have known is that they are on the dumb list and they cannot be on his team because they are not very good fighters.  However we have seen that there are certain females he respects, like the Best Fairy Ever and the Water Queen.  We also have been told in the past that if he had to marry, he would either marry his best friend Sockarang, after magically turning him into a woman, or Abe Lincoln, also after turning him into a woman.  Those stories were both answers to hypothetical questions though, and in the true Axe Cop universe, Axe Cop remains unhitched.  In fact, as far as we know he has never even gone on a date.

Breaking into that territory is what excited me about working on this story with Malachai.  What are the qualities that attract Axe Cop to a woman?  What does he consider a good date?  How does he propose?  What is his wedding like?  Of course, there will be bad guys, battles and all the usual awesomeness, but I’m excited for the uncharted territory in the Axe Cop Universe… romance.  This time it’s not hypothetical, it’s canon.

About This Project

One year ago I fell in love with a woman named Jessica Veldhuis.  Soon after I also fell in love with her kids, Lily and Ezra.  It’s been crazy working my way into a step-father role, gaining an instant family and balancing all the craziness in my life with Axe Cop and my other projects.  Right around the same time I met Jessica, the deal for the Axe Cop TV show started to go down.  It’s been wild to see my lifelong dream of having a family and my childhood aspiration to have my own cartoon take shape simultaneously.

Uncle Malachai!

This website is a project to bring Axe Cop and the Axe Cop fan base into that story. I created this website as a companion to the Axe Cop Gets Married story, as pages post you can stop in here and see how things are developing.  I also created it as a fund raiser, a place where I will offer a lot of exclusive and rare items and opportunities through the month of May 2013 in hopes of raising funds to pay for my wedding, with stretch goals to pay off debts so we can start our marriage free of those burdens.  I’ll be creating a lot of items that only contributors through this site will have access to.  I’m not asking for charity, I’ll definitely give you goods for your money, but you’ll know that the profit is all going toward one of the most important goals of my life, which is to give the woman I love the wedding she deserves.

Why Do I Need Your Help?

You are probably wondering why a guy with a TV show deal and a fairly famous comic book series needs to raise money for a wedding.  Honestly, where we have been with Axe Cop the last few years has been much more a place of critical acclaim rather than financial success.  You will find, as with many who find success by way of free content on the internet, monetizing that success is a constant challenge.  Also, working in the arts it really does seem like with finances it’s often feast or famine.  Some days you are receiving checks in the mail you didn’t even realize were coming your way, other times you will go for months without a decent payday.  Unfortunately I am currently going through one of the longest financial dry spells of my young career.  It may be that in a year when the TV show has aired and Axe Cop’s audience has broadened I would not have had to do something like this.  But where I’m at right now, I’ve got to give it a try.

And honestly, I think it’s going to be fun.  I think we would have told this story anyway and it’s this intimate relationship with the audience that makes web comics as a medium unique and intriguing.  I’ve really enjoyed the community that has been built around my two web comics (Axe Cop and Bearmageddon) since I started them and it’s always exciting for me to read the comments and interact with the people who come back to my websites on a regular basis.

So if you want to get in on some exclusive and rare Axe Cop stuff, original art, a limited edition sketchbook and more, go over to the registry page.  Also, if you have some other creative way you would like to contribute, or if you would like to propose something (like an original art piece for instance) send me an email.  Thanks in advance to everyone who takes part in this project.  It’s the collision of two worlds for me, my art and my family.

The launch date for this web site and the Axe Cop Gets Married comic is January 22nd.  The significance of this date is that it is Jessica’s birthday.  I want this wedding to be a gift to her.  Also, January is the month we launched the Axe Cop website 4 years ago, so this is also the anniversary of Axe Cop.  It’s a new chapter in Axe Cop’s life and mine.  Thanks for joining us!

Ethan Nicolle