Pencils, Inks, and Lettering by Ethan Nicolle
Colors by Dirk Eric Shulz
Cover by Ethan Nicolle
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Axe Cop American Choppers #2 starts off with Axe Cop and Co. Fighting off an army of evil anthropomorphic axes. The evil Axes are the work of three Demon Lumberjacks working for satan. Satan not feeling up to killing God, has decided instead to kill Axe Cop to “tick God off”. The character from issue #1 who’s power is to shoot hypno-chickens out of his brain when he closes his eyes makes a return appearance, this time on behalf of God. This is really just Par for the course with Axe Cop.
Trying to summarize an Axe Cop book is much like trying to summarize one of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy novels : an exercise in futility. Like all other Axe Cop tales, American Choppers has only the thinnest of plots. Written by ten year old Malachai Nicolle, Axe Cop is mainly a collection of surreal scenes written in a stream of consciousness manner. Being ten now (the comic started when Malachai was only five), one can only wonder how much longer the odd things that Malachai throws into the story will really be random thoughts as apposed to the attempts of an older child who is starting to think in a more linear fashion trying to simulate random thoughts That isn’t to imply that absurdist humor cannot come from mature minds but just that it can be a very hard humor to create organically without forcing it to seem “wacky”. The absurdist as humorist walks a thin line between inspired and contrived
As usual Ethan Nicolle’s art perfectly captures the insanity that springs from his brother’s brain. Ethan seems up for any challenge whether it be a flying T-Rex with machine gun arms or axes with demonic eyes and fangs or, you know, the guy with the psychokinetic chicken powers.
Axe Cop’s humor is definitely not for everyone. If you like your plots straight forward then there’s probably not a lot here that will appeal to you. If instead you like unbridled craziness in your comics and lines like “I just really love ham, ok? If there was a planet of ham people I would go there and become their ham savior.”, you can’t do much better than Axe Cop American Choppers #2.
