Interview

This week we have a chance to sit down with team Axe Cop and talk about it’s creation and where it’s going. Axe Cop, created and written by Malachai Niocolle and illustratred by Ethan Nicolle, is a webcomic about a cop who finds an axe at a fire and decides to fight crime in classic superhero fashion.

Just as interesting as the webcomic itself are the creators of this viral internet phenom. The writer, Malachai, is only 5 years old. His brother Ethan, the artist, is 29 years old. Despite such an age difference they are able to work as a team to create a powerful and amusing webcomic that has the creativity of a child with the artwork of a self taught cartoonist. In otherwords…pure magic.

At the top of the show we talk with Ethan Nicolle about Axe Cop’s inception to it’s subsequente rise to internet fame. He explains how the webcomic is brought to life with his lively writing sessions with his younger brother Malachai and a host of other things that shed light onto this mysterious thing called Axe Cop.

During the middle part of the show we get a chanece to talk to Malachai Nicolle (28:40) and get his take on this whole working with your family concept. I could try to explain what is said during this interview but you couldn’t possibly appreciate what it’s like for 3 grown men to have a comic discussion with a brilliant 5 year old without actually hearing it with your own ears.

So sit back…relax and get ready to delve into the minds of the Nicolle brothers.

Show Links:

• Axe Cop Website
• Chumble Spuzz
• The Tree Video

Show Thanks:
A special thanks to Ethan, Malachia and the whole Nicolle family. Thanks to Scott Johnson of Extralife Radio (voicework), John Sanford (co-host) and all of our great listeners for making it this show possible.

In this episode Brian and John catch up with Frank Page of Bob The Squirrel and grill him about what he’s been up to lately.

Frank talks about his graduate school experience and shares a few projects with us such as his “Bob Talks To God“ animation and his wonderfully illustrated graphic novel “Better Man” based on his real life experience.

A lot of talk about the art schools by all.

Meanwhile, Justin takes some time off to free cows from the midwest.

A very special thanks to Frank for taking time out of his busy life to talk about the thing we all love. Webcomics.

{enclose cccep79.mp3}

Might want to check out Tom Racine’s great intro to this interview at Tall Tale Radio before you listen to CC2C episode 76. There is some overlapping of the interview in each of the podcasts but it’s such a great interview it won’t kill you to hear some of it twice. 🙂

Comics Coast to Coast and Tall Tale Radio combine forces, because only with our mighty podcasting powers in tandem can we handle the magnitude of guest today?Mr. John Glynn of Universal Press Syndicate. John is here to talk about the ?Comic Strip Superstar? contest over on Amazon that?s touched a nerve in the comics world. We ask him some of the questions that have come up over at the Daily Cartoonist, and discuss the nature of syndication itself.  John is candid and funny, and has some great things to say, so listen up if you?re interested in the contest or syndication itself.  There are tips and ideas a plenty here!

Huge thanks to John Glynn for coming on the show and entertaining us goons. Love goes out to Tom Racine for his awesomeness (check out Tall Tale Radio “it’s the bee’s knees baby.”) Thanks to Justin Thompson of Mythtickle who is like my brother from another coast. We missed John Sanford this week. Check out his comic over at Chippy and Loopus. Thanks to Sebastiaan for the mashup. Check out Brian’s new comic A Guy In A Bush. and I guess as long as we are at it…we might as well thank Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine for not suing us over all the nasty remarks we make about him on the show.

More Notes Coming…

In addition to webcomics, we talk with the very talented John Sanford about his day job at Dreamworks and some “other” animation studios you may have heard of.

Me, Justin and John got so hung up on talking about animtaion that we ended up topping the show at an hour and a half. Thanks a lot John. :)     

More Notes Coming…

Jim Gownley is the creator and artist of the Amelia graphic novels. He is an advocate for kids? comics, having co-founded the organization Kids Love Comics which works to promote comic books and graphic novels as a valuable tool for literacy and education in schools, libraries, and at home.

We talk about how he created his comics business and how we need more comics being created for kids. This is a topic that really needed exploring on our show and Jim, being at the top of his game, is a perfect guy to talk with about it.

Howard graduated BYU with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition. He currently lives in Utah and is not afraid to talk about his life as a mormon, which is more than most cartoonists will reveal about their religious beliefs. He is married and has between 3-5 kids. He works full-time as a cartoonist, writing, drawing, and coloring Schlock Mercenary.

During the show Howard takes a break from coloring his comic at Dragon Keep to answer a volley of questions from me (Brian) and Justin. The first half of the show me and Howard get a little side tracked when we start talking about Dungeons & Dragons. But we still manage to ask some hard hitting questions about how he manages to make a living at doing Schlock Mercenary.

The second half of the show is at least as juicy as the first half as we talk about Howard’s background and what projects he is working on and what’s the future looking like for him.

The Comic:

Some of the very MOST alien of those folk are the carbosilicate amorphs, like Sergeant Schlock here. He’s extremely strong, reasonably intelligent, and much, much faster than he looks. He also has a penchant for violence, and couldn’t be happier with his job as a mercenary. Just keep him supplied with enemies, ammo, and Genuine Imitation Ovalkwik, and he’ll stay happy. Or, you know, he could just sit in the bathtub and surf the Infomercial channel on the hypernet. There are few things he likes more than a good bathtub, or one of those epic infomercials like “Getting Your Doctorate in Engineering from Popeil University.”

Check out all the other character bio’s

READ MORE