Axe Cop, Volume 3

I really enjoy this extremely bizarre but tons o' fun series. Illustrated by Ethan Nicolle, the art is very clean and very iconic. The stories are the stuff of imagination. The imagination of a young 5-year old child; Ethan's brother, Malachi. 

But like I told the owner of the comic book store in which I bought this collection, this series isn't going last forever. After a while, Malachi is going to get older and he's not going want to keep coming up with stories full of potty humor, axe wielding officers of the peace, and tons of other really silly stories. And I think I might be right about this.

Doing a search, there's not been a new Axe Cop series published since 2014. Going on to the Axe Cop website where this series began as a web comic, there hasn't been any new work added since September of last year.

This collection of shorts includes a number of Ask Axe Cop vignettes in which AC gives really bad advice. Plus, there's a fantastic crossover with another one of my favorite all-time web comics- Dr. McNinja! 

Are Axe Cop's best days behind him? I hope not because I am such a fan of this series. But I would completely understand if the end of Axe Cop is at hand. Though if in about 15 years, Axe Cop returns with Malachi Noelle being the illustrator and Ethan's young son or daughter becomes the next mastermind of the Axe Cop universe, that would be so cool.

Talk about things going around in full circle. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Volume 3: King Radical

 

Oooooooh, slanty.

 In volume 2, the whole world saw Dr. McNinja and mayor of Cumberland, Chuck Goodrich die in a fiery shuttle crash as they tried to save the world from dinosaurs. Or was it zombies? Or was it zombies riding on dinosaurs? Without it's heroes, a power vacuum forms in the city, as McNinja's arch-enemy King Radical seeks to claim the burg as his criminal base of operations under the guise of being the community's new benefactor. But when a hobo uses a bizarre clause in the city's charter to become the new mayor of Cumberland, it puts a serious crimp in the Monarch of Awesome's style. Though having a powerful mummy for assistant mayor helps too.

    Join McNinja's family, his 12-year old mustached sidekick Gordito, his ape secretary Judy, and the rest of the McNinja gang of oddballs as they try to keep the peace in the good doctor's memory. That's easier said than done now that a powerful demon has come searching for Mayor Goodrich's soul and an insane Jesuit gym teacher has shown up at the local Catholic high-school. And just who is this mysterious new doctor wearing a Lucha libra mask and has the ability to cure a disease that turns people's butts into spiders at night?

   Okay- I can't believe I just typed that last sentence...

   Anyways. I was first introduced to the madcap world of Christopher Hastings and Anthony Clark's Dr. McNinja about a year ago when my library had volumes 1&2 on the new shelf. The udder ridiculousness of a ninja doctor trying to thwart the attempts of a Burger King look-a-like powered by Mountain Dew from taking over the world was just perfect for me.  I love absurd stuff and this is about as surreal as it gets. Time travel, mummy's curses, cities turned into giant robots, zombies, and massive orders of 200 expensive pizzas are just some of the bizarre things waiting inside this book based on the webcomic of the same name.

    Readers of my blog will note that I love the oddball comic series The Tick. But Dr. McNinja is completely different. For one thing, the Tick is a parody whereas, okay, honestly, I don't know what the hell to classify McNinja as... The closest I can I come to classifying this series is that it is a surrealist slapstick comedy a la Buster Keaton or the Three Stooges. In terms of other comic books, this book is a lot like another Dark Horse publication called Axe Cop. Only, this book wasn't written by a 5-year. (And that's not an insult! Axe Cop really was written by a 5-year old, though he's much older now. Google it...)

    I enjoyed this book but not as much as I think I could have. Having been so long since I read volumes 1& 2, I was a little lost trying to re-familarize myself with this series. It's one reason why I like to have all of a series before I read it but when you are depending on the library to help supplement your comic book collecting and reading, then beggars can't be choosers.  But if you are new to this series and somehow get the chance to get your hands on all three volumes at once, I think you'll truly benefit by reading them all in a close grouping.

    Amazingly clean art, crazy plots and even crazier ideas, and tons of surprises, Dr. McNinja, volume 3 is a great read, even if you did forget some of what happened earlier in the story. It's not like we've got the brilliant photographic memory of a ninja or something...

   Worth Consuming

     Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Adventures of Dr. McNinja, volume 2: Timefist

Well, it didn’t take very long for me to return to the strange world of Dr. McNinja. Part ninja, part doctor, all Irish (?)- and completely insane, in this volume Doctor McNinja experiences a number of space/time continuum bending adventures. First, The McNinja family has their annual battle with a clan of pirates and we learn the not-so terrible secret behind how McNinja was able to obtain a degree in every field. Then McNinja and a time-travelling clone of the mayor must hi-jack a space shuttle to prevent sentient dinosaurs from outer space from retaking control of the earth. Lastly, McNinja and the mayor clone end up in an alternate time-line in the future, during which said space dinosaurs have ruled the world with an iron stumpy fist for 2 decades.

 

While I very much enjoyed this volume and hope to get my hands on more titles in the future, this volume wasn’t quite as good as the first. The biggest problem was that there was a lot of references to works I hadn’t read yet. Dr. McNinja has been a web series for years and those stories have been reprinted before. Yet, Dark Horse Comics has only published 2 volumes; neither of which contain any of the stories that Christopher Hastings references to in his editorial comments.

 

Also making this story not quite as good as the first is the quantum mechanics of the plot. I love time travel and alternate timeline stories. These tales are very good. However, they may be a little too good. One thing that makes me a fan of Doctor Who is the Timey-Wimey/ Wibbly-Wobbly nature of time travel- meaning time can be rewritten. In this series, time can’t be rewritten, thus if someone travels in time, they create parallel universes, much like Marty does in Back to the Future (parts 1, 2, and 3- but mostly 2.) There’s even a chart in the last story that makes some of the timeline confusion involve a little less head scratching. It helps, but it’s a lot of information to keep straight.

 

Lastly, I want to give kudos to the short story at the end of this volume. I mentioned in my review of volume 1 that Dr. McNinja reminds me so much of Axe Cop, that I heard Axe Cop’s voice when McNinja talks. Well, in this book, I’m hearing double as McNinja and Axe Cop meet for a tale that involves pizzas that turn it’s eaters into blobbish mutants. No, this isn’t an allegory for the obesity problem in America in relation to fast food. Well, it might be, but I think it was unintentional. The team-up was also and I hope the two heroes of the bizarre will reunite real soon. Hopefully, the big-wigs at Fox will take note and add Dr. McNinja to their Animation Domination line-up on Saturday nights. (As well as renew Axe Cop for some new episodes.)

 

Worth Consuming.

 

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja volume 1: Night Powers

 

Holey Mol-ey! Am I in love with the one web comic in world history to star an Irish Ninja physician! Dr. McNinja is all three things rolled into one and his world is totally insane. Helping McNinja save the world from evil is his gorilla secretary, Judy and his 12-year old sidekick, Gordito, a cowboy that rides a velociraptor and bears a full mustache.

 

If this series seems completely nuts, it is! There’s definite elements of the Tick, Deadpool, and Supernatural Law. But the comic that is the most like Dr. McNinja is another classic web series known as Axe Cop! This series isn’t written by a six-year old. But when I read McNinja speck, I hear Axe Cop’s voice in my head. (Axe Cop is also an animated feature on Fox and is voiced by the epic Nick Offerman of Parks and Rec.

 

Adding to the craziness are the tiny blurbs on the bottom on each page by series creator Christopher Hastings. They’re like a director’s cut for the absurd.

 

I found this book at my local library. I love that place. I am so glad that they had this book as well as a second volume in the series, which I look forward to eagerly. I have only read one book so far, yet Dr. McNinja has already become not only one of my favorite independent comics, but one of my favorite comics series of all-time. Fantastically bizarre stuff.

 

Worth Consuming.

 

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.