Sure, 29-year-old comic book creator Ethan Nicolle was nominated for an Eisner Award for his graphic novel Chumble Spuzz, but to garner mainstream attention it turns out he had to turn writing duties over to his 5-year-old brother.

Together, the two created the new online sensation Axe Cop. Five-year-old Malachai comes up with the delightfully bizarre stories. Ethan guides the narrative and inks it all out.

To get the inside scoop on this comic phenomenon, GCD phoned up the brothers. To read what Malachai had to say as we interrupted him brushing his teeth, click here. For Ethan’s plans for the franchise and on what's it like to have an Adult Swim exec accidentally invite your 5-year-old brother to drinks, read on!

GCD Axe Cop has become a web sensation. Give us the real life origin story.
Ethan The comic started as something I didn’t plan on showing anybody. I draw with Malachai when I go visit him at home. He’ll tell me about a monster, and I’ll draw it. We started playing “Axe Cop,” and I thought it would be hilarious to draw it as a real cop. I’ve also been working on my next graphic novel, and I wanted to release it as a web comic. But I’ve never done a web comic before, so I thought I’d do Axe Cop as practice. Then two days after the site went up, it just exploded.

GCD Do you think Malachai is more imaginative than your average 5-year-old, or could you have done this with any kid?
Ethan I think to some extent you could do it with a lot of different kids, but there’s a chemistry that Malachai and I have because we’re brothers and are so far apart in age. And Malachai’s a really special kid. He’s the youngest, youngest kid in the family. He was kind of a blessing/accident. My dad’s almost 70. He’s the joy of the family. He’s super freakin’ smart.

GCD We heard it was your sister that came up with the character Unibaby.
Ethan Yeah, she’s the middle child and she’s always trying to pop in while we’re working on our story. I keep telling her, this is a 5-year-old boy’s story; we can’t have everyone in the family write it. At that moment, she and Malachai were arguing, and she was like, “This story should have a unicorn in it!” And he’s like, “No, I want a baby!” At some point they said, “Unibaby.” And I was like, “Wait, what do you mean, like a baby with a unicorn horn?” And they said, “Yeah.” So I said, “We’ll do that. You guys don’t know how genius that is.”

GCD Will there be an Axe Cop comic book?
Ethan I’d like to do a book of the episodes and one of the Ask Axe Cop questions by Comic-Con. On Twitter today, Dark Horse Comics said, “Although we don't publish it *hint* we are all big fans of @AXECOP.” They emailed me later and said, “We don’t want to make any guarantees, but we’d sure like you to send us your stuff.”

GCD You’re already selling Axe Cop t-shrits. When are we going to see Axe Cop: The Breakfast Cereal?
Ethan That’d be awesome. Me and my buddy who designed the website have been working like crazy. We threw the store up in a day. I’ve had to turn down my usual contract work, which is boring flash animation for education materials. Right now I’m working full time on Axe Cop and hoping that’s not too foolish.

GCD Have Hollywood types been in touch trying to wine and dine you?
Ethan Someone from Adult Swim addressed a letter to Malachai and he said, “Why don’t you come out and have some drinks with us and we’ll talk about stuff.” I’m guessing he didn’t realize Malachai was a 5-year-old. He wrote back right after and said, “Oops. I meant to send that email to Ethan. That’s embarrassing. But funny if you think about a 5-year-old drinking with a TV network executive.”

GCD Well, I’m sure your brother knows how to have a good time.
Ethan Yeah, he’s a fun kid.