'Swawesome!
September 30, 2015 9:47 PM   Subscribe

Eric "Bitty" Bittles was the 2010 Southern Junior Figure Skating Champion and played on a co-ed community hockey team in high school. Now he's a freshman at Samwell University and is on the men's hockey team. There's checking in college hockey. And Bitty is terrified of getting checked. So begins the cult-favorite web comic called Check, Please!

Created by Ngozi Uzaku , the comic updates in more-or-less real time. (This is the second year of the comic and Bitty’s sophomore year in college.) Bitty, a dedicated vlogger and baker of pies, sends out tweets between installments of the comic to keep you up to date on the latest happenings in the fabled Hockey Haus. [Note this twitter feed is temporarily private to avoid spoilers.]

His teammates include captain and star player Jack Zimmermann (fluent in Quebecois and angst), Shitty (gender studies major, great listener, has majestic hockey hair), and defensemen Ransom and Holster, “drift compatible beer pong bros” who will gladly teach you the hockey shit you need to know. Oh, and best not forget Lardo, art student, team manager, and Shitty’s girlfriend. Here: this quick primer will get you started.

What makes Check, Please! special? Its main character is gay and just coming to terms with being able to say that out loud for the first time. Bitty has fallen for Jack, who struggles with depression and has a history of alcohol abuse, and who also might like Bitty back. The cast is as diverse as it is zany. There’s fan art, fan fiction (warning, may not be SFW), and even a Spanish language version. But it might just expand beyond its cult fanbase on Tumblr – a recent kickstarter to help Uzaku get Bitty’s first year published as a book more than quadrupled her original $15,000.00 goal. The book is now in the works. (No word on the release date yet.)

Actual hockey season starts October 7. In the meantime, you can start reading Check, Please! here.
posted by That's Numberwang! (6 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Not answering to anything other than my hockey name from now on, will forward the link to Ransom & Holster hockey shit comics to anyone who questions it.

Also this is the best use of the Tumbler photoset template I've ever seen. Love it!
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:55 PM on September 30, 2015


Is it Schnitter? Teeny? Lim-o?
posted by St. Hubbins at 10:18 PM on September 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


To My Fellow Women:

You know how to sucks when you're reading a male-authored comic with a female lead and it's clear the guy has based her on his fetish-heavy idea of women, rather than actual human beings?

OK, so maaaaaaybe we should keep that in mind when we're writing comics with gay male leads. Because seriously, when we started the synthesis of manga and Western comics the bizarre yaoi tropes should be left in the "Nope" bin with the harems and the elementary schoolgirl upskirt shots.
posted by Anonymous at 11:40 PM on September 30, 2015


I hate reading we comics on tumblr. Especially when everything (comic, Kickstart, fanart , literally everything) gets dumped into same spot. Makes keeping up through mobile near impossible.
posted by FunkyHelix at 3:41 AM on October 1, 2015


My hockey name would totally be schnitzy. At one point I had the hair, too.

None of my campus orientations included a gift basket or cookies. I feel cheated, how can I attend Samwell?
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:43 AM on October 1, 2015


I love this a lot, thank you.
posted by maryr at 5:22 PM on October 1, 2015


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