First Impressions: Ngozi Ukazu’s Check, Please!

{Ngozi Ukazu} Check, Please!This webcomic is so good! I’m terrible at keeping up with serials, godawful, really, and because of that, I often put things like webcomics on the back burner where they eventually boil down to nothingness, but this is on Tumblr (and it’s crossed my dash several times already) so it’s godeasy! MAN, am I having the best time with Bitty and his pack of bros! I’m all exclamation points!

Each post is about 7 or so panels, I’m really not into this comic format (panel-by-isolated panel), but lately I’ve had no choice but to get used to it (though oddly enough, if I ever got around to doing my own, it would be just like this… crazy). Anys, Check, Please! is about Eric Bittle, hockey and pies. I have to admit, the pie thing seemed like it would be a tired gimmick after a few appearances, but I’m caught up with the available updates and it’s more matter of fact than anything else, so that’s great. I’ve never thought much about hockey; I think the only time I even batted a lash was when my uncles and such were all worked up over Fuhr(?) being the first black goalie in the NHL, but that was decades ago. Worked up in a good way; we’re black, so… I vaguely remember some fuss over the first black captain… no, I think it was a ref because it had something to do with the Flyers (my hometown team) and I know they’ve never had a black captain. Anys, I said that to say, it doesn’t even matter. Unlike the pies, the hockey is in your face and you’ll love it because, with the help of Ransom & Holster you learn all you need to know and find it hilarious to boot.

{Ngozi Ukazu} Check, Please!-01It really is good. However, one of the things that seemed to be missing from everything I’ve seen on my dash and even on the site (in the About and such) is the fact that there is LGBTQ representation. From what I can gather, as the story continues, that aspect will be less like the hockey and more like the pies until there’s “a development.” I suppose Ukazu doesn’t have the intention of making this a “LBGTQ comic” and that’s fine, that’s great actually because comics should just be comics and accessible to all. I get that the lack of mention on the site is intentional, so I hope I’m not doing a disservice to Ukazu or omgcheckplease as I put it out there. I think that regardless of how someone identifies they should know that there is a place where they can see LGBTQ representation outside of the common caricatures that are so pervasive also where it isn’t treated as a spectacle and neither is it invisible nor baiting.

I really, really, want to say more, but you’ll appreciate it all the more if you experience it firsthand. Read the first installment HERE!

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