It’s a catch 22–good stuff is worth the wait, but because it’s good, you don’t want to wait. Hockey Homo is just the most recent temptation causing me to throw caution to the wind and read an uncollected, ongoing story. I figured I’d give it a chance, read the first couple pages and try to remember to keep an eye on it if it turned out to be my kind of thing. This is what I do with just about everything that isn’t complete and piques my interest–webcomics, especially. Problem is, it only took a few pages before I knew that I wasn’t just “checking it out.”
This webcomic is about Carter, a high school senior who attends an all-boys sports academy for hockey and takes an in-your-face approach to his homosexuality. He’s not running across the campus broadcasting it, but when confronted, he makes the other person out to be an idiot for even thinking he’d deny it. In addition to Carter are his fuck buddies, Reuben–“main fuck” and captain of the hockey team–and Scott–side fuck, teammate, and freckled blusher; his roommate, Asao; and resident Carter-hating homophobe, Paul.
[typography font=”Lekton” size=”10″ size_format=”px”]Carter, left; Scott, right–those are Scott’s thoughts.[/typography]
On the about page the author says this is “a ‘just for fun’ webcomic” and when you start reading it, it seems like a delightful smutty romp, but it’s because of that that you don’t realize when the story starts digging a little deeper. Suddenly you’re seeing all the pain and confusion ahead for Carter, Reuben, Scott, and if there is justice, Paul. Not to mention all the pain and insecurity they’re mired in in the present. They’re all clear about their stances, but not all of them are honest and everything is kind of hinging on Reuben who we’ve yet to have the privilege of reading from his point of view. Learning about Carter and Scott’s motivations and piecing together how the walls they’re building to protect themselves are also serving to obscure the truth of their hearts was probably the most painful part so far. I just can’t see how anyone is going to walk away unscathed. However, I appreciate that Kyere is sidestepping the usual “misunderstanding” but still managing to keep the characters battling it out with the anguish and subterfuge of others as well as some of their own making–it’ll be good if they only get their hearts broken.
The comic has already made it a couple pages into View (chapter) 4, but I managed to stop at the end of View 3. I figured that was my compromise for reading something in progress. If I have one complaint, it’s that I can’t read it on Tapastic.
I know I kind went a little dark up there and I’m going to put out a warning for homophobic and related slurs, rough sex, and blood, but it’s still a fun read and Scott is my fav, so you should give it a go.
EDIT 04.06.17: This webcomic stopped updating right around the time I posted this, but now it’s back! You can check it out on Tapastic (thankfully) under its new name, Crushed.
EDIT 02.26.23: Been a while, but after the previous edit, the creator disappeared again, I assume, due to life stuff. Over the years I’ve had some people ask if I knew anything and I didn’t… Until now! So I just ran across Kyere’s new-to-me Twitter (joined 2019), so I wanted to post an update for anyone still checking this post for them. I think they are in a stable place now, so I don’t foresee need for future updates, but I will if the occasion arises. Their Twitter has links to their other socials as well.