Review: Check, Please!: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

Check, Please!: #Hockey
(Check, Please! #1-2)
Ngozi Ukazu
Release: September 18, 2018
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ARC provided by the publisher

Helloooo, Internet Land. Bitty here!

Y’all... I might not be ready for this. I may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur pâtissier, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge. It’s nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia! First of all? There’s checking. And then, there is Jack—our very attractive but moody captain.

A collection of the first half of the megapopular webcomic series of the same name, Check, Please!: #Hockey is the first book of a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.

Review:
I know I've talked about how much I adore this webcomic previously on the blog, so you all can guess how excited I was when they announced that it was going to be a real book published by First Second! AND GUYS, IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL! It's basically an American sports anime in comic form with amazing full color art and some awesome bonus content - like some of Bitty's tweets!

Check, Please! is this bright, happy, joyful comic about an adorable gay boy playing hockey, baking pies, and falling in love and it just hits all the right notes for me! I've absolutely loved reading the webcomic but there is something really special about being able to physically hold this comic in my hands. I could see lots of details than I wasn't able to when reading it online and I could study each character's expressions more closely. And the little explanations between the chapters were amazing! I loved it so much that I actually gave a loud Vader-esque scream of "Nooooo!" when I got to the end of the published pages even though I know what happens next to Bitty and all of his dearest hockey bros. 

Speaking of his hockey bros... I love each and every one of them and their different personalities! It was so much fun reading about Bitty's college journey again: his experience on the hockey team, GRUMPY JACK, baking, Shitty being the best, Ransom and Holster explaining hockey! It's just all so good! The dialogue is so hilarious, but also so full of emotion and heart. And that ending of Year Two!! I was pretty much the human equivalent of the heart-eyes emoji even though I knew it was coming. I really enjoyed the added tweets, they were hysterical and the perfect sort of bonus content.

If you're looking for a good LGBTQ+ sport comic that has all the best characteristics of a sports anime, Check, Please!: Hockey is the comic for you! I really can't recommend it enough! 

    

  5 / 5 Stars!



Recommended for fans of: Haikyuu!, Yuri on Ice, Free!, and Prince of Stride: Alternative