I hardly ever watch hockey. I've watched local games, the Stanley Cup, and the Olympics, but that's as far as my hockey experience goes. However, due to a web comic I have recently read, I can't wait until October, when hockey season picks up again.
Check, Please! is a web comic about a group of NCAA hockey players, Eric "Bitty" Bittle and his crew, at a fictional, private university in Massachusetts, Samwell University. It's every favorite fanfiction AU rolled into one convenient comic. First posted on August 8, 2013, this comic has been around for about three years. It has gained a fairly large following on Tumblr, the site on which it is posted. A quote from the about section of the blog from the author, Ngozi Ukazu, "It’s a story about hockey and friendship and bros and trying to find yourself during the best 4 years of your life." Personally, I find that this comic is about so much more than that. Throughout the comic you experience coming out, anxiety, former addiction, and extreme shows of bro-tastic friendship. Myself, and many others, feel a connection to the diverse characters in Check, Please! From their sexualities to their personality quirks. Ukazu gives little about the characters' backstories, personalities, and other details about their lives, but she does so in a way that implies a lot. The Check, Please! fandom on Tumblr has taken each tidbit of information and analyzed it for everything it is worth. They have inferred about the characters' lives in order to relate with them. A good author can make a character relatable to any reader, and that is exactly what Ukazu has done. She also uses amazing worldbuilding techniques to make the reader feel like Samwell is a real place. Because of the ample opportunities to connect with the characters, this comic is an important work for anyone, but especially LGBT athletes
The reason this is a web comic for LGBT athletes is because of the main character, Bitty, a former champion figure skater. Bitty grew up in Georgia, therefore we can infer (headcanon) that his family is fairly conservative. Bitty comes out as gay to his team, which he admits is the first time he's ever said it aloud, and they're all incredibly supportive. This is important because it shows another way to characters are relatable. It shows the issues that LGBT athletes can face when coming out to their team. Sports are notoriously homophobic and sexist, especially hockey considering there are no openly LGBT players in the NHL, which makes it difficult for some athletes to work up the courage to be themselves.
I wish I had found Check, Please! when it first started being published. I would've loved to read about an LGBT character in a sport in 2013. That year, I specifically remember some homophobic comments made by my teammates. I would've found comfort in something like Check, Please! a story of a person like me going through similar things. It would've probably helped me come out to my teammates sooner as well. This web comic illustrates the struggle and triumph of coming out. I can't wait for Check, Please! to update again, and I can't wait for hockey season to come around.
