Category: Indie: Check Please!

Check Please!: Year Three by Ngozi Ukazu
Rating: 5/5 stars

This volume was the best yet, and I gave it five stars because, finally, all the feelings happened on-page. As much as I love Check Please!, too much of the story’s emotions in previous volumes took place off-page. With Jack and Bitty now officially dating and in a long-distance relationship, their feelings are upped by a lot.

Much of queer life is defining your own story. For Jack and Bitty, they are establishing their relationship for themselves and how to navigate the world with their families and teams and with Jack being an NHL rookie. Yes, there’s a lot of coming out, but how the story’s framed, this isn’t a coming out volume, but mired in the reality that as a queer person, you are always coming out. Continue reading “Check Please!: Year Three Graphic Novel Review”

Check Please!: Year Two by Ngozi Ukazu

What? That ending just made me want to know more, or have more. I kind of wished that Ukazu would’ve included a true “photo” gallery of the images she put up on Bitty’s Twitter account.

Check Please! remains super charming. Bitty is always extremely likable, even if perhaps he spends a little too much time on the phone and social media-ing. (Though like all my life advice, I say this to myself.) I also put this down wanting the next volume now.

What kept me, however, with a four rating were some plot inconsistencies, and some scenes I think we should’ve seen, instead of heard about. Continue reading “Check Please!: Year Two Graphic Novel Review”

Check Please!: Year One by Ngozi Ukazu
Rating: 4/5 stars

Sweet Eric Bittle, or Bitty, heads to college to play hockey in the delightful Check Please! What I love about this book is that you can tell Bitty is a character who lives a lot in Ukazu’s head, and we get the privilege to see him grow. Ukazu writes about she never really intended to make this into a web comic, or a series. But Bitty resonates.

While yes, this is one of those college stories where they never seem to actually go to class, what matters in Bitty’s world is his vlog, hockey playing, hockey team, and baking. Bitty stress bakes. Bitty bakes to get people to like him. Bitty bakes because there’s a kitchen — even if its a gross kitchen he has to clean first in the hockey team house.

The smallness of Bitty’s world feels so right. Continue reading “Check Please!: Year One Graphic Novel Review”