Check, Please! (webcomic)

Check, Please! is a webcomic by Ngozi Udazu. It is available both online and in two printed volumes.

Eric Bittle, Bitty for short, is the newest member of his university's hockey team. Samwell has high standards, and a tough captain. He loves baking, and showing off his figure skating moves. In fact, Bitty seems like the person least likely to score a goal, or block a shot. In fact, he is terrified of being checked. That is, for a player to flip him over their shoulder, so he'd land on his ass on the ice.

There's another issue: Bitty is gay. And he has a crush on the team captain Jack. Jack is a mess, hiding emotional baggage and a former history of drug usage behind his perfectionist regimens. There's no way that Jack would be interested in the home-baker turned college student... or would he?


 * Artistic License: Bitty applies to the college hockey program using his figure-skating background, complete with a video. Realistically, the college would have continued his education as a figure skating athlete on scholarship. But then, we wouldn't have a webcomic.
 * Anything But That: Bitty has this reaction when his housemates forcibly cut him off from baking in his senior year and put up BANNED posters in all the campus kitchens. Why? Because he hasn't worked on his thesis, only submitting a pie as "progress" of his work.
 * Deliberate Values Dissonance: Why Bitty is not out of the closet, and why he's scared of jocks initially. He's from the Deep South, where being gay is not looked upon kindly. In contract, when.
 * Face Your Fears:
 * Bitty is scared of jocks. When he was in seventh grade, . While the Samwell team players don't make a good first impression on him, he feels that he can tough it out to retain his scholarship.
 * Justified; a hockey player scared of getting checked is not a good sign, especially if they black out during practice. Jack realizes that if they don't do something about Bitty's phobia, it's going to affect their play. So he starts holding extra check sessions with him in the morning.
 * Love Epiphany:.
 * Reality Ensues:
 * During the playoffs in Bitty's freshman year, Jack outlines a risky maneuver to Bitty. As Bitty hesitates, Jack gives him a Rousing Speech about how Bitty can do this, and asks the younger student to trust him. They return to the ice, Bitty tries the risky maneuver bolstered by the speech... There is a reason that the maneuver was risky, and Jack questions if he's a good captain while willing to endanger a teammate's wellbeing.
 * Likewise, Bitty has been making steady progress facing his phobia of checks..
 * Bitty has been a decent college student, using his cooking to get into classes outside his major and practicing on the ice. He still has to turn in a thesis senior year, and his teammates cut him off from baking until it's done.
 * Serious Business
 * Bitty loves Beyonce. Do not insult Beyonce in his presence.
 * Bitty's mom takes it seriously if her son uses his Aunt Judith-- her sister's-- recipes. She considers herself the better cook between the two..
 * Tap on the Head: Subverted. When Bitty receives.
 * Supreme Chef: Bitty is the best baker on the hockey team. In fact, he's the only baker on the hockey team which surprises them. But he's really good, and soon he's making entire dinners for his teammates, and sandwiches for.
 * Through His Stomach: Bitty knows how to win over practically anyone by making them a pie. This is why when.
 * Tough Love: Jack insists on doing extra checking practices with Bitty. That's because a hockey player can't freeze up on the ice during a game. If Bitty can learn to not black out, it would help the team immensely. Despite Bitty hating these early-morning sessions, he admits that Jack is very right.