In celebration of✨The Year of the 🐸✨, here's a side-by-side of The Frogs' very first appearance in @omgcheckplease as HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS and our first "official" art of them as COLLEGE SENIORS!!!
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First we have Derek "Nursey" Nurse! He's probably changed the least out of the Frogs. But he's still putting himself into Situations (bro stop sitting on the wall you're gonna break your arm AGAIN)
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Next is our Sentient Ball Of Sunshine (until he gets in the net, that is) Chris "Chowder" Chow! His braces are off and he has the early days of a Mullet going on, and frankly I'm Obsessed
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And finally, we have the 2017-2018 Samwell Men's Hockey Captain, William "Dex" Pointdexter! Look at him!!! He's SMILING!!!
So Yeah. Those Are Our Boys. Now If You'll Excuse Me, I'm Gonna Go Cry Over The Passage Of Time Now.
Ukazu says, a rising tide lifts all boats, including the S.S. Check, Please! She’s hopeful that the success of Heated Rivalry, as well as another queer romance graphic novel-turned-TV show Heartstopper, will make the dream of seeing her work onscreen into a reality: The book has been optioned for adaptation. — Vanity Fair
Check, Please! has been optioned for a film/television adaptation. A while ago, actually—and that’s lovely. Nevertheless, the vast majority of options do not become television because it takes a million things going right to get projects off the ground.
That being said.
Ahem.
Speaking of getting projects off the ground...
From when Bitty first stepped out into the rink at Faber, to when he kissed the ice at graduation, we've all been part of this fun, weird, magical world of Samwell hockey. But when I left the world of Samwell hockey, I left knowing Jack and Bitty's story was done. Bitty's journey as the first openly gay NCAA Division I hockey captain was done. We baked the last pie; we shut off the lights at the kegster; the story was complete.
…But as I looked around I realized, I had one more story to tell.
Which is why I'm thrilled to announce that a brand new volume of Check, Please! will be serialized in 2026. Dozens of new comics, exciting update drops, your favorite characters with brand new storylines, and characters you've yet to meet.
Hello, Internet Land—SMH is coming home.
This fifth year of Check, Please! will be filled with shenanigans, drama, hockey, pies, Haus parties, and a new message of acceptance that is near and dear to me. And it's been brewing over the last year and half! But with the latest boom in queer hockey stories, I figured, hey! ¯\(ツ)/¯ Here's another one to look forward to. :)
Marginalized athletes still face harmful bigotry, and for this reason, queer sports stories are more important than ever. I love Samwell hockey and how each of you has embraced this roster of athletes.
There's so much more to come.
Ngozi
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MORE NEWS? SURE:
I’ll be at Emerald City Comic Con 2026, and yes, I will be dropping exclusive details about Check, Please! Year Fived uring my spotlight panel: Ngozi Ukazu - From Check, Please! to DC and Back! (Be there!)
Follow me on Patreon for behind-the-scenes on the making of Check, Please!: Year Five. I'm gonna livestream...a lot.
If only there were an original mm romance that you could read right now while you wait for more Year Five updates! Good news—John Rich & The Big Picture is very cute and laugh-out-loud funny and you can read it now, for free.
My latest graphic novel FLIP has made the best-of lists for the New York Public Library, the A.V. Club, Kirkus Books, School & Library Journal—and more. Get it here.
my friends r sending me heated rivalry clips of a player kissing his bf (?) on national tv after winning the cup and all i can think of was wow that also happened to my close personal friends jack and bitty
I can't believe Ngozi is reposting Check Please to Webtoons as weekly episodes. We're really gonna relive the entire comic run, revisit the complete spectrum of discourse. This is our Dracula Daily.
jack zimmermann in high school was like “i am insane 🤪😡 ” and that made him self destructive and kind of an asshole because he was overwhelmed and didn’t know why his brain was doing the things it was doing to him. And so he drank and he partied and he let kent parson pierce his ears one night after a party neither of them really wanted to be at, and he talked back to coaches because obviously he knew better than everybody. And everyone knew who Jack Zimmermann was in an “oh yeah, that motherfucker’s crazy,” kind of way, in a, “he walked the mile even though he’s a semi-professional athlete because he didn’t want to and he thought it was a waste of time,” way, in a , “did you hear that zimmermann blacked out last night and then scored a hat trick during the game?” kind of way
jack zimmermann in college was like, “i am insane 😔😶” and that made him feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility. He had to be so regimented, so strict with himself to keep anyone from knowing that his brain was doing the things it was doing to him. And so he studied and he didn’t come out of his room all that much and he practiced and went to class and practiced and he went on a couple dates and hung out with a couple friends, but on the whole, he kept it inside. Everyone knew who Jack Zimmermann was because no one else showed up to every single 8am American History lecture for an entire year without even thinking about skipping, no one has such a reliably consistent schedule. When people say he’s insane, it’s with a sense of reverence, he’s insanely disciplined, insanely dedicated, insanely strong. No more impulse, only actions that have been completely and utterly thought through.
jack zimmermann in the NHL is like “i am insane 🤷♂️😌” and that makes him play pranks in the locker room and pick bitty up and toss him over his shoulder for no reason, it makes him say, “have you ever thought about how i’d look with frosted tips?” half to see what George would say and half because he’s considering it. It makes him get a dog with more energy than he has. It makes him just say, “I’m getting grumpy, I’m gonna go home now, but this was a fun party,” without feeling bad about it. It makes him a little gentler with himself, it makes him fucking hilarious. It makes him go to therapy pretty regularly. It makes him text Tater at 2 in the morning to tell him that he just bought a “happy birthday” cake even though it’s nobody’s birthday so they can leave it in the player’s lounge to make everybody nervous and think they forgot someone’s birthday. jack zimmermann in the NHL is like, “i am insane, we knew that, let’s move on,” and good for him
Jack always finds the afikomen. ALWAYS. Every year Bitty tries to hide it in harder spots, but every year Jack finds it. One year Bitty hid it all the way at Tater's, but Jack still found it.
He had a kippa embroidered with hockey sticks around the edges when he was a kid 🥺
Everyone expected that his Bar Mitzvah would be hockey-themed, but nope, he went with something totally different. Outer space? A generic color scheme?
You thought his afikomen prowess was something? Well, there's a reason that dreidels were also banned from the Haus. One year Holster may or may not have ended up with one up his nose.
snowghoul
dededos
areudirty
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