The Check, Please! Year One Kickstarter launches Monday, April 20th, 2015 @ 6pm EST.

Check out ngoziu on Twitter or omgcheckplease on Tumblr next week for the project link. It’s gonna be ‘swawesome!

☆ Read Check, Please! Now☆

The Check, Please! Year One Kickstarter launches in less than two weeks. (On April 20th to be exact.) And WOW. I hope you guys like month long Internet festivities. 

…I finally wrote a blog post!

★ Notes on Year 2, Comic 10 – Shinny★

✓Aaaaahhhh yes. Here we are. Another blog post where I’ll answer questions you probably weren’t even thinking about and I’ll make numerous vague hintings at things relating to the plot. Why do you read these???? Do you want me to say Jack is going to kiss Bitty? Because I technically just did. 

✓ What is a “shinny”? Shinny aka pond hockey is when you play hockey outside! I wish I could have conveyed how large the Pond actually is, because they only cleared out a very small section of it for the hockey team. (Have you seen the Check, Please! Wiki? It’s amazing and sweats I use it all the time.)

✓ WHAT how did Bitty get that high off the ground with that jump??? Bitty is a cartoon character.

✓ But in hockey skates! It can be done.

✓ Bitty is real and I’m going to go to Samwell University. ….Okay, man. The application fee is $100 and you can paypal that to me directly, thanks. No essays.

✓ What’s Jack doing? Jack’s taping his stick. It’s something hockey players do to prolong the life of a stick and is often incorporated into a player’s pregame superstitions. Stick tape comes in all sorts of colors and designs with the most popular tape colors being black and white–I usually color tape white to create visual contrast in a panel.

✓Bitty’s Twitter is MY FAVE BUT I’m scared that I’ll know what will happen in the comic and I won’t enjoy the comics! hey hey hey and it’s okay if you don’t believe me–but Bitty’s tweets and the comics I have planned are very different. (R-r-remember epikegster?) Will you get spoiled? Meh? A little? I mean, it’s almost like reading the episode titles for a TV show–you may know what happens, but you may not be able to guess how. If this level of spoilage leaves enough of a bad taste in your mouth, then the experimental asynchronous multiplatform social media experience that is Eric Bittle’s Twitter account is something you may not want to partake in…join me in looking up from your computer or phone screen. Take a deep breath. We’re all gonna be okay.

✓ Anyway! While I hope the concept of Bitty’s Twitter doesn’t keep anyone up at night, it might relieve you to know that he’ll probably stop tweeting over the summer, as the story pauses.  Maybe the comic will catch up? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Hah, it’s going to be fun either way.

✓  Hello, I’m a completely different reader–I hate Bitty’s Twitter but I want to buy things from you!! Oh hey!!! I’m doing a Kickstarter in a few days!

LAUNCH DATE: April 20th 

THE STUFF: Including but not limited to–Year one of Check, Please! ~100+ pages collecting Bitty’s frog year with extra exclusive comics, notes, and illustrations! An omgcp post card print set! hardcover! t-shirts?? ink commissions?? custom jerseys?? (still in the works…OTL) mysterious stretch goals??? SURPRISE REWARD TIERS???????????? 

FULFILLMENT: September 2015 (I, like, need to graduate first) 

I’m going to try to get one more comic out before then! *takes your hand* please be patient.

✓ So what’s your update schedule until the end of the year. I probably won’t get to drawing the playoffs until this summer and hopefully I can finish Bitty’s sophomore year by September (kind of the same “schedule” I kept with Bitty’s freshman year). And when Bitty’s sophomore year ends he’s going to be a junior. What.

“Oh boy. Lookit Parser. Put your bucket back on, eh? You’re embarrassing everyone. Jeff?”

“Yup. Oh yeah. Not at all professional. The media’s around.”

“Great chirps, you guys. A+.” [X] 

A transparent Holster and Ransom because selfies.

“Not growing a beard for the team, eh, Bittle?”

“If I could I would, captain. Losing my shaved sides seemed like the least traumatic option.”

 "Let’s hope you don’t get them back until April.“

Some sketches of a brooding French-Canadian college hockey captain! My friend Rachel was jonesing for some.

From a year ago, extra-droopy-eyed Jack. And yes, all the keys to the Haus look like that.

★ Notes on Year 2, Comic 9 – Parse – Part III ★

✓ I made a list of these a while ago:

- Kent “Second Best Flip Cup Player At Samwell University” Parson

- Kent “You May Not Know Who I Am, But You’ll Want A Selfie With Me” Parson

- “Kent "Swiggity Swooty” Parson

- Kent “Looks At Jack and Says Hah Do He Got Booty? Oh God He Has Too Much Booty Abort Abort” Parson 

- Kent “#Hauswrecker” Parson (x)

- Kent “Has Dreams About Jack Zimmermann, Which Are Bookmarks In A Detailed Catalog Of Ways To Make Jack Question His Self Worth” Parson

✓ I’m. More confused than ever. *sweats*

✓ So Parse *is* a dick? Okay, but was all the stuff Shitty said true, then? Were Jack’s previous reactions a response to the way Parse had treated him before? Or is Jack actually insecure and jealous? Does Parse know about Jack’s anxiety? Does Parse miss Jack? Does Jack miss Parse? Is there still something there? These are all good questions.

✓ Dear God, why do I even read these blog posts??? For the vague hintings of course!

✓ Kenny??????????????????? You know when it’s the last summer of your childhood and you’re just hanging with your bro and you’re smoothing out his cowlick and you fondly call him Kenny while trying not to think about how mercilessly cruel fate is lol you know bros being bros

✓WAIT. WHAT DID BITTY TWEET/DO  AFTER EpiKegster???? 

Step One: Clean My Kitchen

— Eric Bittle (@omgcheckplease) December 14, 2014

Behold! How Eric Bittle deals with/completely avoids his problems.

OH BUT WAIT ETA! A day (ish) after #Epikegster and right before Jack goes home for Winter Break:

Okay, Jack & Shitty are fixing to head out. I’m going on a very dangerous mission. Wish me luck.

— Eric Bittle (@omgcheckplease) December 15, 2014

And now to wait… 🍪

— Eric Bittle (@omgcheckplease) December 15, 2014

Text from Jack: i’m surprised your cookies got through customs Bittle (â—¡ ‿ â—¡ ) He found them.

— Eric Bittle (@omgcheckplease) December 16, 2014

Eric “You May Never Want To Talk About What Happened, But I Can Wait, And I Want You Know That My Unconditional Love Comes Standard” Bittle

✓ Number of times I drew Parse at #EpiKegster in Parse I, II, and III: Three.

✓ Number of games of Catan I played during Parse I, II, and II: 135

Up next: Parse IV. Haha HA Oh GOD JUST KIDDING, 

Up next: Shinny! (???)

★ Notes on Year 2, Comic 8 – Parse – Part II ★

✓  There were the 34 days in the summer of 2009, between winning the Memorial Cup and the NHL Entry Draft in Montreal, where things were perfect. Who wouldn’t want that back? 

But that was a very long time ago.

✓ Who is Kent Parson? Is he a jerk? Is he actually as nice as Shitty and Bitty suggest? Why does Jack get so tense around him? Why is their relationship so strained? Is it just because of Jack’s jealousy? Is it something Jack did? Is it something Parse did? Why does he keep trying to talk to Jack? What does Parse want? AND HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ERIC RICHARD BITTLE?  Kent “…Baby One More Time” Parson. I’ve been sayin’ it from DAY ONE, FOLKS.

✓ Waaaaaait a minute wait what was that Parse sitting in Jack’s lap??? Where else would he sit?

✓ Is the only difference between now!Jack and qmjhl!Jack just his haircut? The secret to drawing a younger Jack is making him smile, the end. Hahaha, now we’re all sad.

✓ WHO WERE THOSE GIRLS RANSOM AND HOLSTER WERE TRYING TO WHEEL? March and April. March is 5’11. I sure hope they turn up in later comics. ._.

✓ What color are Kent Parson’s eyes? They change color like the anime trash he is.

✓ Ugh, when will this Parse thing be over. SOON.

Kent Parson related sketches from twitter.