Check Please!

Check Please! is a multimedia webcomic by Ngozi Ukazu about a college hockey player and his friends and college experience. It is often abbreviated to CP or OMGCP. Others have pointed out that CP has several other meanings, including child porn, so OMGCP is safer and clearer.
The main character, Eric "Bitty" Bittle, is a vlogger, and many episodes of the comic open with a shot of him speaking directly to the 'camera' as he records his vlog. In the first year of the comic, Bitty worked to adjust to the body-checking in college hockey, began coming out as gay to some of his teammates, and learned more about the college team captain, Jack Zimmermann, a talented player with a complicated past.
== Cross-Platform Storytelling and Fan Interaction==
Bitty, the protagonist, Tweets from 'his' Twitter account during the school year, enhancing the story told in the comic strips. Bitty's tweets happen in real time and are usually considered part of the canon universe. (Notable exceptions include an AMA with Jack on May 17, 2015, which Ukazu specified did not affect canon events, though the answers Jack gave could be assumed to be canon.) Ukazu discussed this in an email interview with the Daily Dot:
The Twitter is locked when the comic is behind the real timeline. (dates needed) It is locked as of August 2016. omgeverythingplease on Tumblr collected everything in the right order, including both comics and tweets. When the Hiveworks site was launched, tweets keeping up with the events of the comic were made available and searchable on the site.
Ngozi frequently creates works using the characters of Check, Please! which are meant to exist outside of canon. There are currently two Huddle! zines (though the second is only available in hard copy) which feature sketches of various pairings in intimate situations, all of which are meant to be either outside of or post-canon. Ngozi also wrote a firefighter!AU comic called Wingman which provokes a strong emotional reaction in the fandom due to its depictions of character death and suicidal ideation.
== Fandom ==
Check Please fandom is primarily found on Tumblr, where the comic was initially posted. There is also substantial work on AO3, where the first Check Please story was posted in October 2013, and the tag accumulated more than 2700 stories as of August 2016. As of July 2017, there is one work found on Fanfiction.net (Midnight, New Year's 2017), and about 20 works on Wattpad.
The most popular pairing is Jack/Bitty (Zimbits).
Fan response was strong and divided when Kent Parson, a minor character with a role in Jack's past, was introduced in January 2015. Jack/Parse is the second most frequently written Check Please! pairing on AO3.
Fandom exploded in February 2016 when Zimbits became canon. Destinationtoast posted a statistical analysis of Check Please fandom before and after the pairing became canon, concluding that there was a "huge surge in activity in the fandom" and discussing the fandom's changing trends in fanfiction genres and tagging.Destination: Toast!. TOASTYSTATS: ZIMBITS IS CANON!! … WHAT HAPPENS IN FANDOM?. 17 April 2016.
Fan response to Year 3, which began in April 2017, was less positive.
===Common Tropes & Genres===
* Coming Out: Both Bitty and Jack are closeted, and face different challenges in coming out. Similar to Hockey RPF, it is popular to explore how Jack, as a professional hockey player in the public eye, would come out.
* Professions: In many AUs where Jack did not go to Samwell, he winds up as an NHL player anyhow, and many AU or post-canon/canon divergent fics feature Bitty working as a baker or owning a bakery/cafe. The combination of these two - NHL Player Jack meeting Baker Bitty - is a very common fic plot. Many AUs also keep other characters' canon occupations/goals or turn their interests into occupations: Shitty as a lawyer, Lardo as an artist or gallery manager, etc. It's also common to see other SMH members as NHL players, particularly Chowder, Holster, and Dex.
* Multimedia: Due to the inclusion of Bitty's twitter account and cross-platform storytelling in canon, social media, such as twitter, Bitty's vlogging, or news media are often included in fan works.
* Future Fic: Particularly works showing Bitty and the cast post-graduation.
* Mental Illness & Anxiety: Jack canonically struggles with anxiety. How this and his history of overdose shape him are often explored.
* Soulmate AUs are proportionally more popular in Check Please! than in many fandoms. On AO3, 3% of OMGCP fics use the soulmates tag, compared to around 1-1.5% of fics for popular fandoms like MCU, Supernatural, Sherlock, Harry Potter, and Teen Wolf. Of the ten fandoms with the most hits for the soulmate tag, the only one where it comprises 3% of the fandom's total fics is Bangtan Boys. The trope's popularity in OMGCP fic may stem from the fact that it's also a popular trope in Hockey RPF, where it also accounts for 3% of all fics. The Check Please! fic OMG, Goose Please! was even the birthplace of an entire new subgenre of soulmate AU, the soulmate goose.
=== Meetups ===
There have been several London meetups in 2016, one on May 28th and one on July 2nd, then September 24th. Details of past and future London Meetups can be found here. The first three were all held in the Southbank Centre, but the October one was fancy-dress and in a different location. There was also a barbecue, and the April 2017 meetup was a sleepover to watch hockey-related films. The anniversary meetup is May 20th 2017.
Michigan are aiming for June 2017 in Farmington Hills. 
Other locations are setting their own up, but nothing official yet.
=== Chat rooms ===
There are two main IRC chat rooms on fdfnet.net - #omgchatplease and #epikinkster. The latter is 18+, though not enforced it is considered an honesty policy, and the former is kept safe-for-work.Fans of Check Please come hang out OMG Chat Please tumblr post explaining the rooms, posted April 7th 2016, accessed Aug 19th 2016
=== Overlap with real hockey ===
Some people came to Check Please to get away from real hockey/Hockey RPF.
Some people still love both.
Some people mix both together in fics.
Some people put trigger warnings or content notes on any Check Please content featuring real hockey. Examples include des-zimbits' tags on Tumblr, and Kent Stop, Won't Stop fanzine warning for mention of Patrick Kane.
=== Character/pairing theme weeks on Tumblr ===
* There are many theme weeks organised by people on Tumblr
* Samwell Student Union collects links to a lot of these
* Patater week, 6-12 Feb 2017 
* Nursey week, 8-14 Feb 2017 , started by @baba-nurse and @dexydex
* Women of Check Please, 4-11 March 2017 
* Charmer week, 18-25 March 2017 
* Ransom week, 28 Mar-3 April 2017 , started by @baba-nurse and @dexydex
* Dex Rarepair week, June 18th-24th 2017 
* Nursey/Dex week, July 16th-22nd 2017 
=== Women and Femslash ===
* The femslash fandom is small, and there are not that many female characters in the comic and not many with significant screentime, but people still create things
* Georgia has rarepairs like Claire the nutritionist OC
* George/Suzanne is a thing
* Alicia/Suzanne also exists
* Lardo/Camilla can be found, e.g. art
* OMGCP Women is run by fatlardo and dadbob and brings together a lot of women-focused content
=== Exchanges and Challenges ===
* The "holiday-ish" fanwork exchange, 'Swawesome Santa, added 72 works to AO3 in December 2014.
* 9 Check Please! stories were written for Yuletide in 2014. 
* In February 2015, the Valentine's Day Fanworks Exchange added 24 works to AO3 and included 34 works total.
* For the 4th of July, 2016 there was a Kent Parson based fic exchange called the Fourth of July Birthday Bash that added 54 works to AO3.
* The Check Please! Trope Challenge posts a trope every other Monday (originally every Monday) and fans create any type of work for any OMGCP pairing in response. Participants may create for the current week's challenge or any of the previous challenges. The exchanges was created by porcupine-girl and is co-modded with darkenednights. The first trope (Soulmate AU) was posted on June 20, 2016. There is an AO3 collection for participants to post works, but it is not required.
* The Check Please Big Bang was a Big Bang style exchange with a minimum writing requirement of 10,000 words, and an art requirement of a single work. A total of 33 stories with accompanying artwork were completed. The masterlist is located on Livejournal.
== Notable Fanworks ==
=== Fanfiction ===
* Phone, Please! by twentysomething - written in October 2014 for Ukazu's birthday, which for a time was the most popular story by Kudos and may have helped to spread awareness of the fandom.
* Something Like This by emmagrant is the longest published fanfic in the fandom, and is complete. The total word count is over 280k.
* Ice Crew Please! by rosepetals42, AU - Jack Zimmermann was drafted first by the Providence Falconers when he was eighteen years old. He is good at hockey. Very good. His team won the Cup his second year and now, in his third year, they are looking good. Jack should be on top of the world. And some days, he manages to convince himself he is. He’s not, of course. Enter the Ice Crew.
* maybe i'm waking up by idrilka
* Mixing It Up by sinspiration, Bakery AU - Eric Bittle, of Bitty's Bakery, is very excited to have been chosen as a contestant for the Food Network Challenge. He's even more excited to find out that he's making a cake for the NHL new-Cup winners, the Falconers. Jack Zimmerman, of the Falconers, doesn't know anything about cake, and will be the first to tell you that he feels wholly unqualified to judge a cake-making competition.
=== Audio Works ===
* The Wellie! A Check Please Fan Podcast launched in June of 2016. It is a monthly podcast with themed episodes. It is available on iTunes, YouTube, Soundcloud, and Google Play.
* David B. Whitmore recorded "I Need Him On My Line (Reprise)", a song from an imaginary Check Please! musical.
====Podfic====
* [podfic] 100px To The Right by Hananobira (Eric/Jack, 2014)
* [Podfic of] Building on that momentum by knight_tracer (Georgia Martin gen, 2015)
* [podfic] Hockeyed Up by read_by_Sophie (Eric/Jack, 2016)
=== Fanart ===
* Blueliners comic, trailers posted in summer 2016, launching in September, may be partially inspired by the popularity of Check Please, focusing on a woman playing in a traditionally male league
* @pawspaintsnthings is one of the most recognizable fanartists due to her unique colorful and emotional style. She is also currently working on a fairytale AU comic called The Wolf at The Door with @annudriel.
* redporkpadthai does amazing art and also takes commissions
* Jolena takes commissions
* omgpieplease Matt takes commissions
* Lyss also takes commissions, mainblog lookforanewangle
* wheeloffortune-design
* tronnies-art-blog
* alcoholanon takes commissions
* zimmerdouche takes commissions
* gettzi
* bittysplaylist takes commissions
* manyahello
* littlestpersimmon takes commissions
* kantperson
* angeryginger
* beanspean
=== Fanzines ===
* Kent Stop, Won't Stop, focused on Kent Parson
* OMGCP Rair Pairs, contains works about a variety of rare ships in the fandom
* Chicks, Please!, focused on the women of Check Please
* Welcome to the Show, multi-ship Fanzine focused on stories set in NHL
* Women of Check Please, multi-ship fanzine focused on female characters.
=== Vids ===
* Someone please add links to the vids people made
* Vines - "Crack Please" collection of vines with OMGCP characters
* Check Please the Musical based on N's post
=== Networks ===
* omgtransplease Trans network
* omgpocplease PoC network
== Shipping ==
The most popular Ships in the fandom by works on AO3 (May 2017, October 2016):
* Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann (2708, 1832 works): AKA Zimbits. As the central canonical pairing of the comic, it is no surprise that it attracts a large following.
* Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter (1017, 523 works): AKA NurseyDex
* Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann (447, 408 works) AKA Pimms.
* Adam "Holster" Birkholtz/Justin "Ransom" Oluransi (418, 266 works). AKA Holsom. The inseparable D-man pair. Shipping flames have been stoked by a few memorable images from extras such as when it is hinted that they have drunkenly made out, or when they are shown sharing a bed because Ransom is afraid of ghosts.
* Larissa "Lardo" Duan/Shitty Knight (394, 261 works). AKA Shardo.
*Alexei Mashkov/Kent Parson (320, 122 works). AKA Patater.
*Chris "Chowder" Chow/Caitlin Farmer (128 works). AKA Charmer.
*Eric Bittle/Kent "Parse" Parson (126 works)
*Eric Bittle/Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann (123, 68 works) AKA Pimbits or PB&J (as coined by Ngozi in a Tweet which has since been deleted).
*Shitty Knight & Jack Zimmermann (75 works) - friendship rather than romantic, as indicated by & rather than /
*Kent Parson/Original Male Character(s) (89, 63 works) The unusual popularity of a ship involving OCs is likely due to popular fics written/started before we are introduced to the NHL players in the comic. Whits from Emmagrant01's fic Something Like This, Corey Henderson of TDKeh16's "Mon Petit Chou" series, and Nate of idrilka's 'for all of the perfect things that i doubt" series (see maybe i'm waking up) are examples of OMC which appear in multiple works paired with Kent.
*Chris "Chowder" Chow/Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter (45 works). AKA Polyfrogs.
The relative lack of femslash in general is exacerbated in this fandom due to the comic's focus on male characters. Lardo/Camilla (17 works on AO3 as of May 2017) and Jenny/Mandy (the Haus Ghosts) are relatively popular on tumblr, but both have very few fanfics, perhaps because we have essentially no information about any of the women besides Lardo. The Falconer's GM, Georgia Martin, is also often headcanoned as in a relationship with a woman, but generally not shipped with any of the other characters in the comic, due to the age difference.
== Popular fanon ==
* The women's volleyball team? People have started writing other characters, not just Caitlin Farmer
* What happened with Kent and Jack before the draft, controversy around that - debate around whether the overdose was before or after the draft, most people seem to assume before, and assume Kent and Jack were in a relationship, even before that was confirmed in canon.
* Whits - Taylor Whitton, Falconers player, OC from a fic that has spawned other fics
* Snowy - goalie for the Falconers, seen spending time with the trainers, noted for apparently wearing eyeliner
*Kent Parson - before much canon information about Kent was revealed, significant fanon developed about his cat, "Kit Purrson," and his parentage.
=== Trans headcanons ===
* Dex http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Trans+William+%22Dex%22+Poindexter&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Check+Please%21+%28Webcomic%29
* Nonbinary Lardo http://archiveofourown.org/works/3815950/chapters/8505535
* Chowder https://archiveofourown.org/works/9337325 https://omgpieplease.tumblr.com/post/160427489962/when-mkaybuddy-approached-me-for-a-painted#notes 
* Bitty https://archiveofourown.org/works/9622088/chapters/21738716#main
* Jack https://omgpieplease.tumblr.com/tagged/trans-Jack-zimmermann http://archiveofourown.org/series/789885
* Shitty https://trans-shitty.tumblr.com/tagged/trans+woman+shitty/chrono https://omgpieplease.tumblr.com/post/163725768462/for-thatthose-anons-who-really-wanted-to-see#notes
* Whiskey
=== Neurodiversity ===
* Someone talk about Autistic Jack and ADHD Bitty and link to the popular headcanon Tumblr posts
* Many people see Kent Parson as having Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Others have issues with this interpretation implicating to excuse his seemingly manipulative behavior towards Jack.
* Some people, notably abominableobriens on Tumblr, also see Derek Nurse as having BPD - http://abominableobriens.tumblr.com/tagged/bpd-nursey
* there are more than two sides to eric bittle by heyfightme shows Bipolar Bitty
=== Pairing pun names ===
* "A little bit meta" for Bitty/Johnson
* Charmer for Chowder/Farmer
* Many others
== Controversies ==
* Shitty: not such a perfect ally
* Nurseydex: hatesex not always healthy?
* One controversy was around people reposting Huddle 2, which was only available to buy in person at cons, and Ngozi asked people not to post online. This was a fairly small subset, though, and didn't get widely reblogged - a lot of people didn't see it. There was also a small leak of Patreon-only content, but it was one image in a photoset and didn't contain any major spoilers, so didn't cause too much fuss - it could easily have been a mistake.
* Kent Parson: A problematic fave among significantly white fans. Kent's limited appearance in canon have been the subject of varying interpretations. There is also some discussion in fandom about the focus on Kent in fic and art rather than characters of colour who have more screen time.
=== Racism ===
* Racism in fandom - characters of colour are under-represented in fanworks, despite the good range of characters of colour in canon. Some fans have been overly defensive"I’ve taken some time to think over and process recent criticisms that people have made of me..." by des-zimbits (now garden-of-succulents) when this is pointed out.
* OMG POC Please was started by @chrisfranklinchow and @omgcphee on Tumblr to provide a private space for fans of color and also shares content focusing on characters of color
* @jewishomgcp are an important source for Jack and Holster content 
=== Bullying ===
* Bullying in fandom - some fans use arguments around social justice as an excuse for bullying other fans. A lot of fans were not part of fandom at the time of things like Racefail and Warningsfail, and repeat mistakes of dogpiling or punching down.
===Glorified Portrayal of LGBT and Non-White Players in "Real Hockey" & In Criticism to Fandom's Defense===
On August 17, 2017, Tumblr user xouellet made the following post:
Then on August 29, 2017, shaipes posted this comic, with the following script:
It received about 300 notes, all mostly support.
shaipes posted a follow-up post the next day.
This post received over 500 notes and garnered many fan reactions. The discussion segues into the controversy of the real hockey vs Check Please! fans.
But much of shaipes' (and certainly other critics') argument is that Check Please! takes place in the "real world" (as the comic namedrops Patrick Kane, who has already stirred quite an amount of controversy within Hockey fandom), and does address certain issues in the comic but not others, especially among hockey players.
There have been reactions by others from both sides of the argument.
== Kickstarter ==
In April-May of 2015, a Kickstarter project for a print edition of the first year of the comic funded overnight. The Kickstarter eventually closed with $74,290 pledged of an initial $15,000 goal. Check, Please!: Year One last update 2015-11-18, accessed 2016-04-17
In September-October of 2016, a second Kickstarter ran to print year two and re-print year one of the comic. It closed with $398,520 pledged of an initial goal of $32,500. ✔ Check, Please!: Year Two accessed 2016-10-22
In July 2017, Ngozi announced a deal with First Second (:01) for the comic to be published as a book. She also confirmed that she plans to run further Kickstarters.
== Resources ==
* Check Please! wiki
* Bitty's Twitter
* Check Please! fanworks at Archive of Our Own
* Check, Please! Fanfic Authors with Blanket Permission to record podfic
* SMH team on Dreamwidth and Parse-positive on Dreamwidth
== References ==
Category:Check Please!