| Ngozi Ukazu | |
|---|---|
 Ukazu at the 2018 Texas Teen Book Festival | |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer |
Notable works | Check, Please! |
| Awards | "Digital Book of the Year" Harvey Award (2019) "Outstanding Comic" Ignatz Award (2019) |
| http://www.ngoziu.com | |
Ngozi Ukazu is an American cartoonist and graphic novelist. In 2013, she created the webcomic Check, Please!, which later became a New York Times-bestselling graphic novel.
Ukazu grew up in Houston, Texas. [1] [2] She attended Bellaire High School, where she contributed to the school’s newspaper, The Three Penny Press, as the comics editor. [2] She is the daughter of Nigerian parents. [2] She studied computer science, obtaining a degree in Computing and The Arts from Yale University in 2013 [3] and earned a masters degree in Sequential Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2015. [4]
Ukazu launched Check, Please! as a webcomic in 2013 after writing a screenplay about Eric "Bitty" Bittle, a gay college freshman and champion figure skater who joins a hockey team. [5] [6]
Ukazu created a Kickstarter campaign in 2015 to print the first volume of the comic; the campaign resulted in the highest-funded comics project in Kickstarter's history. [7] In 2018, the first installment, Check, Please!: #Hockey, was published by First Second Books. [1] The sequel, Check, Please!: Sticks & Scones, was a New York Times bestseller in May 2020. [8]
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Notable events of 2013 in webcomics.
Notable events of 2012 in webcomics.
Check, Please! is a 2013 webcomic written and illustrated by Ngozi Ukazu. It follows vlogger and figure skater-turned-ice hockey player Eric "Bitty" Bittle as he deals with hockey culture in college, as well as his identity as a gay man. Ukazu provides fans of Check, Please! a variety of extra content through her Tumblr and a dedicated Twitter account, establishing a piece of transmedia storytelling to expand on worldbuilding. A large fan base has accumulated around Check, Please!, and when Ukazu set up a Kickstarter campaign to fund the physical release of a first volume of the webcomic, she reached her goal with ease. In November 2019, Ukazu started up a Kickstarter to fund a Check Please! "chirpbook" containing Bitty's best tweets. The Kickstarter surpassed her goal within a single day. In 2021, Ukazu started a Kickstarter to fund a Year Four release with one of the rewards including a new comic entitled "Madison" taking place between Years Two and Three. On the final day of the campaign, the Check Please! Year Four Kickstarter became the most funded webcomics Kickstarter ever.
Notable events of 2017 in webcomics.
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Notable events of 2019 in webcomics.
Media related to Ngozi Ukazu at Wikimedia Commons
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