Webcomics and Sports
The wife and I are preparing for the Big Game this weekend. I am rocking a #80 Victor Cruz jersey, we’re making plans to pick up some delicious barbecue from downtown Seattle, and we’ll be watching the Giants/Patriots rematch this weekend on our 46″ with friends and family. Which is weird, because neither of us played much sports when we were in high school or college. (Unless, heh, you count chess a sport.)
I guess it’s no surprise that there aren’t that many sports-themed webcomics. After all, the sports jocks and comic nerds are like the two subsets that supposedly never cross. And when they do, the outcome can be disastrous.
Sports teams are also specialized (football fans aren’t necessarily curling fans) and regional… so if you do a comic about, say, The Boston Red Sox, then the only people reading are likely going to be the Boston natives who follow baseball. Still, they do exist. In honor of the Big Game, the resumption of the NBA season, and whatever hockey is doing right now, here are some sports webcomics that might get you pumped up for the weekend.
Buzzer Beater by Takehiko Inoue
Buzzer Beater is the only webcomic on Wikipedia to be filed under the category of “sports webcomics.” It is also one of the oldest and most successful webcomics. It debuted in 1997. It went on to print in Shonen Jump and eventually got turned into an anime. Seriously, though, it’s a can’t miss premise: Earth wants to prove that they’re still competitive at basketball, so they play some mad hoops against aliens who look like devils. So… basically Space Jam. But with way more awed gasps about getting “immense air.”
Small Market Sports by Bill Charbonneau
Small Market Sports is, essentially, sports radio talk distilled in comic format. Except with radio personalities replaced by talking balls. This puts ‘em slightly higher on the cuteness scale than the Hockey Night in Canada guys … but slightly lower than the hosts of the Dan Patrick Show.
Sports Guys by Greg Eales and Tony DiGerolamo
This comic seems to be about a bunch of poor fans who seem to be all suffering from a bad case of lockjaw and esotropia. It’s nice that they found a bar where they could bond over their shared illness. And fantasy football.
Boxer Hockey by Tyson Hesse
This is some bizarre quidditch-like sport that involves dudes with any sort of blunt objects, a goal, a frog, and a lot of hitting. Is it fair including some totally made up sport for this list? Well… once you include intergalactic basketball, all bets are off.
Posted on February 1, 2012, in The Webcomic Overlook, webcomics. Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.
http://garbagetimeallstars.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-12-22T09:08:00-08:00&max-results=7
Garbage time allstars: it’s a web comic about current goings on in the NBA
Still, Takehiko Inoue will never truly beat that first big juggernaut of his, Slam Dunk!
slam dunk is really good. I love sport mangas like capain tsubasa that was a big thing in Mexico
Wait, I thought the big game Sunday was Chelsea v. Manchester United?
For soccer comicky goodness see: http://www.keeper-comic.com/Site/Comics.html
Oh, man, for a while there I thought you were talking about newspaper comic “Scorer,” which I sorta love ironically.
I do hope you’ll do a proper review into boxer hockey eventually, hahah.
Also god, it actually tires my jaw to look at all those hung open mouths in Sports Guys.
I think I’ll do a proper review of Boxer Hockey sometimes soon. The recent artwork hooked me.
Even if just a one-punch
YES. Please, make a review of Boxer Hockey
You can add this hockey webcomic to the list:
http://biscuitfox.smackjeeves.com/
I’ve never been into sports much myself as well. The occasional basketball game or touch football, but nothing too testosterone driven. But there’s just something about cheering on a team and not being able to watch the last two minutes in fear of a comeback that is just so damn fun!
That said, WOO GIANTS!!
Blackfly is a webcomic about Mixed Martial Arts (MMA/UFC). The protagonist is an MMA fighter who has all sorts of adventures, including supernatural ones:
http://www.blackflycomic.com
Somewhat eccentric, and often NSFW, but I follow it religiously. If you like offbeat comics with a healthy dose of sex and violence, check it out.
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