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.
