Ngozi Ukazu is a New York Times-bestselling and award-winning author and the creator of Check, Please!, an online graphic novel whose printing campaign remains the most funded webcomics Kickstarter ever. Her other works include the young adult graphic novels Bunt! with artist Mad Rupert, Barda and Orion with DC Comics, and her most recent graphic novel, Flip. She graduated from Yale University with a degree in Computing in the Arts, and received an honorary MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies. She enjoys giving talks at colleges and all things fandom. Her cartoons regularly appear in The New Yorker.

I had the opportunity to interview Ukazu, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hey there, Geeks OUT! My name is Ngozi Ukazu. I’m the creator of Check, Please!, a hockey romance with boy’s love and baking, I write and draw for DC Comics, and occasionally submit to The New Yorker.

What can you tell us about your latest project, Flip? What was the inspiration for it?

Flip is the story of Chi-Chi Ekeh, a scholarship student at a private school in Houston, Texas who—through a series of strange circumstances—swaps bodies with Flip Henderson, her crush. As we follow Chi-Chi and Flip through this body-swapping ordeal, we learn more about their struggles as high schoolers and ultimately what self-respect and self-acceptance looks like. When it comes to inspiration, this story is pretty autobiographical! It is a bit of a letter I wish I could send to my teenage self. Another inspiration was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, a novel that I read while outlining and scripting Flip. It is such a dense and beautiful text. The Bluest Eye follows a poor young black girl from Ohio who wishes for “blue eyes”, basically expressing this lack of self-worth, this inability to see her own beauty. Mixing these themes into Flip helped me round out the story in an impactful way.

How would you describe your creative process?

I start off with an idea or question or character (or, let’s be honest, a “ship”) and start to fill out the story with endless brainstorming and question-asking. For my webcomic series Check, Please! which was published by First Second in 2018, the impetus was the character Eric “Bitty” Bittle, a former figure skater who joins a college hockey team, and who is queer and loves to bake. With this fish-out-of water character, I asked so many questions about how his life would be playing college hockey. How would the hockey boys respond to his baking? What would be some of his strengths and weaknesses as a hockey player with a figure skating background? Would he end up having a crush on anybody on the team? (The answer to that? Of course.)

What are some of your favorite elements of writing/illustrating? What do you consider someof the most frustrating and/or difficult? 

A creative is constantly tobogganing between the ecstasy of having a crisp and perfect vision and the hopelessness of roadblocks brought by a lack of skill or imprecision in execution. And it truly is what it is. You have an idea for this cool character; you can’t actually draw them as well as you imagined. You’ve planned out this thrilling third act finale; you realize that there isn’t enough tension in the second act to make the third act hit like you envisioned. It’s fun meditating on ideas, hell executing, and fun again when things come close enough or surprise you in unlikely ways. 

As a creative, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general?

The pure chaos and indulgence of fandom. This is difficult to explain to people who are, like, sane, and don’t have that extra gear of enthusiasm for a musical artist, TV show, or piece of media. It’s like having a crush on an entire narrative: you can’t stop thinking about it and you just keep imagining all of the wonderful possibilities of what the story could be. I try to bring this energy to anything I create. 

Readers of Flip will notice this fandom theme in the graphic novel, because Chi-Chi, our protagonist, and her best friends are obsessed with K-pop—particularly the fictional group BGBB. For Chi-Chi it’s more than just loving the music and thinking the boys are cute, she is deeply moved by the lyrics written by her bias (read: her favorite member of the group) and they end up being the final “push” for Chi-Chi toward self-love.

Aside from your graphic novel work, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

Aside from my graphic novel work, I am doing prose work! I’m working on a webnovel. Everyone should read it. It’s called John Rich and The Big Picture. It’s an queer romance and is very funny. Please read my webnovel John Rich and The Big Picture. I want readers to know that I have a webnovel and they should read it. Please tell the readers this thing that I want them to know.

What advice might you have to give for aspiring storytellers out there?

Dream big but start small: practicing finishing smaller stories before launching your epic.

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

ORION. Summer 2026. This is my second foray into the world of DC Comics. It follows Orion, a hero created by the Jack Kirby for his epic Fourth World saga. Orion is this cosmic prince from this utopic land of light and beauty—but he has this darkness within him that makes him broody and rageful. When he discovers that his real dad is a cosmic tyrant hellbent on enslaving the universe, he goes on a journey to find himself and destroy his father.

JOHN RICH & THE BIG PICTURE. Read it here! (okjohnrich.site) At 28, John Rich is the youngest cover artist in the illustrious history of The New York Review. This means, every week, he draws a portrait of some notable person and this portrait becomes the cover of this very prestigious magazine. But when John is tasked with drawing the supposedly vapid (and obviously gorgeous) action movie star, Tyler Hughes, he discovers that Tyler is the one person he cannot draw.

CHECK PLEASE. TBD. Let’s just say, there’s a few ideas hopping around my head right now. 🙂

Finally, what books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

Comilla Paddock’s amazing and strange and masterful artwork. https://www.millionfish.net/about
My favorite zines of all time by Rebecca Mock—Sort by Kudos #1 and #2 https://www.tiktok.com/@ngoziu_/video/7571236308362726686

I got a chance to preview President of The Anime Club which was so delightful and hits bookstores in 2026. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/president-of-the-anime-club-stephanie-evangelista-fukuda/1148609002
Similarly, Finding Myself with You hits bookstores in 2027, but that’ll be here before we know it. I read it and it’s so fantastic. https://bleedingcool.com/comics/finding-myself-with-you-a-queer-romcom-ya-by-victoria-grace-elliott/

Follow Ngozi’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ngoziu_
Follow Ngozi’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ngoziu/
Sign-up for Chapters of Webnovel: https://www.okjohnrich.site/start/