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I don't have to tell you now that there's an astonishing market for stories in the queer hockey romance field. While the example that might come to mind at first is HBO's Heated Rivalry, the niche subgenre is exploding across multiple franchises in the literary world, with sagas like Pucking Around; Collide; Behind the Net; and Wake Up, Nat and Darcy all putting steam on the ice. So when I got the chance to ask an expert in that genre about what was going on, I had to jump on the chance.

The expert in question was Ngozi Ukazu, author of the hit webcomic (and future OGN) Check, Please!, which was telling queer stories in a hockey space since 2013. I was lucky enough to chat with Ukazu at BookCon 2026, and so I asked the Barda and Orion author her feelings on why hockey romance in general was such a hot-ticket genre these days. And to start off, Ukazu answered by explaining something that came up from her widley-attended BookCon panel, You Had me at Hockey, which also featured authors Rachel Reid, Emily Rath, Bal Khabra, Stephanie Archer, & Kate Cochrane.

"[Jacksonville Rays author] Emily Rath did something amazing," Ukazu said, "When asked about why hockey romance is so popular, she just straight up said, 'whiteness is a reason why.' That was an incredible lift to explain that, so that me or the moderator - who are people of color - didn't have to say that. It was a dynamic, exciting, funny, and memorable panel."

(By the way, Popverse reader, you can watch that "dynamic, exciting, funny, and memorable panel" in the video below.)

"The hook now is a sport that is very white," Ukazu continued, "A lot of readers are white. It also has this built-in dynamic of rough versus soft, public versus private. It feeds into a lot of the tropes that romance readers love: the millionaire, the tough guy, etc. So it's going to continue for a while because those tropes aren't going away."

So with that answer in mind, my next question was focused beyond the rink. Which sport, I asked, was next in line for the steamy romance treatment?

"F1," Ukazu answered without a moment's hesitation, "I would put a $100,000 on an F1 romance."

Hear that, major TV producers? The ball (or puck, or car, or whatever) is in your court.

Get ready for what's next with our list to upcoming comics and how to buy comics at a comic shop.