With the best of intentions, Shinny takes her boyfriend to the game, where he proceeds to ruin everything.

We at RMNB have a very new fan-friendly policy,  but there is one thing we cannot abide: leaning. You, sir, in the upper bowl of Verizon Center. Please keep your back pinned to your seat lest the people behind you will not be able to see. It’s only polite.

But as long as you’re not hurting anybody, there’s no such thing as a good fan or a bad fan. Shinny’s arm candy isn’t a bad fan; he’s just clueless. It’s our job as Totally Awesome Fans to welcome the noobs into the fold with open arms, because hockey is for everybody.

But seriously, lean the $#&@ back.

P.S. the two halftimes in hockey is my favorite line ever. Thank you, NHL, for actually using the three-period system as a sales pitch last year. Ya doofs.

Our hero chosen to bring her dopey boyfriend to the Caps game instead of her father. Now, we learn how Shinny, an avowed superfan, prepares for a big game — just like tonight’s bout with the Jets. There are rituals, superstitions, and traditions that must be honored. Everything must be just right or else it will surely spell disaster for the team.

I try not to socialize with fans of other teams, so I can’t understand how Shinny could date one. And yet there he is– wearing a crisp, new, powder-blue Penguins jersey to the Caps game and smiling like a goon.

Shinny’s own preparations are something sacred. Whether or not you truly believe your special socks will affect the game’s outcome, we all fall into habits. Maybe it’s a certain beer or a preferred posture– maybe it’s the number of times you clap (four, any more and the cosmic vibrations might disrupt the Caps). You might know it’s meaningless, or you might not even know you’re doing it. But you are. We all do.

Tonight is a big game, and fan anxiety is high. Nothing is certain right now, and in times of uncertainty we retreat to ritual. That’s good– it’s one of the things that bonds us to each other. But there’s always one doof like Shinny’s boyfriend who spoils it.

Last time on Shinny, our hero got a pair of tickets to the Caps game and learned she had to choose between her boyfriend and dad who would come with her. We now join her– deep in thought, as she is visited by … well, you’ll see.

The shoulder angels, folks. Good Sasha and Bad Sasha counsel Shinny on whom she should bring with her. One is all about enthusiasm and togetherness; obviously he prefers Shinny’s plucky boyfriend. The sullen devil Sasha and his pitchfork-stick prefers Shinny’s frumpy and grumpy dad.

I know who I’d pick. What camp are you in? And how adorable is Ovi in that final panel?

Rachel has returned from parts unknown so Shinny! is back to continue our best story yet. Special thanks to Sfé for filling in for us while Rachel was gone!

When we last left Shinny, she had just procured two tickets to a Caps game. And now, the wrinkle.

(Rachel’s been really kicking it up a notch lately, eh? You’re gonna love next week’s strip.)

Here is the essential challenge of fandom: How do you share it? With the one who brung you– the man who turned you into a fan and with whom you’ve already shared so much? Or do you share it with your special guy and build new memories? It’s tradition vs the future, Cash vs Reznor, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra vs GI Joe: Retaliation.

Which way will Shinny decide? That part’s easy. How she gets there– that’s where the good stuff is.

Thanks for reading Shinny!

I’m doing studying abroad, so this week’s Shinny! is a guest comic by my good friend (and fellow hockey fan) Sfé M. This week we learn are certain things you don’t say to hockey players, who are a superstitious lot.

The answer, Shinny is: No. He is not listening to himself.

Thanks for filling in for us this week, Sfé! Check out Sfé’s artwork and webcomic, Kyle & Atticus.

Next week, we return to our regular posting schedule, were we continue the story of Shinny scoring tickets to a Caps game.

I was a suburb kid, so I didn’t get to go to a lot of Caps games when I was young. But my buddy Johnny and his dad got great seats sometimes, and they’d bring me along once or twice a year. It was a rare thrill. Before we all got jaded and blasé about watching hockey, just getting tickets was a life-altering experience. And that’s where Shinny is in this strip– kicking off a multi-part story.

I swear to god we wrote this before the Eddie Money insurance commercial. Regardless: the ritual makes sense. You get tickets, you blast “Two Tickets to Paradise” on your tiny laptop speakers. That’s just tradition, right? It’s not just me, RIGHT?!

Here’s a little inside baseball: Rachel and I started putting Shinny after last year’s playoffs. For a while we didn’t know what the lockout would do to our precious little hockey comic. This strip in particular is a time-shifted product of that anxiety. Let us flash back to a conversation held between Shinny and her boyfriend in those pivotal days before the CBA memo.

BOOM. Mecha-Shinny vs Robo-Bettman. YES. You are welcome.

Let’s just be glad that — just like the non sequitur consequences of Shinny’s gambling– the uncertainty surrounding the league is now but a memory.

P.S. Let us know if you caught the other sight gag in this strip, ’cause it’s a sleeper, but it’s worth it.

Last week, we gazed into the past. Today, we’re face to face with the stormy present. The Caps are DFL in the Southeast, struggling to establish a new style of play. It’s all drama all the time in Caps town, but there’s at least one thing fans can rely on– and Shinny’s boyfriend is here to remind us of that.

Ladies and germs, there’s Alex Ovechkin, looking demented and delighted, riding a bear. The timing for this bad boy couldn’t be better, fresh off a hat trick and hungry for more.

I really do believe that while Caps are surely having a rough transition, there’s still a lotta good stuff in the future. Stay fast and we’ll make it through the Tampax together.

And here’s the story I’ve been so excited to tell. In part I the boyfriend wondered aloud how hockey fans are made. This is our answer.

But, as I hope this story that Rachel has beautifully rendered tells, being a fan is more about the connections between people than the connections between people and teams.

There’s Shinny (pre-nickname I assume) at the Cap Centre with her dad, watching the Capitals take on the Flyers. She’s a disaffected little girl, distant from everything around her– particularly her dad.

And then a switch gets thrown. A little girl invests herself in the same silly game as her dad, and now they’ve got something to share. Something lasting. And she begins forming an identity for herself– deliberately– as all kids should be able to do. You build yourself into what you want to be, even if it’s something with a mohawk and an un-ladylike passion for hockey violence.

That’s the off-ice story we like to tell at RMNB. The story of building bonds with a team, with each other, and within yourselves.

Well done, Rachel.

– P

You guys. We are so excited to share this story. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be taking a sepia-tinted look at how hockey fans are made, and how that making brings people together. It’s the Shinny origin story! It’s adorable and demented, and it features Rachel’s best art yet. Follow us to Landover and the Capital Centre of yore.

!!!

Stop by next week. You’re gonna love it.

– Peter