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Blackhawks Comics Poke Fun at Team Stars Seabrook, Kane, Toews and Saad

By Justin Breen | October 30, 2014 8:14am
 Chicago native Ashley Mandel created Blackhawks Comics to honor — and make fun of — her favorite team.
Chicago Blackhawks comics
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CHICAGO — If Ashley Mandel ever runs into Brent Seabrook, she'll want to apologize for making fun of the Blackhawks defenseman in comic book form for the past few years.

Mandel, a Mt. Greenwood native and Marist High School graduate, is the creator of what she calls "Blackhawks Comics," a Tumblr account where she draws and posts cute comics about Chicago's NHL team, which is 5-3-1 heading into Thursday's game at Ottawa.

Justin Breen says Mandel was inspired by other Blackhawks memes online:

"Part of me thinks it would be great if [the players] read all my comics, but part of me doesn't want Seabrook to know I've been making fun of him for being chubby and clumsy for about four years," said Mandel, 25.

Mandel, now an elementary school arts teacher outside Boston, started making the comics while she was a student at the University of Illinois in 2011. She found Blackhawks memes on Tumblr, thought they were hilarious, and wanted to make comics out of them.

"I was taking a lot of studio art classes, and had to constantly do art that pleased my teachers but bored me, so I was happy to be doing art that excited me," Mandel said. "I do these comics because I enjoy them, and because others enjoy them, too. The best part is making people laugh, and seeing the jokes from my comics kind of spread and proliferate."

Seabrook isn't the only Hawks player to be the brunt of a joke. Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Andrew Shaw, Bryan Bickell, Antti Raanta and even captain Jonathan Toews have been lampooned by Mandel.

"I'd like to thank the Chicago Blackhawks players for existing and providing me with material for comics, and apologize in advance for when you finally find them and read them," Mandel said.

But even though she pokes fun at them, she is a huge fan of the team.

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