Q&A with Roman Reeves

Meet the illustrator using artistry and mythology to help young people understand gender identity

Throughout the recent general election one of the defining elements was both mainstream political parties obsession with stoking culture wars. The trans community in-particular were subject to disproportionate scrutiny given the minute proportion of the population they represent and the baseless insinuation they are any more dangerous than other marginalised groups. Fear mongering around the perils of trans-women entering women's only spaces, trans inclusion in sporting competitions and the appropriateness of gender ideology being taught in schools reached fever pitch. This came mere months after a particularly sickening instance where former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saw fit to jibe his parliamentary oppositional incumbent Keir Starmer, quipping that the Labour party couldn't define was a woman was. In front of the mother of murdered trans schoolgirl Brianna Ghey who was in Parliament discussing online safety. Despite the ongoing demonisation of queer people, their contributions to discourse and capacity to positively impact wider society remain. Roman Reeves is a recent illustration graduate from the University of Derby whose final project Orion's Universe is a comic book that he describes as a companion guide. The comic cleverly uses mythological characters as a metaphor for gender identity groups. He crafts an accessible narrative that subtly guides readers to see themselves as part of a happy loving family whilst they figure themselves out. One can only imagine how affirming and necessary this is for young trans people, as libraries and schools bow to pressure to deny them the education they need to understand themselves. I had the pleasure of getting to know Roman better one afternoon over the summer as we sat in the now long gone British sunshine where we discussed Orion's Universe, navigating Britain in 2024 as a trans man and what he would like to tell the general public about his community.

Your comic is called "a companion's guide". Can you elaborate on what that means?
I call my book a companion guide as it is the precursor to my actual comic book series that I want to create! This means that it is a helpful introduction to each character, the setting of the book and the narrative themes that might take place to help gauge an interest in my work and see if anyone connects to certain characters. I would welcome any feedback on any of the character pages from anyone! Who they like, what they're interested to see, how they think the story might go, etc! 

What spurred the creative choice to weave mythology with gender identity?
I chose mythology and supernatural creatures to bring identity into light as a bit of an analogy/metaphor to help introduce gender identity in a way that people might find more familiar to help them understand. I think it's a more engaging way of starting a narrative as well as it helps to pull the focus from explicitly stating that the characters' stories revolve around their gender identity. I think that this can be a good safe space to create for trans people who want to read material about these themes and identities but don't have the safety at home to openly read trans narratives. I also have always really loved vampires and werewolves since I was young, and the idea of it being a transformation, much like transition can be as well so that has also helped to inspire me creatively. 

Who is the target audience for your work?
The target audience for my work is young teens to adults who may not have been educated on the idea of gender identity but also my trans siblings who might see themselves in my work. My aim is to start a conversation and show that people aren't alone as I wish that there had been more books exploring identity in this way when I was younger and first experiencing what I know now as gender dysphoria. I also hope that it can be a helpful way of initiating conversations with parents around this concept of love and acceptance as one plot point is about my main character struggling to communicate with his vampire family after he's become a werewolf, but trying to show he's still the same person. 
There is a lot of controversy around gender ideology being taught to young people. Why is it so important?
I think that it's important to teach young people about gender identity as in my experience as a trans kid, there was no "oh, this is okay" or "these feelings could mean that you're trans" it was just a lot of feeling lost and helpless and scared to actually come out or try and explain how I felt to anyone else. It led to a lot of repression that didn't truly let me be myself until lockdown in 2020 because I was too scared and in my own head about my identity to really embrace and be my true self. I never want anyone to feel lost and alone, which is why I think it's so important to have these conversations and teachings. I also think it's vital for those who aren't trans to be taught so they can understand and accept the concept of what it means to be trans so that they can be taught not to hate what they don't understand. 

What is your starting point when designing characters?
It really depends on the character! With Orion, I had an idea of what I wanted him to look like, but for more of their wolf-like features and traits, I actually went on visits to various wildlife parks and zoos to observe wolves. I did field sketches while I was there and took lots of photos to try and shape him to look more wolf like in expression and features. It was a lot of fun getting to ask the zoo keepers what wolf emotions looked like as well. For my other characters, a lot of my influences come from what I enjoy. Orion's parents look more gothic and "stiff", a mix of Victorian-esque fashion and modern fancy wear. Each character always has base traits though that I think of before starting to design them. Orion was always going to be big, fluffy and happy whereas Charlie Max was always going to be more pointy, sharp and intense. The designs always come from their personalities! 

Your use of colour in the comic is really interesting. Does it strike you as odd that colours frame so much of how we perceive gender?
Colour to me has no gender, so it's very interesting to me that people perceive them in certain ways. Especially blue for boys and pink for girls. It's a concept that has changed so much over the years. I chose pink because it's my favourite colour and my way of bringing more of myself into my comic and companion guide. Pink makes me happy, it makes Orion happy and I think it's just such a happy colour! I think that anyone who feels as though wearing or loving any colour makes them any less of their own gender identity needs to stop and ask why. Colours always give us such big feelings, which is why I love working with them, but I would never let them negatively impact my joy! 

If you could communicate one thing to political and media class and the general public, what would it be?
One thing I would try and say is that we are all human. Nobody is better than anyone else, and we all identify how we identify. I would ask anyone in political power to advocate for the trans community and help to protect us from this hatred. I would ask them to stop using us to fuel debates and talking points in negative ways. Cisgender isn't an ugly word, and neither is transgender. I wish people would see past the hatred and the headlines and stop to think about the people that are being affected by them on a daily basis. There's so much hate and pain in the world right now. It's exhausting to see. But things will get better, I know they will. 

Follow Roman here

Keep up to date with Orion's universe here

Article by Martyn Ewoma