Jade Gordon is the artist and author behind the trans-amorous comic Lean on Me.
< A drawing from Lean on Me featuring the two main characters.
1) What motivated you to start drawing “Lean on Me”?
I thought it would be a good way to pick up chicks!
Oh, a more serious answer, eh? What motivated me was a fiery burning need. I am a genetic female who tends to prefer femininity in a romantic partner, regardless of physical gender. I had been repressed for a long time, and I just started to crack. I had to start expressing what I really felt somehow. I was, at that point, spending a lot of time alone in a small, dank apartment, stewing about my true feelings. I decided to try putting my ideas into a visual form. I had never done sequential art, and I think I instinctively knew that I could work out what I was feeling with fictional characters a little easier than direct confrontation.
I also really, really needed to reach more people like me. I grew up in an environment where loving someone of a different ethnicity was very wrong, never mind color, and anyone who was anywhere in the realm of GLBT wasn’t allowed to exist because it was the ultimate in wrong. I found myself not just leaning toward lesbian, but also embracing people who were, in my previous environment, the sickest of sick – the *crossdressers*, the *transvestites*. I *knew* in my heart that I was perfectly normal and healthy in my desires, but I felt like a complete alien among women who typically seemed to prefer freaking out about partners that wanted to crossdress or transition. The comic helped me connect with other women who maybe didn’t immediately want to kick their man to the curb just because he was pretty sometimes.
2) You and I are in a small, nay, tiny minority. How do you feel about being a woman who likes trannies?
I feel like cloning better happen soon! I am polyamorous, but I could never get around to all of the amazing people out there! Early in my dating of people who fit into the roles I was looking for, it was a little like an all-you-can-eat buffet, but there are so MANY people out there looking for someone with my preferences. I feel lonely sometimes being one of the few, but I feel better when the subjects of my attraction feel less lonely because they know about me.
3) Can you imagine a trans comic character in a major comic – like the ones that come in the Sunday funnies?
I can! It is, of course, far, far, far more common to have a character of GLBT (and the wide range of T, too) orientation in Japanese comics, but American Comics have a growing number of supporting characters that are GLBT, or main characters that gender swap once in a while. I think the easiest thing in American comics for a T character is a supporting role, but the flood of Japanese material out there may start making people see how possible it is to have some really great stories where characters just happen to be GLBT. They don’t have to be the gag or the gross or mean humor, they can be real, human, and have feelings and abilities and just like everyone else.
I would also recommend checking out Prism comics, they’re a pretty cool source for info about GLBT characters in comics.
4) Tell us something about you that we’d never expect to be true.
I like women? Wait.. I like boys in dresses?… No. I am polyamorous? I’ve wanted to be Hugh Hefner since I was 10? Hmm… All of the things that would seem like shocking answers to this sort of question are just not shocking anymore. That is certainly a relief, but boy does it make this question tough!
Oooh! How about this – I am an Alien from the dark, cold tundra of PLUTO. I bet you’d NEVER expect that to be true.
5) You made a great trans wedding portrait for me and Betty, and drew a portrait of a friend for me once, too. How can someone go about commissioning you if they want drawings of themselves?
E-mail me! (jadaze@hotmail.com) After discussing the project (what you want, subject, theme, etc), the first 
thing I ask for is as many pictures as you can assemble of who you want in the picture. The more clearly I can see what someone looks like, the better the likeness. My professional portfolio is available by request, but if you send an inquiry for a project, I’ll send you to it so you can get a better idea of the rage I am capable of.
My personal Art Site (limited mostly to the Japanese Animation style) is here:
http://www.jadegordon.com/
Ordering information and rough prices can be found here:
http://www.jadegordon.com/store.html
^ the beautiful & talented Jade Gordon.