#jesncin

Contributor Spotlight

Kicking off our contributor spotlights with the incredible Jes & Cin Wibowo, better known as @jesncin ✨

Thank you for my awards, @jesncin !

It was so cool to grab this book before publication since I follow you here, and to be so delighted by it!

I recently suggested my library add "Lunar Boy" by Jes and Cin Wibowo to their graphic novel collection, and I felt like making an MS Paint pixel illustration~

(scenery of a sky filled with clouds, dark teal at the top that fades into a lighter aquamarine, and another set of colorful clouds that go from a pastel-rose color to pale golden-yellow. Across the clouds in a white out-line is the face of Indu, smiling and looking upwards hopefully. The "inside" of his lines are a deep magenta color. Around him are shapes of stars, also with white out-lines, filled in with a vibrant pastel turquoise color)

Again thanks for reading <3

I'll have to check those out! And thanks for letting me know; I do seem to recall hearing vaguely positive things about how the series handled that stuff WAIT SCRATCH THAT I'VE LOOKED AT YOUR BLOG AND I THINK I WAS JUST VAGUELY MISREMEMBERING ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR COMICS AND MIXING IT UP WITH OTHER THINGS I HEARD/SAW ABOUT THE SHOW WHOOPS

Tbh I wasn’t expecting to get anything for that ask game since I reblogged it to keep for ref for when I finally post more about my OCs, but I cant resist talking about Drury and gender. 😌

1. What's your character's gender identity? What's their relationship to their gender?

Drury is a nonbinary trans man! He loves men and he loves being a man that’s also a moth. 💖 And the moth part is ABSOLUTELY an important part of his gender identity to him.

Manhood, to him, is like being a moth. He does see himself as having been a little girl as a kid… she was only the caterpillar.

I do always think of it like… Drury, growing up and becoming Drury Walker, he sees it as protecting Cameron Van Cleer. That little girl went through so much… and she did it all to protect him, keeping him inside. He’s repaying the favor now by letting her finally live out life as him.

Though he was very happy as a man, something was still missing. So he turned himself into a moth man and now he’s happier than ever. 🥰

To me, the moth transformation really is a symbol of visible queerness. Him showing ALL of himself to the world and not being afraid to hold back anymore.

… but I will leave further details on that for the crowmoth fic. ;3

4. Is your character’s environment supportive about their identity? How does this impact them?

When he was growing up, no… 💔

He didn’t fully accept or realize the truth until he was like 18 or so. The only person who he had to confide in was Mortimer Drake, future Cavalier, who helped him explore his identity a bit in secret. And then he came out and got cut off and thrown out to fend for himself.

But now, things are SO much different.

He was essentially taken in by the Penguin, first of all, a fellow no-op trans man as he would find out. His support was a HUGE step in Drury getting to finally present in a way he was happy with and getting on testosterone.

And he’s just totally surrounded by gay and trans people of all different walks of life with all the other Gotham rogues! It’s a huge confidence booster for him, for sure. He has a community now!

It doesn’t fully fix his self-image issues… those are rooted in so much more than just struggling with gender. But it does help!

So does turning himself into a moth.

5. How did you figure out your oc's identity?

It’s really funny, actually. When I got into DC, I initially had Drury as a cis gay man, but that didn’t last long. Part of it was me trying to justify how he had Kitten…

Of course there was the obvious glaring “he can be trans and give birth to Kitten himself”, but I think part of me was scared of people treating his pregnancy like a joke… and tbh I still am a little scared, but I’ve grown, and I’m very firm on the idea that he carried and gave birth to Kitten himself.

But it’s not only that! I think, when I got into DC, I was still hesitant to fully own the label of trans man and gay man… I felt like I wasn’t allowed to call myself those things for a lot of reasons. Exploring gay transmasculinity through Drury as I became more attached to him was a huge help to me… 😭

“…none of my classmates happen to be EVIL DEVIL DEMONS disguising themselves as LITTLE MONSTER GIRLS!”

Today’s spotlight: @jesncin’s Manna Magi: Blood Moon. 

Updates: COMPLETED Recommended if you liked: The Worst Witch, Miss Ellicott’s School for the Magically Minded, Steven Universe, Brave (Svetlana Chmakova)

Apparently it’s back to school season around here, so today’s spotlight is especially fitting! 

JesnCin’s Manna Magi: Blood Moon is about a magical school where the protagonist, Wilbur, is the only human student. Wilbur’s rooommate, Amira, is a demon, which could be pretty cool. However, no one can find out about this, or there’d be problems not only for Amira but also Wilbur! 

This comic is the perfect all ages story about friendship, school, and magic. Think, Lumberjanes meets Harry Potter. The best part is how the school is completely and fantastically a “magic school” - full of demons, magic history, and strange myths. I love how the Blood Moon lore was central to the comic, and how the superstition surrounding it was turned on its head for the conclusion.

Manna Magi: Blood Moon is the perfect all ages comic to get you in the mood for back to school, back to fall, and ready for the most magical time of year: Halloween. 

Read Manna Magi: Blood Moon HERE from the beginning!

We’re so excited to be featuring JesnCin again, and if you haven’t read our spotlight on Tales From the Well yet, you can read it HERE.

Honestly, my Kitten isn’t much different from her canon design! She isn’t biologically related to Drury, and her bio mom is like… The Most White Woman Ever. Sadly.

Somehow I can’t find a specific art of her I did on my phone, and I’m not at home to easily find it… but here’s a sketch I did of her in a hypothetical “villain” outfit to match her dad, based on her TTG outfit. The main things on My design I think are her beauty mark, and her two hairs that stick up so she matches her dad still in a way. :3

(Personally to me she looks like if a bug was a girl was a cat)

Her fashion sense is definitely INCREDIBLY bubbly and girly. tbh it’s the kind of fashion I adore personally, but I don’t have a lot of characters in my verse to dress that way, so she’s my excuse to draw cute frilly outfits. 😊 She LOOOOOVES pink, and she’s never seen not wearing it. She’s definitely not the type who holds back on it. She WILL wear pink on pink on pink.

AND she wants to pursue fashion design, so that gives her IMMENSE power.

I also definitely want to play with a bunch of hairstyles for her, so she can wear lots of different accessories.