This strip is so adorable it leaked aedorableness all over the burger king where I am having breakfast.. Not only Claire's respnse, but also just the idea of bubbles calling her "small friend."

Edward Greenberg

Love it Jeph, you're doing a great job!

amblam

Speaking from the standpoint of a father with a trans-daughter, I think you are doing an excellent job of showing Claire as just another loving and lovable person in the world. She, like most of us, have issues they are dealing with, albeit a little more complex at times than the average person.

Tired Old Dog

I'm sure I'll mess up at some point, it's bound to happen. I hope to be gracious when it does.

Jeph Jacques

Just also putting it out there as a Trans woman as well.. like the others have said, the handling of Claire and the transgender issue/life has been fantastic. At times a bit wishful for many of us (relationship-wise) but the matching of things as well as keeping "the trans" not to be her primary character aspect is fantastic. And that face in the last panel just oozes a "squeee!" :)

Kacey R. Harrell

Also, can I just say I love that Bubbles can blush?

As a trans woman I can tell you so far you have done a wonderful job. I only ask that you be open if there ever is a need to critique, but you seem like you would be.

I probably wouldn't be interested in this strip if you DIDN'T go out on a limb now and then. What makes it enjoyable is that you do it so well.

Kevin Hicks

"It's not about comparison, it's about having common ground." That is a beautiful line.

Happy to see more of Claire. And as a man of 5', I Also love being a small friend (not to change the trans talk).

Mathieu Charron

Also trans and continuing to enjoy Claire as a character and appreciate your portrayal of her. Maybe you know this already but a lot of trans people find that dysphoria can get worse before it gets better as they plan and take transition steps. Just something to bear in mind.

seconded

For whatever this is worth, I am a trans woman, and I cannot think of a single time that your portrayal of Claire has made me roll my eyes and think "dear Lord, please save me from the well-intentioned clueless cis people". Which, um, is a thing that happens to me on a fairly regular basis.

Rachel

When I met Jeph at Gencon I kind of asked if Brun was on the spectrum. I can't really remember what he said because I was too freaked out. HAHAHAHA!!!

lilibat

aaaa why is Claire so adorbs =D

Minzoku Bokumetsu

I'm married to a trans* person, and thus far I've enjoyed Claire. I mean, she obviously doesn't represent The Universal Trans* Experience, because there isn't one, but she seems like _a_ plausible trans* person.

Auros Harman

I've always thought that you've written Claire incredibly well, and you've done a wonderful job avoiding any misinterpretations or stereotypes about her experience of being trans. Plus you've made her a properly three-dimensional character, which is WAY more important and WAY more than we usually get as far as representation goes. I also think that if you're working on a strip and feel like you're getting into kind of unknown territory, it's really worth asking for feedback from real trans folks (if you haven't been already? I haven't seen you mention it in your commentary, but I also may have missed something earlier. If you're already doing that, yay!!). You're obviously already skilled at writing diverse characters respectfully, and it's also totally still worth it to seek out input when it's not something you experience firsthand. :)

Peter Thomas

You're "a straight white dude"? Well, so are many trans men. =) But I get what you're saying.

Rob McBobson

I know a few trans people personally, and in my experience, they'll gladly tolerate a few mistakes in how a writer writes trans people as long as the writer's clearly making an effort to do a good job and be respectful.

Rob McBobson

Jeph, as someone who suffered from confusion in terms of my gender let me tell you, I think the way you've presented Claire is fantastic and very realistic. I think the thing you do best with her is that you write her in a way that makes you forget that she's trans, you forget that she is transitioning. That's the big thing, I've struggled tying to figure out my gender, and I've known my fair share of trans folk, most of them want to get to the disappearing part of transition, they want to not be trans anymore in a way, I think you portray that very well with Claire. Another thing I wanted to touch on is something I've seen you get some backlash about, where Claire has spoken up about the struggles she's gone through like in this page and in the one where she's talking to pintsize about robot bodies and stuff. I say people say that it wasn't realistic and you were pushing your personal politics and shit, but I can tell you that that's a bunch of crap, her reactions in this page and the one with pintsize are spot on for how I've seen my trans friends react in similar situations. Jeph if I'm being honest, don't discount yourself just for being a white dude, I think that you've gone through a lot of issues with mental illness and I think you understand how people who suffer from it think and act because you've been there, I think you do a good job with Claire and the other characters in showing their issues, I think a more recent example is Brun, after the bar burned down she stopped being able to talk and after her routine broke apart she had issues dealing with it, this makes me think she has some form of autism, and if so, you portray that very well too. Keep up the good work man, you do great jobs with the whole cast, you portray mental illness and issues very well, and you generally just rock.

Not many creators could go from threatening robo-violence to a scene full of feels like this. Well done sir.

Andrew

yes

fluffy

-ships-

Awwww!

Robert

I love it when Bubbles blushes.

Sian

This is great! Also typo in panel 3, "thannk"

Alenka Figa

This is great and you're doing fine

Keisi

This made me smile.

fixxnfoxy

This is beautiful.

Sarah Denyse