Cynthia Yuan Cheng (they/them) is a cartoonist based in central New Jersey. They love creating stories centered on romance, masculinity, and everyday life. Their hobbies include making their friends laugh and hunting for the best desserts in town. 

I had the opportunity to interview Cynthia, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome back to Geeks OUT! For those out there who might not be as familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself? 

Hello! Thank you for having me again! My name is Cynthia Yuan Cheng, I’m a cartoonist who loves to create funny-bittersweet stories that explore romance, masculinity, and everyday life.

I’m the adapter of the graphic novel BABY-SITTERS CLUB: MARY ANNE’S BAD LUCK MYSTERY and I illustrated a comic in the graphic novel anthology BECOMING WHO WE ARE: REAL STORIES ABOUT GROWING UP TRANS. I also enjoy self-publishing my own comics, my two most recent being WEE WANDERINGS: MY SOLO TRIP TO SCOTLAND, and of course, LOVE ME LIKE YOU’RE REAL.

What can you tell us about your latest project, Love Me Like You’re Real? What was your inspiration for this story?

I like to call LOVE ME LIKE YOU’RE REAL an earnest and hopeful trans BL, as well as an anti-isekai isekai. It’s a 90-page self-published comic that is all about finding courage in romance through fiction, and facing your problems rather than running away. It’s sweet and romantic, and also just a little bit spicy!

I’m a big fan of manga, especially BL stories, and I wanted to make an original BL that feels uniquely my own. So I draw from my own personal experience and thoughts on romance in this story. The story also utilizes fan culture and crushes on fictional characters— what would happen if your fictional boyfriend became your real, perfect boyfriend??

Also, the main character is transmasc non-binary, and the romantic interest(s) are men; I felt like this pairing is rather underrepresented in the comics and manga that I read. (Or at least, I would be happy to see more!) 

One last inspiration was recently playing the first half of Persona 4 (I’ll finish the game someday…), and being genuinely moved by the character Kanji Tatsumi. His initial rejection of his own queerness and his desperate plea for acceptance was very impactful, and it made me consider how to implement that sort of feeling into a romance story. 

As a creative, what drew you to the art of storytelling through comics? 

I’ve been reading comics and manga since elementary school, and it naturally became my favorite medium. I love how pacing is portrayed in comics, and a really good page layout will take my breath away. 

Whenever something interesting happens to me in my daily life, I’ll often imagine it as a comic in my brain— how many panels would it take to tell this story? What information is necessary to set up the scene, and to explain what happened? What would the last panel be to make a great punchline?

How would you describe your creative process?

I have a pretty loose process, where I’m usually chasing “a feeling” and I try to strike the right balance between structure and spontaneity. I don’t like to write scripts, so I will work directly from the story outline and start sketching page layouts from there. I’ll write out the whole story as an outline, but oftentimes I won’t finish thumbnailing the full story before I start inking. As I ink, I get to consider the story and reflect on scenes further into the comic. “Ah, the scene I’m inking right now is expressing the romantic interest character in a way that’s a little too similar to the scene twenty pages from now. I can change the later scene so that this character can have a bit more depth.” — I had a few moments like this! I find it fun to surprise myself by taking a less structured route, and to let the story and characters tell me what happens next.

What are some of your favorite elements of drawing and writing? 

Since this comic is a romance story, my favorite parts of this are drawing the sweet romantic moments where characters are looking surprised or enamored with lots of blushing, haha! I also really enjoy drawing any comedic scenes where the characters make exaggerated expressions! Any moment that I draw with a specific emotional reaction in mind, I feel really motivated as I think about the reader who will see this page.

Writing-wise, I find it really satisfying when I’m talking to a reader, and they totally get my vision in the story. In storytelling, we’re trying to share a piece of ourselves. It’s deeply special to me when my message gets across and I feel seen by someone experiencing my work!

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but that you wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

Despite being a big fan of romance and BL, this is my first time making a longer comic in this genre. I’d love to share some thoughts about that! 

My work is usually character-focused, but it really struck me how additionally important body language and expressions are when working on a romance. The comic I completed before this was a comedy, and you can be a little more carefree in the drawings— if anything, it’s a little funnier if the drawings are a bit wonky. But in a romance, you want to show everything clearly and carefully. How is this character looking at the other? The subtlest change in the drawing of the character’s eyebrows or mouth can make it look like very different emotions. How do you express a gentle, careful touch between characters? I took so many reference photos of my own hands so I could draw a hand that accurately expressed the love and tenderness in the character, even if it was just a brief moment in a single panel. There are so many details to be attentive to!

Romance is a genre that really isn’t taken seriously enough, and through working on this project, I felt a significantly greater respect for all the artists of every shojo manga I’ve read and every other romance comic too!! 

What advice might you have to give for aspiring comic book creators/graphic novelists out there? 

Have fun with it! Comics and graphic novels are not worth the time and labor if you’re not enjoying yourself. And put as much heart as you can into your work. It will really come through to your readers and make your story stronger.

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

I’m currently working on WIN, a graphic memoir about my time playing football on the boys’ team in high school, forthcoming from First Second. 

And in theme with the fictional boyfriend aspect of LOVE ME LIKE YOU’RE REAL, I’m also currently consumed with drawing fanart of my own fictional boyfriend from the manga GOLDEN KAMUY by Satoru Noda. 

What a busy schedule I have! haha

Finally, what stories/books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT? 

I’d love to give a shout-out to my fellow cartoonist and friend Sunmi, who assisted me on the tones for LOVE ME LIKE YOU’RE REAL! Their graphic novel FIREBIRD is out now, and they also make amazing indie comics. 

I recently read THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR, and my jaw dropped multiple times at how romantic this book was. A sapphic sci fi time-traveling love story with some of the most beautiful, poetic writing you’ll bear witness to.

I’m also a fan of the manga SLEEPING DEAD by Nemui Asada and THE SUMMER HIKARU DIED by Mokumokuren, both of which are darker BL stories that I found really compelling.