It's really really cozy in the box btw ...

As a conservative Christian, I love The Boy From Venus. Shen is creating a beautiful love story between a troubled young woman, and a young man who has the faith and patience in her to pull her out of her dark funk. Adrian perfectly exemplifies conservative Christian values with the love that he gives to Valerie.

Jesus taught us during the Last Supper, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." At the beginning of the story, Valerie lives isolated from society. She carries so much hatred in her heart that she dehumanizes all men by calling them "moids", and wants to eliminate all men from existence. When she displays this dark hatred to Adrian, he responds with kindness, patience, and grace.

As Adrian and Valerie spend more time together, their love blossoms. She begins frequently going outside in society so that she can spend time together with him. Their friendship grows to the point that Adrian calls Valerie his best friend, when previously she had hated all men. Shen is still telling us his story, but in his latest episode, Valerie makes plans to clean the filth that she lives in so that she can host Adrian in her home.

The love between Adrian and Valerie is a pure love. Neither one of them sexually objectifies the other. They spend their time together doing wholesome activities like shopping for clothes, and going to the movies. Neither one of them judges the other's lifestyle. Valerie never gives Adrian any negativity for not dressing normally. She just thinks that he is cute. Adrian never gives Valerie any negativity for living in filth and carrying hatred in her heart. He just patiently gives her nothing but love.

Shen is creating a story for us that beautifully shares the fundamental Christian morality of treating one another with patience and love. In these modern sophisticated times, far too many people are living like Valerie was, in filth and isolation, and with a dark hatred imprisoning their heart. Shen is showing us, as Jesus did, that loving one another is the only answer that will free us from hatred.

Thank you Shen. I am looking forward to reading as many episodes as you end up deciding to create.

I don't do digital art but I wanted to fanart Audrey so watercolor!

i’m hoping to do a better iteration of this at some point but figured i might as well share this one

I’m a cis woman, and I really enjoy this comic. I’d say I have more masculine qualities, but I’m 100% a woman, and I’m primarily attracted to more feminine guys. It’s honestly refreshing to see a comic explore this kind of dynamic in such a cute and unapologetic way. Comics that flip traditional gender roles like this are few and far between, so I really appreciate the representation.

It’s a little disheartening to see other posts that question either Shen or the gender identities of the characters in the comic. I think it’s important to be satisfied with how the characters are being presented to us. From what we’ve been explicitly told, Val is a woman, and Audrey is a man.

GNC people can exist outside the context of trans identity, and I think there should be room to celebrate that, too. There are so many different ways to express masculinity and femininity, and that’s part of what makes this comic so cool.

Hey y'all! Sorry for the super late announcement on this -- I wasn't sure if I was gonna make it due to the getting hit with a cold this past Monday. I'm now recovered from that, and will be at the signing and panel! I'll still be masking just in case and encourage you to do the same if you can. See you there, maybe!

Hello everybody, I did this redraw because I love TF2 and I have really enjoyed some of the comics going around these days, especially Shen’s new one. I hope you all enjoy, and Shen, you are killing it!

V/r,
Hugh Mungus

This has probably been done to death, but I feel like this video has a pretty good message in relation to what I've been seeing in some of this sub.

That being;

I don't think it's our place to care about whether or not Shen is cis, a repressing trans person, or some secret third option.

I'm sure those telling him to stop "repping" aren't doing it out of genuine malice. They probably just don't want someone to go through what they must have on their way to finding their true selves.

Yet my point still stands.

Whatever he is, it's HIS BUSINESS. Leave mothafuckas alone.

Hey y'all,

I get pretty intense with my work schedule on The Boy From Venus, but

I've gotten sick, and on top of that have to be in New York soon. In order to minimize my chances of being contagious, I now have to be pretty intense about recovering. I can't mess around with attempting my normal work schedule and potentially prolonging the sickness.

So what I'm going to do is some auxiliary work -- storyboarding, character design, maybe even some 3d modeling -- with the time that I'm out of bed, and hit the ground running with a few 2-update weeks when I get back from New York next week.

Thank you for your patience!

My poor fingers beg me to stop drawing in MS paint but it's weirdly entertaining

Like is this not just him? 😭

Yeah,

I know that some boys can undoubtely look feminine.

But, I mean. This hypothesis would make a lot of sense here.

The fact Audrey is so fem passing without anything else could be easily explained if they were AFAB to begin with.

And the scene in the pool kinda gave me the impression that he did wear his swimsuit not only because he likes feminine stuff, but also because he want to hides his forms.

Hence why I suspect Audrey is transmac at the beginning of his own journey.

i wanted to draw audrey in something cute. yay. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Ignore my feed-

I NEED TO SEE VAL AND AUDREY IN DRESS CLOTHES! SPECIFICALLY VAL IN A SUIT AND AUDREY IN A DRESS! I swear I am very normal about these characters but I think they'd look nice dressed up.

That's it okay bye.

caution for heavy themes/topic of grief/suicide (art is by myself - drawn in Heavypaint)

please be gentle with ur own heart and do not read further if such discussion may be too painful ! since we are doing a share of our own stories, i want to introduce myself more if i will be posting art here frequently (no promise hehe!!! i follow mah whims xD), out of respects.

i do understand i don't have the best english/ and probably should have someone proof read because of my deficiencies. but i wish to share mah heart for a bit. ^__^ sometimes i wish i had better life rng, I've been struggling with trying to exist in any space, just for anything i do without people nitpicking my existence, and i sure that others feel the same - it breaks my heart. it's not solely just about gender for me at least tho haha. but to preface, even when i was a child i was not allowed to live either as a girl or boy, not allowed to have longer hair or do things like girls did, but also not allowed to play video games or do things boys did, cuz "i was not a boy." but at the same time until puberty at least, i was the resident he-she and beaten up or ostracised for relatively innocuous things (i once said i didn't like eating bacon and i got gang beat up. 15 yrs later i still HATE BACON! NOT SORRY!!!!!). i was not girl enough to be a girl, or i failed at being girl. but i could not ever be a boy, oh! because that was wrong. so what was i? i could not fit in my "birth gender" but i couldnt be a man either. in that way i relate to the story in some ways, not being allowed to conform in ANY way without petty scrutiny of others. i think now i am loosely nonbinary/gnc woman but - i spent decades trying to make myself more invisible, but failing because i just stood out no matter what. i wasn't trying to - but gender isn't the main reason why this story fuels my heart.

i sometimes i wonder how shen , and just artists in general - deals with the pain of just trying to express through art and perhaps insinuated through lived experiences, haah. we often ask, omg shen/creator thank you for feeding us! but do we ever ask, is shen/others are feeding themselves? like their heart, to create the stories they want to in a way that's meaningful to them (a bonus if it inspires others!!). ultimately this is shen's story to tell but i am enjoy seeing all the heart arts others make because of this series and i think i would like to make some sillies too for the time now.

i know it's primarily in jest, but sometimes even the patreon jokes hurt my brain thinking xD - i feel like comments that say "ohhhhh i can't afford that! or haha not this time shen!" can have some unintentional sentiment of "it's not worth it.", or an accidental devaluing of someones work and wht should be paid. is it so wrong to ask for support, even unabashedly? (am aware there is portion of the demographic that may be younger and just literally cannot subscribe lol, but it's more the.. um what's the word!!! :T i think i make no sense, HMMPH. bahaha !!!) perhaps i am more still naive , even at 28 y/o. sometimes i feel like we neglect the humanity of others because we want to face our own, like a trap. it is a desperation that lives within us. ANYWHO!!!! Since we share our experiences in how we relate to this series I will share mine (OP STOP STALLING!!!!!!!! CLOWN BHEAVIOUR!) ^_^ but also my dream one day.

in a weird way val and audrey remind me of one of my best friends and i. Every time I see val, i think of my friend "jessica." Maybe its even comical that I grew up being like val (down to certain features i will not elaborate on), but now I am almost 30 I become more like audrey. but even then my heart can still be bitter from the cruelty of others, Seeing the boy from venus broke me a bit because. when i see their dynamic i literally see my friends eyes flash before me. my friends describe me as a goober and sparkly and such, even if i overcompensate with silliness to cope with pain. anyways.. "jessica" attempted in the recent past, and it was a traumatic/graphic one. she is still here, sort of. but it's not the same. i think i have been trying to cope with the gravity by drawing val and audrey a lot because i can't face the reality of my friend and i - we were two very people with struggles who sought solidarity in their shared bonding due to the cruelty life broguht - but one actually goes thru with acting upon it severely, and the other is left to reevaluate everything they believed in. i feel like a hypocrite all those times i cried and laugh with my friend and we both say "haha i wanna kms" to help cope, and now i feel like i'm desperately trying to inspire my friend to continue living her best, and being a hyporicrite in doing so. even trying to show her this comic because it reminds me so much of how we interact with each other ..i feel like i'm in an inpossible role now where.. i must live despite the hurt and i cannot bear this burden, at least right now. is it even a mask to hide the pain at this point, or i don't know how to cope except to be silly and myself? i close my eyes and see my friend joke, "haha men, am i rite. im tired." unabashedly, more than effort. if to prove a point? i'm not sure if i was ever meant to create truly anything original, but i create with my love for others and to make other laugh despite the cruelty that was place upon me. i think one day i will make more original art, but if unabashed fanart spam is all i can manage rn, maybe that's also oki! sometimes the small things we do to manage, it's enough - whether someone tells u it isn't or not. that's not their say, it is your heart, after all... writing this was a bit hard but i thought i could formally explain why i'm being so charged haha. ^_^ thank you for reading, end enjoy my self insert drawing bahaha!

^{Also here's a thing I drew on a sticky note. I'm not an artist so I just stared the original panel until I'd produced a crude imitation. It's on my wall now.}

I've been really enjoying The Boy From Venus so far. As a gender non-conforming guy, it's refreshing to see portrayals that aren't treated as jokes or sex objects. Whether we call him GNC, or a crossdresser, or a femboy, or whatever, he's a delightful piece of representation.

Anyway here's my semi-organized thoughts about this story and where it's going.

Defined By Hurt

The defining moment for me so far has been "not defined by hurt." It feels like the thesis statement of this comic.

I think that before the ill-fated tournament two years ago, Val looked a lot better adjusted (even if she was an introvert). She smiled. She was happy. She was proud of herself. Her current condition (a man-hating shut-in whose life, like her room, is a mess) is rooted in that day. Fatima asked her to concede an important part of who she was (a nearly-unbeatable god-tier gamer), and for the explicit reason of making guys feel better about themselves.

Since then, she shut herself in and probably hasn't had any consequential interaction with a man (e.g., corner store cashier) that wasn't negative. To her, men are the creatures she exchanges insults with on toxic voice chats. Maybe she has also faced rude comments or catcalls out in public, too (as many women do). By refusing to throw the tournament, she'd revolved not to make concessions that would cost her her core existence. But her self-imposed isolation into toxic spaces has indeed conceded a part of her existence, trapping her in misery. Her resentment for men isn't just a random character trait... it's rooted in hurt. She is defined by hurt.

While we don't know the details, we know Audrey has been harassed by men enough to feel bad about it. When Val asked, he immediately looked sour and changed the subject. He swims at night probably because he's afraid of being harassed in a vulnerable state (and maybe he already has been). Yet he continues making his own way through the river despite its current. This boy has been hurt. But he is not defined by hurt.

Healing

So what do I think this is a story about? Healing from being hurt. Since we're observing Audrey from Val's perspective, we can forget that this is her story too. I think his role in her life is as someone to help her process and move past the negativity that has been reinforcing itself through her.

We see that already. When she first met Audrey, she rarely went outside and when she did it was for night walks to the corner store. Now she's going out to the local park, eating spaghetti in broad daylight, watching movies, going to amusement parks, visiting museums... Audrey has had an immensely positive impact on her in a relatively short time. She's smiling because of a friend for the first time in two years. Val is healing.

But she isn't healed yet. Her apartment is still a disaster and that's still reflective of her life. That makes sense. Healing is gradual. And we've yet to see her challenge her views about men besides Audrey. She hasn't interacted with any other men on the page after he took her to the arcade.

Friendship is Magic

Val's only friends, as far as we're aware of, are Fatima (reconnected and Audrey (new). She's clearly an introvert and has been doom spiraling for two years, so that's not super surprising. As an introvert myself, the vast majority of people I know are people who were friends with the varaious extroverts who adopted me.

But we don't know any of Audrey's friends. He's a friendly extrovert with golden retriever energy that sensed an introvert needed him and immediately snatched her up... so where are his friends? Even if he's faced harassment, he must know some people. Guys? Girls? Enbies? Indeed, he tells Val that he has no one to go swimming with at night, which suggests he does know others (not people who want to go to a pool at night).

So where are his friends and what role will they play?

My speculation is that Audrey has well-tuned pretty social radar. He can read Val pretty well, and maybe he recognizes that she's not in a stage where meeting a bunch of friends is a good idea. But I think that's inevitable as she gets better. She doesn't need to become an extrovert like him, but she does need to come out of her self-imposed exile.

After the pool trip, we had a time lapse. They've hung out at least a half dozen times so far. They have in-jokes and are very comfortable with each other. They're proper friends. Audrey even calls her his best friend.

I imagine we're about to see her tackle cleaning her room so he can visit... but what then? Once she has dealt with herself (cleaned the metaphorical room in her heart), what's next for her healing process?

Banishing the Demons

I'm hoping before the comic ends, we'll have a chapter where Val meets some of Audrey's other friends. This is an opportunity for her to show that she's healing by having healthy interaction with a guy that's not telling her to go make a sandwich. That way, whether or not this is a romantic pairing or a friendship (either is fine), we can see the most obvious element of hurt that's impacted her (misandry) healing, and that will be a sign of how far she's come.

Because at its core, her misery and misandry are rooted in a hurt that she's been nursing for two years. Symbolically, once she starts to tackle it, she can start to heal from it, and then can show that she has emerged as a happier person.

Maybe not unhurt. But not defined by hurt.

^{Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.}

Hello, fans of Shen's comics and whatnot. I know analyses like this are not often very well liked, but I'll seriously ask you to bear with me while I explain why The Boy From Venus does not work down to its very basic concept: "Man-hating femcel grows to change her prejudices by befriending and falling for a GNC man".

Now, all of this is well and good. The idea of the comic can be understood from pretty much the first part. Val hates men, manhood and the general idea of a man, Audrey is a man that breaks from that idea, and so her preconceptions of cis men are broken and her more self destructive behaviours heal. However, there is one important distinction to add:

Aubrey's "breaking of gender norms" is just conforming to a woman's gender norms.

Now, now, put down your torches. I am NOT claiming Audrey is a trans woman right now (that's a different argument for a different post), so listen to what I have to say: Aubrey's life pretty much perfectly conforms to the idea of what a woman should be, and therein lies the problem. He's an extreme exception, the kinds that do not change perceptions of a larger demographic because he's *that* different from the average cis man.

Let's do a thought exercise here. In the very first panels of the comic, do you think ANY of the misogynistic men that Val daily suffers through on comms do any of the following:

• Dress according to feminine fashion
• Have stereotypical "girl" hobbies like shopping
• Constantly pass both physically and through voice as women (Val never assumed Audrey was a man despite hearing his voice a lot)
• Have a female name they keep for themselves as the main way to refer to them
• Have all the typical characteristics of a "manic pixie dream girl"

If you said, "they do not", you're right. In fact, I'd argue there's little, if any cis men you know right now, in real life, that fit the first four bullet points. Not Discord, not specialised twitter femboys, not anime characters. Real life, do you know any man that so dramatically adheres to female gender norms?

I'm not saying this to claim that there are absolutely 150% zero cis men out there that are like Audrey. I'm saying this to emphasise that Audrey is beyond a statistical anomaly and is directly the rare opposite of what being a cis man usually entails.

Now, let's move on as to why Val WILL NOT stop hating men so long as her interest is centered on Audrey. You might raise your hand and say "But, OP, Audrey is the opposite of a cis man, like you said! Shouldn't learning that cis men can act like him fix her hatred of men?"

Nope. It shouldn't. Val's hatred of men seems to come from three things: A general hatred for misogyny, hatred and prejudice towards stereotypical cis men behaviours (she hated the "manly" og clerk despite seemingly being a nice guy from his image, so her distaste extends to general cis men attitudes and looks), and bad experiences from her past. While the first and third aspects are entirely understandable, the second is an unfair prejudice towards men. Even if she hates the bad aspects of male culture, which is valid and agreeable, there are aspects that are simply harmless and should not evoke such intense hatred from her. Ideally, for Val to unlearn that hatred, she'd need to be exposed to a regular cis man, that is different from her expectations of a cis man not in his general manly behaviours but by being openly against misogyny and sympathetic of her past without any ulterior motives. That way, she'd separate the average man from the awful extremes that are harmful.

Audrey is not an average man. Functionally, while he's a cis man, he lives his life as a woman. Audrey's first, and seemingly only friendly interaction with a man is him entirely following the gender norms of a woman. This, does not, work as a way for her to unlearn her hatred of men.

Let's make another example. Let's say, group of people A have ABC traits, while group of people B have XYZ traits. A person in group A scoffs at B, thinking that ABC traits are inherently superior while all XYZ traits are bad. Then, a perfect angel from B arrives. They're different from normal group B people, not because their XYZ traits are actively appealing, but because they exhibit ABC traits. The first person likes this outlier, and so smugly thinks "See? The only good person of group B has ABC traits. ABC traits are superior to XYZ, so group B is worse than group A".

Val should still despise men, and will continue to despise them so long as she hangs out with Audrey. Audrey is the exact opposite of what she thinks a man is, a misogynystic manly asshole, and so she shouldn't associate him with the larger demographic at all. He's "one of the good ones", a man that doesn't act or look or think like what a man "is", but rather how a woman "is". He's not from Mars, he's from Venus, and so all of Mars will continue to be hated, because if a Martian acts and looks like a Venusian, to a hater of Martians it will be just another Venusian.

This was my analysis on why the comic doesn't work. Feel free to counter any of this, I'm actually interested!