Remy Boydell is a British comics artist and illustrator whose work combines the visual language of classic cartoons with a more unsettling interest in sexuality, identity, alienation and the darker sides of contemporary life. Boydell is a trans man who was assigned female at birth, and his work is deeply tied to personal experiences with gender dysphoria, navigating trans identity, and queer subculture.

Boydell grew up with collections of classic cartoons and hours of watching Nickelodeon, influences that helped shape a preference for simplified, highly abstracted characters rather than conventional naturalistic drawing. As a child he spent time in comic-book shops, looking for work to identify with. His early internet activity involved reworking familiar cartoon designs. He explains that fictionalising experience through such imagery can provide a way of working through trauma.

Before concentrating on comics in 2015, Boydell worked in the technology and media sectors, including working as a translator for Apple and translating Japanese documentaries. He also designed T-shirts, though he experienced growing frustration with companies copying successful designs. He gained traction with comics and developed his artistic voice by sharing work online, particularly through Tumblr. His early comics included Tender Objects, Death Paradise, Victim Pheromone and Recovery Blogger.

Watercolour became central to Boydell’s distinctive visual style. He had been given a set of watercolours when he was thirteen, and more than a decade later was still working with essentially the same set, replacing the colour pans as necessary. Boydell values the medium partly for its speed and partly for the unpredictable ‘happy accidents’ it produces. The use of atmospheric, often wordless splash pages developed during his years posting work on Tumblr, where the vertical scrolling format encouraged him to end short comics with an image designed to linger in the reader’s mind.

The turning point of Remy Boydell’s comics career came in 2018 with the publication of The Pervert, a highly original and much-acclaimed book-length graphic novel collaboration with Michelle Perez, following the experiences of trans character Felina. In 2021 he reunited with Perez to self-publish The Bronze, a limited-run, unofficial sequel to The Pervert. This was followed in 2020 by the solo graphic novel debut 920London. Painted entirely in his signature delicate watercolours, 920London captures the melancholic, drug-fuelled existentialism of two suburban UK kids, one emo and one scene, navigating a doomed romance in 2005. Continuing to bend genres, Boydell also developed the Cat With Gun multimedia universe, a surreal online world of breedable digital creatures.

Boydell has also become a creative force in independent film and multimedia production. He stepped into cinema as a producer and art director for film-maker Louise Weard’s postmodern trans epic, the Castration Movie franchise. Across several instalments, including Anthology II: The Best of Both Worlds (2025) and Anthology III: Year of the Hyaena (2026), Boydell has set the visual tone of the universe, designing intricate props, posters, costumes and occult sigils. Beyond feature films, his multimedia portfolio has expanded to include directing animated music videos for underground electronic acts like Ada Rook and Black Dresses, co-creating the indie animated short Julia, and contributing character design to the cult-classic tactical shooter video game Cruelty Squad.

Through these many diverse projects, Remy Boydell has firmly established himself as an important and versatile voice in alternative queer and trans media.

Similar artists

Trevor Brown – British illustrator whose manga-inflected pop surrealism has a similarly transgressive unease.
Kerstin Drechsel – German painter centring queer identity through work that is personal and political.
gea* – contemporary illustrator whose sweet, disturbing pop surrealism explores transgressive themes.
Fyodor Pavlov – Russian-American queer and trans artist working through identity.
Mark Price – American surrealist exploring androgyny and gender synthesis.
Apollonia Saintclair – Contemporary feminist fine-line illustrator of erotic subjects.
Gerda Wegener – Danish illustrator who painted Lili Elbe, one of the earliest documented trans lives.