Danielle Conner Is Still Drawing Herself

Danielle Connor signs comics at Comicon in 2024 at the Tokyopop booth.

Photos and Story by Giles Clasen

Danielle Conner's first pair of women's jeans came from Walmart. One might not notice they had smaller pockets, hugged her frame a little tighter and were cut a little lower. It would be easy to mistake them for tight-fitting men's pants during the skinny jean era.

But for Conner, they were special: They affirmed her true and hidden identity as a woman. What wasn't hidden was her rising career.

Conner first drew and wrote independent comics while working as a special education teacher at Denver Public Schools in 2008. Her first printed comics were adaptations of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Dracula," published by Abdo and released to schools and libraries nationally and translated into multiple languages. 

By 2018, Conner had published works for titles as big as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," “My Gal, The Zombie,” "Archie" and "Casper." Then, in 2018, she reached a new milestone: writing the manga series "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas – The Battle for Pumpkin King" published by Tokyopop in partnership with Disney and Tim Burton. The book eventually became a New York Times bestseller.

"It was amazing to get ‘Nightmare.’ I love the series and the movie," Conner said. "It was a long shot, and I just really kept at it, like, getting the work, and I couldn't believe I got it. It literally changed my life."

Back then, all her comics were signed “Dan Conner.”

"I got to work on all these things and get my name on it: 'Dan.' But I felt I knew I wasn't Dan," she said. "I started signing everything as Conner. I was leaving Dan off because I didn't know where I wanted to go. It was a long time before I started signing my work Danielle."

Conner had known since she was a small child that something about her didn't match the boy she was born as. She came out to her Southern Baptist parents as gay at 11 years old — she didn't have the language for transgender identity yet, so gay was the closest fit.

"Their response was, 'Let's talk about it,' but they definitely were trying to push me to be who I am not," Conner said. "They didn't hate me, they didn't say, 'We're getting rid of you,' but they did remind me where they feel the Bible stands on being gay."

Danielle Connor wearing her feminine jeans and t-shirt in 2022.

Conner's faith was deep then and now. She has always struggled with bringing her understanding of the Bible in line with her identity as a woman. Raised by a Southern Baptist pastor, Conner can quote a lot of Scripture. 

But Conner's journey to go from Dan to Danielle in her 30s coincided with her world falling apart.

Conner's wife left her in 2020, taking care of their two children as, not long after, doctors found leukemia in Conner's blood that ultimately landed her in a coma and nearly killed her. It was her father who carried her to every doctor's appointment.

"My dad gave up his retirement years to go carry me by my belt while I tried to walk upstairs, and drive me to chemo every day in 2-degree weather of Denver instead of sunny Florida," Conner said. "I had no one else to do it and that is real love."

The cancer and chemotherapy left Conner permanently disabled with nerve damage in her hands and feet – ending her professional drawing days. But the side effects also changed her body — she looked more feminine and was more in line with who she had always seen herself as.

"I noticed the breast development after my chemotherapy and it was kind of like a big moment because I was like, well, if my body is changing then there is no more hiding," she said.

But her new body faced the same old bad luck: Conner lost her house when the divorce was finalized. 

Danielle Connor has lived out of hotel rooms while homeless before moving into her uncle's RV and finally finding housing with the help of her parents in Florida.

Her first experience in homelessness included renting a hotel room in Denver for a few months in 2021. She then made a desperate choice when she ran out of options: she moved into her uncle’s old RV, a free home on wheels.

Her original plan was to park the RV on the streets of Denver at night to sleep, but safety and the police made her look eastward.

In 2022 Conner drove her RV to Chadron, Nebraska, where she thought it would be more affordable.

She also started wearing women’s clothes and makeup full time. She carried her Ninja Turtles makeup kits with her everywhere, proud that she had contributed to the series and was now shading her eyes in the brand’s palette.

"My family tried to talk me out of it. My daughter would be like, that's a woman's jacket," Conner said. "I was like, 'That's punk rock. I'm different, and it's punk rock to be different.'"

Conner quickly found acceptance in the world, though, when she began making appearances at comic and pop culture conventions as Danielle at the end of that same year.

"I asked [the convention staff], ‘Would you change my badge to Danielle?’ And they said yes. That was a really freaking big thing for me then," Conner said. "Then it went further. The fans lined up to get my signature or to have me draw something for them and they didn't care that I was wearing makeup and being a woman. Some even told me I looked cute and it was amazing."

Conner signs books around the country at major conventions like Comic-Con International in San Diego and MegaCon in Orlando, but she makes special trips to Denver as frequently as possible to sign comics and meet fans at Mile High Comics.

Chuck Rozanski started Mile High Comics in 1969 when he was 13. He has built his store from his parents' basement into what he says is the largest comic book store in the country.

Rozanski began exploring his gender identity in his 50s and now identifies as gender fluid. He also strongly believes that comics can help make space for people from all backgrounds.

"I think the comics are a medium that allows for expression of pretty much any idea or any worldview," he said. "And I think that sometimes that gets focused a little bit too much on the sort of ‘Iron Man Tony Stark billionaire’ who makes himself into a hero kind of a thing. And it's not that way in America. In America, there are people in every economic group that have a story to tell and comics can tell those stories too."

Danielle Connor signs comics for fans at Mile High Comics in 2024 with her collaborator, Erin Andrews. "The conveying of ideas is much more interactive within the comics community than it would be in almost any other art form," said Chuck Rozanski, owner of Mile High Comics.

Rozanski said comics work differently than other media.

"Comics are a great way for people to do things inexpensively because it doesn't take that much to get your own comic going. Getting it to sell, that's another question,” Rozanski said. "But you can definitely create your art, share different ideas and perspectives, maybe change a mind."

That's how Rozanski sees Conner's work. 

"When Danielle is putting it out there that she's trans, people need to be aware that this is not some sort of deviant condition. This is something that exists as a normality. Every reader is in some way influenced by that," Rozanski said. "Some of them may connect with Danielle and see everything a little different. Some of them may be repulsed. But in general, the conveying of ideas is much more interactive within the comics community than it would be in almost any other art form.”

Conner digs into her own history to tell stories today, such as in the independent comics “Ninja High School” and “Tomorrow Girl.”

Patricia Krmpotich, a longtime collaborator and friend, has watched Conner’s journey firsthand. The two met in 2015 when Conner was doing a signing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore where Krmpotich worked, and their partnership grew from there — first through video projects, then into comics.

"She not only gave me all of the advice, encouragement, and pointers on how to write a comic, but she also allowed me to make my start playing in the ‘My Gal, The Zombie’ playground," Krmpotich said. "From there, we became a solid team."

Krmpotich has seen Conner's writing open up since her transition.

"I see a tangible joy," Krmpotich said. "She can finally write about topics that she's very passionate about with an authentic perspective and voice. There's nothing holding her back now and you can see the joy in the freedom."

Conner's move to Nebraska didn't go as planned. The Midwest was more affordable, but the cold and barren land of Western Nebraska proved brutal.

"Nebraska has RV year-round campgrounds, so I thought I could make it," Conner said. "But I wasn't ready for the cold. Everything froze. I couldn't keep water to drink because it froze. I spent the week of Christmas sleeping in my friend's comic book store."

This was when Conner was at her lowest.

"My depression and my gender dysphoria work in correlation with each other. I spent a lot of 2021, 2022, 2023 in bed," she said. "I'd been through a lot. I couldn't get out of bed to shave or do anything."

Conner was only able to escape homelessness with the help of her parents, who invited her to stay with them and helped her obtain a mobile home — a stationary one this time — in sunny Florida.

Despite their help, Conner's parents have never come around to her feminine identity. By the time she moved to Florida, Conner had begun wearing dresses and other women's clothing, expanding her wardrobe beyond women's jeans and shirts.

She said her father has told her plainly, "You need to dress like a man." Conner said that her mother has been a little gentler, but no less firm. She's told Conner to "Just be the man God wants you to be."

Conner said her parents showed her love and support when she had nowhere else to go.

Danielle Connor's first makeup was often brands associated with comics she had drawn or written for like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"I sacrifice a lot to live as who I am or as the person that I like seeing in the mirror," Conner said. "It puts strain on our relationship when they tell me the Bible says that God detests when women dress like men, and that men shouldn't dress like women. While they show me great love, anyone that disagrees with how I live hurts. There's disagreement there, but they still love me."
Her parents refuse to call her anything but Dan. They still ask her not to wear overly feminine clothing and makeup around them. Conner mostly obliges because keeping them in her life matters more to her than winning the argument. 

"I stopped pushing the envelope with them," Conner said. "I want to make it more comfortable for them because I know it's hard, and they're being very loving to me and supportive of me. But I do wear foundation and light make-up, and sometimes I don't care and just show up in my women's clothes."

What really hurts Conner is that her relationship with her children has grown strained since the divorce. To avoid tensions that may arise from her transition, Conner dresses more conservatively around them, drops most of the makeup and wears plain shirts if that's what they ask for.

She said it wasn't the depression, the cancer or the homelessness that has been the hardest. 

"Being without my kids is the greatest loss of my life," Conner said. "I would do anything to be with my kids again. I would detransition to live with my kids. Well, to the most that I could. I would go back to wearing just the jeans, and plain shirts."

Conner is determined to find a life where she can keep building her relationships without leaving behind her identity.

Danielle Conner gets a tattoo of Joan of Ark from her collaborator, Erin Andrews.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Danielle’s last name. Her name is Danielle Conner. Her former name appears in this story with her permission and for clarity.