Interview with Dan Standing, Writer of Transformation-themed Comics and Prose, Founder of Transformeum, Co-host Modern Metamorphoses Podcast

Dan Standing is a writer who has focused on transformation fiction with erotic appeal for over a decade! He got his start writing the comic “T&A” for the BE Story Club, then went his own way creating DanStanding.com in 2011, which was later switched to Transformeum.com. Those sites were and are dedicated to a broad variety of metamorphoses such as breast growth, furry transition, gender bending, shrinking, etc. Posted at Transformeum are change-themed articles like the breast and butt expansion story “Stick To It” and the multi-limbed themed poem “Unexpected Perfection.” Dan has also penned multiple reviews. In particular, I enjoyed his analysis of Rolfe Kanefsky’s breast-expansion short film “Mood Boobs” and the transformation-filled Image comic book “Vescell.” (NOTE: Previously, this blog reviewed Rolfe Kanefsky’s “Adventures Into the Woods: A Sexy Musical.”) Dan is also the creator behind the genie comic “Held Within,” and discusses relevant topics via the Modern Metamorphoses Podcast. Fans can follow Dan Standing on Twitter, support Dan on Patreon, and keep up to date via the Modern Metamorphoses Podcast, the Transformeum, and on Instagram.

#1) Can you tell the readers a little about yourself?

I grew up a South Jersey kid in the ’80s and ’90s, bopping around Atlantic City and Philadelphia. During and after college I was a writer/performer on a local cable comedy show, and did sketch comedy, improv, and stand-up in bars and clubs around Philly. That gives you a thick skin, perfect for creating stuff on the internet! My wife and I then followed her job out to the Cleveland area, where we still live. I worked my way up PR Newswire/Cision from customer service to product manager, but a few months after the Cision acquisition I was laid off. I now work for a local family-owned company doing accounts payable work, which gives me the time to work on my transformation projects – which is good, because my wife and I recently had a baby!

#2) How did you first become interested in sexualized metamorphosis?

When I was a kid I got a copy of “The Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were,” along with a few illustrated Greek Myth books. Folk tales featuring transformation curses and mermaids, along with myths like Syrinx and Daphne, fascinated me, and the local library had to ask me to stop borrowing Ovid’s “The Metamorphoses” so many times in a row. I found myself drawn to reruns of “I Dream of Jeannie” and would watch Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” over and over on the VCR in the basement. By the time “Gargoyles” premiered I was old enough to understand that what I was drawn to held more than just “creative curiosity” for me. Since I could scrawl letters I’d been a writer of stories, and the challenge of trying to describe an experience of transforming or being something more than human in a way a human could feel was alluring.

#3) Are any of your everyday acquaintances aware of your interest?

Yes. I told my wife I wrote breast expansion fiction within a week of us dating (although we’d been friends for a few years before that). She laughed in my face (in a loving way), the best reaction I could have hoped for. When I attended SizeCon in February 2020 she came along and supported everything. Throughout the years I shared more and more with friends and even coworkers – one of whom revealed to me that he was a well-known size writer himself who later attended SizeCon with me! When it was decided I would be attending a transformation kink convention in 2020 I started sharing with my family, who find the idea amusing and are supportive that I have found success and what I write makes people happy and feel less alone.

#4) What are a few of your favorite transformation-themed works from other creators?

Dorin’s NagasDen.com was one of my earliest online finds, and comics like “The Ring” are massive classics to me. Grosporina’s “Thinking Straight”, TinySexyGirl’s “Still Life” series, and BustArtist’s “Breast Wishes” were also early finds and favorites for me. There are books and comics by JR Parz and Bill Pratt that I find myself returning to over and over again. Robclassact’s “There’s An App for That” is a recent favorite of mine. And I love Rolfe Kanefksy’s “Mood Boobs” film so much I licensed the rights from him to do an official comic adaptation and continuation based on unfilmed sequels.

#5) How would you describe the Modern Metamorphoses Podcast?

It’s intended to be an all-audience accessible podcast exploring how the transformation genre is both widespread through our pop culture, but at the same time completely overlooked. My cohost, Alex Fort, is a sociologist whose thesis was on this sort of stuff and we explore media of all kinds. While we’ve touched on mature works, it’s really meant to be a more scholarly – in a playful way – examination of transformation themes to hopefully be something that can normalize the genre, given how widespread it is in cartoons, sitcoms, dramas, books, movies, and everything in our world. It’s available on pretty much any podcast service once a month!

#6) Can you briefly outline the history and purpose behind Transformeum?

Currently the Transformeum is mostly my basement and a storage unit down the road from me, but eventually it is meant to be a brick-and-mortar museum/library resource chronicling the transformation genre across history. Something people could travel to in order to hang out at, learn about all the transformation stuff out there they might not have yet discovered, be a goodwill discovery outpost for any curious public, and even a place to read/view/watch some rare or little-known transformation works I’ve gathered up. Right now I have a “physical media only, 5-10+ years publication” rule because it is not an excuse for me to buy all the ebooks out there! I’ve actually scouted a few possible locations here around Cleveland over the years, but until I have what I believe is a stable, ethical, self-sufficient business model for it I’m being patient to make sure it is done right and transparently for all to enjoy.

#7) Could you discuss the rewards for supporting your Patreon? Are there any upcoming projects that you would like to mention?

I can’t draw, so most of my Patreon income goes to the artists who make my comics possible! Patrons receive multiple comic pages a month split between TIME AND AGAIN, MYTH TRIAL, THE GAME, and others. The comic adaptation of MOOD BOOBS is being produced now. There’s also a couple thousand words of stories I write for it each month, and some Patron levels can submit ideas for inclusion in that prose work. I’m working now with an animator to begin a new project!

Thank you very much for this interview!

All Rights Reserved.