Ask The Cast Ch4: Jaden
This is how Jaden avoided gender none-sense, lol. Head down and always working hard. Sometimes her engrossment in schoolwork was to her detriment though, and when she was younger Jaden struggled to mesh other children and make friends. She wasn’t particularly upset, but it made her mother worry.
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After posting chapter 4, I invited the first three commenters on the page to ask Lease Bound’s cast questions. Doing these answers has really helped motivate me moving forward, and I’m hoping to continue a similar trend with future uploads.
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BLESS YOU FOR ALL THESE EXTRAS they are the best. I’m just going to leave a big old comment here.
I love Ruth. I expected to love her the second I saw her of course I love her bio. She really does remind me of that generation of strong lesbian women who did it themselves, who built their own spaces, powerful activists who deserve recognition. I’m so upset with the younger generation of LGBTWTFBBQs silencing these powerful women and pushing them away. I got to speak to an older lesbian woman who reminds me of Ruth’s energy and it changed my life. I’m SO glad to see you including someone like Ruth. You have so many types of lesbians here in lease bound and it’s just. Thank you. One lesbian comic which isn’t this fake new age garbage, but acknowledges the diversity and power of lesbians. There are so many women like Ruth in lesbian history and like. I never see anyone recognizing them anywhere. Instead of being admired they get called terrible names for not being nice to males… Lesbians have a history!!! An amazing history full of strong women like Ruth!
I’m so freaking excited to learn more about these characters and see them become more real aaaah. BABY RILEY IS SO CUTE LIKE! It’s such a simple scene, her staring at the manikins while her friends walk along but like. It feels like a powerful visual to me and it touches my heart. They’re walking away, leaving baby Riley behind to contemplate her lesbianism and it like. Prfhgsfds. I have to think you did that on purpose and there’s a lot of implications to Riley standing there along while the other girls walk on ahead. It just. It hurts my heart a little bit LOL it hits me it feels personal which I love.
AND JADEN GOSH The way you drew her aging up is masterful. She looks so cute at every point of growth wah. It takes some really amazing skill to be able to draw a character at different ages like that, it’s something I can’t do very well yet but wow you did so good… I love her I adore her my gosh
I’m like so surprised I wasn’t sure how much I would relate to Riley and Jaden but ohaaa their backstories are already touching my heart. I had a sense I liked girls young, but I ALSO focused a lot on school and it stunted my ability to socialize and I just aaaaa. I’ve always been so excited to get to know all these characters better and these extras have me way more hyped now. These are such small scenes but they tell us so much about your characters and I love them so much. It feels so rare I can see myself in any fictional character but I already feel connected to Riley and Jaden I wish I could be their friends.
I crave… more riley and jaden interacting… it’s gonna be so good… I gotta get to know all these girls better… You’ve made such cool characters…
The art style you used for these is so nice too you really did amazing these look so great. no tablet no problem lol. You’re so determined and tenacious not every artist would work around that. You’re awwweesssome thank you so much for sharing this.
Thank you so, so much for your kind words. Unfortunately for you, now that you’ve gone and complimented me, i will send you an EQUALLY long block of text of appreciation back!!
I am really touched by how many readers who’ve warmed to Ruth. I wish I’d been a bit more explicit in chapter for with giving her name – but oh well!
It’s easy to forget how much older lesbians have done for us, considering how often they’re undervalued and written-out of history. I really wanted Ruth to be a love-letter to older lesbians. Elsewhere, butch women like Ruth exist as a punchline, or what straight homophobes might call an ‘offensive’ stereotype’.
If you hear about any of their achievements in history, it’s always with a disclaimer of ‘they were very man-hating’ ‘too extreme’. They’re the ‘other’ that straight feminists refer to totally not being like. “We’re not like those hairy, man-hating dykes”.
Even well-meaning people turn up their noses to older, fat/stocky butch lesbians. My own mother assures me I’m ‘not like *those* lesbians’ in an attempt to be supportive.
They shy away because they think their existsnece is shameful, or offensive. But the thing people don’t realise is that it’s not the existence of Butchness, of headstrong, angry lesbians we hate being portrayed. It’s that they are stripped of their humanity when portrayed.
Ruth is unpalatable to most. She’s stern, she scowls, and rigid in her perception of the world. But her hardened disposition is for the protection of lesbians. You’re so right in that strength being deserved to celebrated.
There’s so much more I can’t wait to share about her character, and her club.
Her employees are the family she chose, she nurtured and protected. She lives for women. She is strong for women.
There’s so many heart-string-pulling narrative angles ( which I’m a total sucker for) to explore through Butchness, and older lesbians. And I’m trying my best to do it justice, because I know, so many other lesbians yearn for it too.
Believe me, I’m BUSTING to share so many more interactions, and parts of these characters. Drawing these little extras really motivated me, and got me excited to keep thinking up new storylines and ideas.
I’m totally guilty of ‘writing what I know’ so, a lot of Jaden and Riley are just pieces of me. So I too really relate to being aware of my attraction to girls from a young age, and feeling distance and isolation from other girls. Apparently it’s pretty universal!
I feel like that’s why I personally feel very disconnected from other lesbian media. It’s either a really sad coming out story, or just ‘lesbians because progressive’. Neither really truly captures, or often even explores the way we came to realise our lesbianism, or how and what form our attraction takes shapes in. Lesbian characters seem to be simultaneously written sole with their lesbianism in mind, while also completely lacking an understanding of what that attraction looks like.
A lot of indie media i see now – which to be fair is often written by very young people – only grasps attraction in a very overt way. ‘Oh wow pretty girl I’m totally speechless uwu~ blush blush’. It can be cute, but there’s so much more, so many better ways to portray it enjoyably and relateably!
I never became speechless when talking to girls I fancied. I was the opposite, a complete 180! Suddenly I’d be filled with this confidence to go out of way to impress girls. Make them laugh and smile. When I was younger I seriously thought it might have been a superpower that just overcame me sometimes.
I feel like I’m tooting my own horn, but that’s why I’ve tried to really get away from that use-less lesbian stereotype with Jaden and Riley. Like, Jaden, is a total heart-throb (See the crowd of women flirting with her), but also sorta doesn’t realise it. And Riley, like myself, does things to impress/appease women she likes (her girlfriend). She’s aware and kind of ashamed of it, but still does it, because it makes her happy, and her gf happy obviously.
I really want them to feel three-dimensional, both within and outside of their lesbianism. They would absolutely not be the same character without their lesbianism, but they have goals and dreams outside of it. Idk. ramble ramble.
I too am REALLY excited to get them interacting more. I have so many fun thins planned. These last two chapters have been pretty heavy – necessary to set up over-arching plots (And I am a sucker for women protecting women. see: homoerotic imagery of Shez cradling Jaden while Parniya goes directly for the kill) – and the extra pages have been a great way to motivate me, and play with their chemistry while not rushing the main story.
Riley and Jaden’s friendship is going to be a slowburn, as a warning. But I think affording them the time to develop and grow with make them much more easy to be invested in as characters!
Thank you so much for all your kind words about my art, I’m actually really proud with what I was able to accomplish without a tablet, and have honestly done more drawing in the last few days than I have in weeks! It’s amazing what a little limitation and some fan-questiosn can do for you!
Drawing Jaden through the years was also really fun! Especially lil babby Jaden. I made myself ‘aww’ lmao! I’ll definitely be visiting their pasts again!
You really made my day leaving such a thoughtful, and loving comment. So for the millionth time, thank you. Thank you so, so much, I am so excited to share more with you, and everyone else! I’m aiming to have a few pages of the next chapter done in 2 weeks time, and stick to a more regular uploading schedule, of pages in smaller blocks.
Stay tuned!
Finally catching up on the comic, and YES YES YES this was my experience as well. Met my girlfriend when we were both in our first year of university. Unfortunately, internalized homophobia is a real thing, and I spent several years trying to make myself be straight. Didn’t work though, and now I’m finally out and proud. Little bit of a damper that I finally came out of the closet only to be forced back in by gender nonsense, but I’m not any less proud to be a lesbian. I love you and your comic for celebrating US.
Sometimes it’s so weird to me that I was a late bloomer because I lost all of my childhood friends over gender stuff, so no one that I grew up with was around when I came out at 20 and I don’t speak to my family so most of them found out years later through my mom. I prefer it this way though, I think you build a certain kind of entitlement around people you’ve known since childhood and you tend to cross boundaries you wouldn’t normally cross. My biggest fear was always my friends accusing me of just not wanting to get over my sexual trauma and now I don’t need to live my life knowing what that would’ve felt like.
I completely agree with what you said about childhood friendships crossing boundaries that other relationships might not.
I’m sorry you had to live in fear but am glad to hear you’ve been able to separate yourself from it. Nobody should have to live like that.