This week's lineartist is: breastie beloved, @arbustorum, with a double feature to close us out of this flashback!
The thumbnail I gave her: [page 5] | [page 6]
My favourite thing about these pages: Riley's helpless expression in the first panel looking up at Blaire U_U And the mouths! Mare is so good at drawing big-ass mouths without making them looking disproportional to the face. Brick's hair in the first panel is such a treat too, especially around the the nape of her neck.
Mushy Stuff: Thank you to all my wonderful and talented guest artists, Mare, Kory, HorseBlaire and Sunny. I've woven parts of many women who have touched my life significantly into Lease Bound, and I'm truly grateful, and honoured that you four are among them. Thank you also to every woman who left thoughtful comments, and were welcoming to my lovely guest artists - this has definitely reinforced my desire to host guest artists again in the future!
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Stay tuned for Thursday, Nov 2nd ~8PM (ACST/ GMT10:30+) for the title page of CH12,
and the following Sunday, Nov 5th~8PM (ACST/ GMT10:30+) for CH12P1! It's SHEZ TIME BABEEEEYYY!!!
![[page 5]](https://leasebound.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image17.png){kind=link}
![[page 6]](https://leasebound.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-173.png){kind=link}
Boosty Update
CH12P11 Speed Paint
What Could Have Been: Blaire & Jaden’s First Meeting (CH6) – Did you know that Jaden and Blaire were originally written to meet during chapter 6, instead of missing each other by minutes?
A double page!!! 🥰🥰🥰
That last page is setting the mood so beautifully. Not hard to see where Riley gets the anxiety from! She tried so hard to walk on eggshells and she still ended up being yelled at by a stranger and reprimanded by her girlfriend, who is supposedly to be on her side! She just can’t win 😔
Thank you for letting me be part of this wonderful comic (and flashback)!! 🥰🥰
Brick on this page “you can’t tell who’s trans just by looking at them!” Brick literally a few minutes before “Though I probably could have told you THAT [Riley being trans] the moment you stepped in here.” Which is it Brick? Can’t just change it based on what fits your narrative
Aw the end of an era 🤗 This has been so lovely, not the storyline lol, but seeing all these talented and unique women come together to bring another (equally amazing) women’s work to life!
Mare, Kory, HorseBlaire, Sunny, all poured their heart and soul into Lease Bound and a little piece of them will be woven into it forever! Agh my heart! 🥰
This has been a real treat! I’ve never seen another comic do a collaboration like this; I do hope it continues because it’s such a beautiful idea 💜
At this point, clowns are trans. You can just tell.
I feel so sad for Riley in this panel. Yelled at by a stranger, given the cold shoulder by her girlfriend in front of that stranger…
Riley deserves someone she can let her guard down around, someone more than Muddles. No wonder she spends so much energy eggshell-walking. How badly would Blaire treat her if she learned she was roomies and friends with “a terf”?
Anyway, Dump Blaire Parade rolling.
Also, considering that Rusty has alluded to Riley having left a cult, I wonder if Riley will eventually notice any similarities between that group and the controlling way Brick and Blaire are treating her.
E.g. Asking questions, even in good faith in front of obvious contradictions, is a sign of moral defectiveness.
Outsiders may be demon-possessed/TERFS and should be treated with suspicion.
Higher-level group members are enlightened in ways outsiders could never understand, so they aren’t expected to explain themselves.
Low-level members should be comforted and intimidated to give rewards and punishments.
While we only have bits and pieces of her backstory right now, the implied shunning from her mom makes me wonder if they are alike.
Brick really does spend a lot of time with her eyes closed
I guess both literally and metaphorically
Snorted at “you can’t tell who’s trans just by looking at them” coming from BRICK (love how she’s pointing at herself when she say’s that) clown moment 🤡
Even in anonymous writing trans people don’t pass 😅 I’ve been getting back into film lately and correctly clocked at least 3 tim critics based on reviews and recommended lists alone!
This page reminds me that the comic is taking place on a different era.
The 201Xs were really the time where the TRA one-liners and partisan slogans began.
The spreading of the ‘euphoria’ idea, the surgeries vs the social transition, the ridiculous suicide statistics, the blatant lying about stonewall they never admitted responsibility for (did you know that in countries of the global south this lie continues to be repeated? Fun isn’t it?), the *barf* cotton ceiling…all the big hits were created and spread during this era.
The gaslighting of it all too… “You have probably crushed on a trans person without knowing” and other statistical manipulations. This one liners were meant to be consumed and believed by people who hadn’t had contact with real life trans people and specially a real life gay community in their homelands.
Like…the grand majority of trans people absolutely didn’t past, pre or post hormones. The few ‘stealths’ that I knew let you know their sex when needed.
For me it was kinda funny at the time, and I figured it was just baby gays being political. I’m retrospective it’s insane how I never said anything bout it because I thought it was just a phase, contained in a niche corner of the anglosphere…. ._. Well.
I haven’t read another webcomic that integrated guest artists as well as this. Even with the variety of art styles, it still looked cohesive with the regular pages because of the colors and panel layouts, great job everyone!
After all this, can’t wait for the day Riley stands up for herself.
would love to see brick go this mental on kai for assuming eli or some other woman was a “cis bitch” when they first met. a few crumbs of absurd infighting would make this even more accurate to what these groups of friends tend to actually be like
Brick is so rancid. And while I don’t like to make fun of any woman’s appearance, I swear she puts effort into being ugly.
It’s not her, it’s the way she chooses to present herself (or “present gender” I guess you could say) which is indeed so accurate to gendies of both sexes that at this point yeah I actually CAN spot a gendie by looks.
They really do all look like Brick and the QC or the AGP gang. HSTs hit a little different but they’re the minority now. Not that they’re any more “legitimate” just have a different look. Also oh my DAMN the whiplash from Blaire!
These pages are so dynamic! The between-bonus segments have been delightful. It’s amazing to be introduced to fellow artists in the community. I can’t wait for Shez’s backstory!!!! 👽🛸
thanks everybody <3 love you rusty!!
I’ve loved these last few pages from your guest artists! It’s nice to see this scene drawn out in full, and to see the talents of the other women who enjoy this comic with me and so many others. I may even throw my hat into the ring for potential future pages, if you decide to do them again.
Brick and Blaire make me want to pick them up and shake them like dog toys. RRRHFHFHFFF RRRRH. Madams, you are excruciating.
Blaire SO reminds me of someone I used to know. Flippity floppity, your best friend until someone else has a problem with you.
Anddddd abusive Blaire is back 🙁
Blaire’s supportive to abusive demeanor shift happened so fast it gave me Whiplash. Poor Riley having to walk on eggshells to avoid it
Man, the context behind what made Brick yell at Riley which we got that glimpse of in that flashback so long ago just makes it all seem even more pathetic and horrible than it already did – and it seemed plenty pathetic and horrible already. The aggression, the condescension, the bullying and ganging up…
And all over them having the audacity to tell someone who and what she is, when Riley NEVER asked for this crap.
The only silver lining I can think of is that Brick and Blaire’s horrible treatment of Riley seems to have made her wisely cautious of gendie stuff in general, which even Blaire admitted when she thought about how she’d “scared Riley off”. On the other hand, this makes her more calculated approach with Jaden come off even creepier…
Also although I wouldn’t ever inflict Tiffany on my worst enemy, I’d be curious to see whether she’d be able to stomach talking to Assigned-Trans/Nonbinary women like Riley and Jaden or whether she’d class them as CBs lmao.
What awful manipulative and controlling people. Set Riley free omg.
Interesting how Brick says that even trans people have transphobic biases they need to unlearn, but when Riley, (who she thinks is a trans person) says something which Brick considers transphobic, her first reaction is to agressively yell at her.
Like… if Brick truly believed what she preached, she should be like, offering Riley compassion and understanding. According to their own logic, it would be hard to accept yourself as a trans person in a transphobic society, right?
It would be natural to not know everything about the ~complexity of gender~, right? But nope. “It’s okay to take time to process it”, but they expect Riley to somehow guess all the Correct Gender Takes and get mad when she doesn’t magically know things.
Brick, at least to me, comes across as that flavor of gendie who is not doing all the gender stuff because they genuinely believe it’s the right /kind thing to do, but because it gives them a sense of control and an excuse to attack people who step out of line.
Brick is clearly not very confident in what she’s saying but “educating” people on the Gender Lore makes her feel important (helping people find their True Selves like a true Queer Elder) and powerful (gets to berate anyone who doesn’t agree/understand what she says).
I feel if Brick wasn’t a gendie she would still have the same terrible personality, she would just have found a different path/ideology to bully people with.
(Also I love how Riley looks in Arbustorum’s art style)
There are three trans people I interact with on a regular basis. Two are the children of our dearest friends (as in we are the guardians of the kids if something hapoens, and we performed their wedding). They are good kids, and I would jump into a tiger’s mouth to protect them. Since coming out and taking male names they are much happier. Grades have improved. The one who was cutting has stopped. And all talk of quinceaneras has been shelved. They seem healthier living as bois, so who am I to betray their trust and make them unhappy?
The other is a cartoonist and one of my martial arts teachers. I don’t interact with him outside of class. In the studio he is scrupulously ethical, supportive to the students, and an excellent instructor. I have absolutely no idea about his romantic life,and as long as it is all with consenting adults it is none of my business. He treats me with professionalism and fairness; if he wants to be called “she” and use his new legal name I am happy to oblige.
So wait, is this the last pages of the collab? Cuz I thought there was supposed to be 7 pages, not 6 hehe 😅 just wondering!
Rusty, I’ve been loving the collab updates! excited for the shez chapters <3
Poor Riley T^T save her…