STORY & CAST
"After a mix-up with their leases, two Lesbians, Jaden and Riley, must learn to share a small, one-bedroom apartment. Friendship, and eventually romance ensues."
My advice is to wait for her to actually take action, before you ask if she'll be redeemed.
I have a lot planned for Blaire as a character, so let us burn that bridge when we come to it ๐
Before my tumblr termination, I got a lot of asks about what readers could expect representation-wise.
"Will there be any intersex characters?
"Will there be any Jewish characters?"
"Will there be any Latino characters?"
"Will there be any disabled a characters?"
"Will there be any mentally ill/disordered characters?"
"Will there be any detransitioned characters?"
"Will there be any happily transitioned homosexual characters?" (no, fuck off)
"Will there be any feminine lesbian characters?" (no, fuck off)
While I understand, and even sympathise with the intention of questions like this, receiving them was very frustrating and disheartening. It felt as though the quantity of representation boxes I could/ would tick off was more important than the quality of my current characters, or the story I've chosen to write.
I feel like this mindset has gotten a little out of control, and tumblr is an absolute breeding ground for valuing the fact there is representation, over the quality of it.
There's a level of entitlement involved in asking this of creators, especially those of us who are single-person teams.
I am not a huge company with the finances to accurately, respectfully and satisfyingly represent every single marginalized group. And honestly, any company that tries to claim that they do do that, is probably just looking to sell you something.
I appreciate, and hold no ill-will towards the readers who have asked me this question, but don't particularly want to be asked again.
Stories are not meant to represent every experience, and that's okay. I strongly encourage anyone yearning for it, to also, BE/create the representation they want to see.
Male characters in Lease Bound only exist as vehicles to further develop the important (See: female) characters.
I have chosen to do this as direct response to the plethora of male creators who waffle out excuses for the lack of female characters in their works. โ
While they try to save face, saying things like "I just don't understand women", I am honest in saying "I do not want to humanise men. There already exists countless pieces of fiction that serve as propaganda to men's humanity. I am choosing not to add to it."
This is also why I've avoided showing any positive heterosexual relationships in the story. It sets up an unrealistic expectation about what het/bi women can expect from partnering with men.
Lack of Fathers?
Some readers have expressed concern about the lack of father characters in Lease Bound... the lesbian webcomic and suggest that it is a racially motivated decision.So I have made a chart that details every father who's appeared in Lease Bound.
You may notice it is not a high number across the board, regardless of race, and will remain as such.
(see the male character policy section again for why).
With regards to Jaden's emo-hair specifically, she didn't dye it, but just braided in red extensions/fabric to achieve the look.
I was even gonna call it Stephen Galaxy, but then I was informed thatโs apparently the nsfw tag for Stephen Universe. So had to rework it x-x โโ
By the time I had this scene drafted (late 2022) ,Iโd seen so many examples of children cartoons informing gender identities that I figured Iโd just go more generic. So you get to choose which childrenโs show you think it is. No wrong answers! ๐
MAKING LEASE BOUND
As a one-woman show, I wear a lot of hats. Thereโs many things to be done before I can even put down the first line of a page.
โ Story planning - Lease Bound has an ending written, as well as some large plot points standing between now and the finish line, but there is gaps in between. I organize scene ideas into chapters. Once I'm ready to start work on that chapter, I refine all the scenes into a solid script with dialogue + actions/blocking.
โ Thumbnails - Basically a tiny, grayscale version of the finished page. Written scenes are organized into pages. Sometimes this requires a lot of re-dos to make sure it flows well.
Sketching - The tiny thumbnail is stretched out to it's proper size. I create boarders, and start doing detailed sketches.
โ Lineart - Sketches are lined over with a finer pen-tool, and then removed. Lots of back and forth to make sure the energy of the sketch isn't lost in crisper lines.
โ Colouring - I apply flat colours, and then shading + backgrounds. I usually decide on an entire colour pallet before a chapter begins to make sure things stay consistent.
โ Dialogue - Dialogue is added, and often changed to either fit in the page, or to fit better with the visuals.
โ Here's a Speedpaint of the page-making process, from sketch to completion
Currently, I use Clip Studio Paint PRO - but I've done a lot of swapping and changing over the years XD
===Chapter 1 + 2 + Prologue===
Sketch+ Lineart:
Cheap pens + printer paper. Then scanned.
Colouring + Line Cleanup:
Gimp 2.6
===Chapter 3===
Sketch:
Cheap lead pencils + lined notebook i had lying around Then scanned.
Lineart + Colouring:
Gimp 2.6 (pages 0-7)
MSPAINT-XP (pages 8-19)
===Chapter 4===
Sketch+ Lineart + Colouring:
MSPAINT-XP
===Chapter 5===
8 year old tablet died. No money to fix.
Sketch+ Lineart:
cheap lead pencils + printer paper. Scanned in.
Colouring:
Dark blue craft paper, with felt pen patterns drawn onto it for texture/different levels of darkness.
Line Cleanup:
Gimp 2.6. with mouse, not tablet U_U
===Chapter 6===
Sketch+ Lineart:
cheap lead pencils + printer paper. Scanned in. (pages 0-69)
Gimp 2.8 (pages 69-98)
Colouring:
Gimp 2.8 with mouse (pages 0-31)
Gimp 2.8 with tablet (pages 31-98)
===Chapter 7 + 8===
Sketch+ Lineart + Colouring:
Gimp 2.8 with tablet.
===Chapter 9===
Sketch+ Lineart + Colouring:
Gimp 2.8 with tablet. (pages 0-14)
Clip Studio Paint Pro (pages 15-20)
===Chapter 10 (and on wards)===
Sketch+ Lineart + Colouring:
Clip Studio Paint Pro
Yes!
Both Volume 1 and 2 are now available for order again here.
On July 24th 2022, Lease Bound's first volume made it's debut in physical form. 50 copies were printed, bought and shipped out.
Yes!
I am working alongside several incredibly generous volunteers, who have offered their time to translate LB pages. It's a slow process as it's entirely free - and is secondary to continuing to get more pages out - but translation options are definitely coming in future!
Oh man I have had MANY thoughts about this. I feel like it would be incredibly fun to do!
I always get stuck in logistics though.
1) I feel like I should pay the people who lend their voices. And much like hiring on women to help produce LB, I donโt really have that income.
I donโt know how effective Iโd be as a voice director so I'd be concerned about the amount of guidance I could provide to the voice actors.
I would also like to take care in casting actors that match the race of the characters and not just all white people.
Iโm on the fence regarding the accuracy of accents- given Lease Bound is set in Australia and thereโs lots of Aussie slang slipped in. But it's definitely a much lesser concern, and I think if it was the only thing holding me back, that it could just come down to a matter of suspension of disbelief.
It's definitely not entirely off the table, I just don't think I have the resources to pull it off right now. That said, if it's something any woman reading this would like to be in charge of, I'd be more than happy to co-operate/help in anyway I can. IE: providing blank pages without speech bubbles, giving advice on moods/tones ect.
Enough of her followers reported my patreon page that I was suspended. To lift the suspension (and allow payments again) I was asked to remove "offending" content. I chose to leave the platform instead.
Long Version Here
ABOUT ME
Iโve been involved in online radical feminist/gender critical spaces since 2016, and started making Lease Bound in 2017.
I'd also noticed a rise in homophobic trans-rhetoric in many creative circles I was running in. Most notably indie webcomics.
Suddenly, every 'lesbian webcomic' I read was actually about a heterosexual coupling. One lead a man, pretending to be female, and the other a woman pretending to be homosexual.
Worst of all the dishonesty, the sex of the man usually wouldn't be revealed right away, instead being an unwanted surprise once I got invested in the story.
So basically, I wasnโt seeing the representation for lesbians (or women in general) I wanted, so I set out to create what I wanted to see. This is why Jaden and Riley state explicitly that theyโre lesbians right in the first chapter, I didnโt want any confusion or vagueness about their sexuality.
The infamous AGPgang from Chapter 3 were similarly dedicated to every piece of """lesbian""" media that pulled a โsurprise one of these characters is actually a be-dicked individual with she/her pronounsโ on me.
"Surprise! You thought this was just a cute lesbian romance? It is, but also there will be NO tolerance for men who call themselves lesbians. Surprise! Hope you like the taste of your own medicine <3"
And here we are 5 years later!
Didnโt find the answer you were looking for here? Feel free to submit your
question below and Iโll be happy to answer it!
9 thoughts on “๐ฌFAQ”
Feefles
Your comic seems very inclusive on the surface, however, you very obviously only have inclusivity to part of your very own community (The LGBTQIA+ community).
You portray trans people as though they are these terrible/childish people, and even stoop to misgendering and deadnaming your own trans characters.
It is perfectly acceptable to have any opinion on trans people, but it is not okay to portray trans people in a poor light in a public comic. If you were planning on treating these characters, how I would assume you would treat an actual trans person, like myself, you may as well have never even added trans characters into your comic.
It just sends a poor message and paints you in a quite terrible light. This is however just my opinion of you, your comic, and your characters.
rustyhearts
Didnโt find the answer you were looking for here? Feel free to submit your
question below and Iโll be happy to answer it!
Do you have a question or not? That’s the point of this page.
angry dyke
misgendering and deadnaming isn’t a thing. it’s called referring to someone by their correct sex and thus, using the pronouns that come with it. a woman is a woman, a man is a man, and nonbinary doesn’t exist and never will exist. men can’t be lesbians, vice versa, and no matter what body mutilations you do – you are the sex you are born as, and you will die as that.
homosexuality/lesbianism is attraction to same sex. a lesbian will never love a male that identifies as a troon, because he’s got a dick – and lesbians, REAL lesbians, don’t like dick ever.
fujoshis cannot and never will land a relationship with a homosexual. and confused lesbians/bisexual women who pretend to be men are still lesbians/bi women. lesbians and normal bisexual women, and even homosexuals, have every right to dislike troons for ruining our movements and sexually harassing us to like them. they are the most intolerant people on this planet, the most misogynistic and racist movement that thinks native americans/latinos/etc etc don’t know what biological sex is because “muh two spirit/mahu”. y’all are the most regressive movement to exist, despite claiming to want tolerance, acceptance, progression, etc etc.
you troons are the reason that i, a lesbian in serbia, will never be able to marry my beautiful girlfriend. because your movement made us normal LGB people look like fucking clowns.
fuck you, fuck your gender/pronouns, fuck the propaganda you’ve fed to innocent gay/lesbian/bi kids, and all that. you want something that caters to you gendies? go watch that godawful wendell and wild on netflix, or jack off to euphoria.
stay the fuck away from same sex attracted people.
i ought to be asleep
Hi there!
Firstly, adore the comic. I just read through it all in one night and see myself in Riley so much. My lover and I are butch4butch. I’m 100% rooting for Jail for very selfish reasons ha!
I was just wondering if there would be, in your opinion, any peace between trans individuals and us same sex attracted people? Personally, I choose to interpret the chapter with the AGPs as exactly that; they’re AGPs, and that differs from those people who have real gender-differences. Of course, I believe that regardless of where you stand, respect should be shown to peoples boundaries. I, as a female for example, would never enter a gay male bar. In the same fashion, I would expect that males do not enter female spaces and there are trans women who would agree with that. I just wish we could all be cool and live in parallels, y’know? Like how lesbians and gay dudes joke around and it’s this clear “I love u and support you and I will never be in your bed, nor do I have an interest in that” thing.
I don’t know. It’s late and I’m speaking out my arse, but im curious what u would say as a fellow lesbian artist and ex-tumblr user. btw the cotton ceiling thing is so so gross, I learnt about it from Pillar Saltt. Thank u n goodnight!
rustyhearts
Heyo, Thanks for reading!
To answer your question: no I don’t think it’s possible. Perhaps civility – but trans ideology is so deeply rooted in sexist and homophobic ideas, and has already done so much damage. Peaceful action would need to entirely come from trans people.
Homosexuals haven’t done anything wrong. It’s not a both sides issue. Trans people are the aggressors in the divide, and the onus is on them to mend it.
It’s not enough to be individuals who respect their sex will never change, nor understand that sexuality isn’t a choice. That is the bare minimum of common sense decency.
They need to take action against all the legal protections of homosexuals and women their ideology has eroded, they need to advocate for better mental health treatment rather than dangerous drugs and cosmetic surgeries to treat dysphoria and acknowledge the part misogyny and homophobia play in the condition, they need to respect single-sex spaces and stop demanding access based on how well they’re able to deceive others.
So many things need to change about how trans people conduct themselves to convince me they even hold a genuine desire for civility and not complete, unquestioned control over others.
Treating AGPs as wholly separate from trans people is like doing the same for different branches of Christianity (or any religion). At the end of all their differences, they still all hate women and gay people.
insert fake name here
Hiya!
I absolutely love your work and have been following the comic for about a year now. Itโs nice to see other lesbians who think like me.
My question is, what are your opinions on detransitioners?
I identified as female to male transgender from the ages of 14 to 18 after intense sexual trauma and not wanting to be associated with my womanhood because of it. I am now 20 years old and have accepted that I am a woman and there is no โcorrectโ way to be one, that me embracing my femininity is not feeding into what my abusers wanted me to be.
I now reject trans ideology and see it for how incredibly flawed it is, especially when it comes to minors. I know this isnโt the story for all detransitioners, but it is mine.
What are your thoughts on that?
rustyhearts
Heyo, thanks so much for reading LB.
I’m very sorry to hear what happened to you, and I hope you’re being kind to yourself and getting the appropriate support to heal from such a long, awful experience.
Re: detransitioners, overall I think it’s the best path for people who identify as trans to take. But, I do often notice an unfortunate pattern of detransitioners re-adopting the societal expectations of their sex – for example, a woman accepting she’s female but thinking that means she needs to start wearing make up, dresses and shaving again.
I can only go off of what you said, but it does sort of sound like that’s you too. “Embracing your femininity”, what do you mean by that? As a feminist, I understand femininity to be an obedient performance to show submission to men. So again, shaving, wearing makeup/impractical clothing ect.
If you understand there’s no incorrect way to be a woman, then why would you need to “embrace” femininity?
Conflicted and Confronted
I saw someone asking what substantive value leasebound has without feminism and or taking pot shots at TRAs, and while I like it for those things… it got me wondering about what else there is to your story. Would you be willing to elaborate on that?
rustyhearts
I can only tell you what Lease Bound means to me, which basically boils down to: telling a story I would want to read. A slow-burn love story that explores complex and often dysfunctional relationships between women, all from a lesbian perspective.
Like any art or literature, there is a collaborative component between creator and consumer. It is what you make of it. If you can only see it for the feminist themes/perspectives, or the comic relief gendie stuff, then that’s what you see. It’s okay to like it for that.
I’ve got readers who like it for the promise of eventual romance between Riley and Jaden, those who only care for the Jaden/Alexis love story, ones who enjoy holding out hope for Blaire to change, some who like it because the style makes them nostalgic for older webcomics from 10-15 years ago.
I’ve got one reader who shares his thoughts privately with me, and he most enjoys finding parallels and themes that I never intended as the creator.
The other day he told me how he loved that the first print volume (chapters 1-5) both began and ended with Jaden being dropped off by a vehicle all alone, which to him was symbolically themeing the loneliness, isolation, distance and separation she experiences as a character.
And then that immediately following that, volume 2 (chapter 6-8), Jaden and Riley have a heart to heart conversation which results in them having a fun motorcycle ride together.
Direct quote: “MOTORCYCLES AS DANGEROUS FROM LACK OF BARRIERS BUT THE CLOSENESS OF BEING DIRECTLY CONNECTED!!! The trade of greater risk with greater thrill and joy.”
He enjoys how often the visuals are thematically congruent with character actions – even if in many cases it was totally coincidental:
“And how Rileys first appearance is eyes closed, defensive, holding something in front of her. Again, a visual symbol of this running theme of barriers, isolation, miscommunication, or lies
You use multiple pages and images of Jaden to create a theme of…”I will show you part of me. Only part.” Like we only get her upper torso, or her mouth smiling, etc.
Yet Riley is suddenly completely on page, and it’s like this deceptive idea that, visually, we DO see all of her. But we DONT!! She blocks your view, ironically with a light, to protect herself. It just makes me think about how Jaden lies and hides parts of herself, you’re only ever getting pieces of her, not the whole thing
While riley ALSO hides, but she hides by blocking your view while seeming to be completely present
And the theme of subterfuge and lies is made more complicated by the story of Muddles
By definition she’s lying to keep her cat. But it’s complicated. Sometimes we lie to protect others, ourselves, etc. It’s not a clean line that truth and lies are black and white morally good or bad. This let’s the audience actually engage with the way our protagonists also play with truth, for better or worse, while being lenient. It reminds the audience of morally grey realities that are easy to see before throwing them into deeper complexity”
I’m equal parts baffled and fascinated by what different readers take away from Lease Bound’s story. It’s so motivating and exciting.
But yeah, I’m definitely making a conscious effort to step back from telling readers what it’s all about, or even defending its right to exist as a piece of media. Creating it brings me joy. That’s the bottom line.
If reading it brings you joy, you’re not obligated to justify it to others. You can’t control how they feel or what they will or won’t see in it. ๐คทโโ๏ธ
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