Comics are sometimes difficult to understand in the first place especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for you can’t Interpret them well. Visual interpretations are for sure a very important aspect of comics because many do not have a lot of text so, by close reading you can go in depth and relate to the story with your eyes and your emotions as ifyou were there experiencing the story from the character’s perspective.

Bitch Planet is a very dreary seeming comic, it’s not like any other I have ever read. At first it seemed almost scary because of the colors. The colors of this comic were very dull, they weren’t dark per say just very dull like the head of a pencil, like the author purposely put them there for the reader to realize. Before really going in to depth with this comic if I would have just read the story I would never have thought anything of it. Now after close reading I somewhat understands how this relates to the purpose of the comic. It is to spark the reader’s emotion to the negativisms of society and I really think to point out the big issues in the world today. Honestly, this story is very emotional and points to inequality and issues as mentioned before, the author of this comic states, “Being a woman in a male-dominated industry sort of sucks, nut it doesn’t suck any more than being a woman in the world.” (DeConnick) She wrote this comic to bring up the negative social norms and really that women’s rights and equalities are important to her beliefs.

Bitch Planet does have some text in it, I think the text and the pictures really work together because not only can you see the pictures and the discriminations towards women and the main character who is an African American woman you can also see textual discriminations. If you put these two things together it really helps you get a clearer idea and doesn’t just leave you up to decide what’s happening. I also think that by doing this it helps the author get her message across about equality.

Discrimination is a big issue in today’s society and the author of Bitch Planet knows that so she includes certain examples. The main character is named Penny which I think could potentially be a negative sign or example of discrimination since pennies are dark. Penny is a mixed child because her mom is African American and dad is white. This is just one example of many that show how the Author is trying to get her point across about discrimination and especially discrimination of women. Another example from bitch planet is the skanky looking woman who is doing penny’s hair, also happens to be the principal of her school. Most principals wear very nice and professional clothing when they go to work, however the principal portrayed in Bitch Planet is far from that, wearing clothes that almost expose her and look very unprofessional and honestly inappropriate. This to me was a rather interesting and different example of how the author wanted the reader to see discrimination. I think DeConnick purposely dressed her like that to show the reader what the typical American man wants to see, almost suggesting that all men think women dress like that and she finds that fact very offensive, so she points it out.

On the very first page of Bitch Planet its out with a full picture page with Penny in an orange jumpsuit with two guards behind her and the first line of the text says, “I can’t see you, but I can feel you…judging me.” (DeConnick) I think the author stuck these lines here because she wanted the reader to immediately understand what the comic was going to be about. The first page is just ridiculously stereotypical with a overweight African American female in jail with two skinny white guards behind her. It just doesn’t get any worse than this page. So right of the bat you know she is trying to point something out about stereotypes and gender and race inequality.

There really are some great examples of symbols and icons in this comic. At the beginning of the unit it took some time to learn how to correctly use symbols and icons to interpret the story, but soon after learning how to do it, it became very helpful. Bitch Planet is a very eye opening comic which not only contains very little wording but is so short that the reader has to interpret the comic well in the short number of pictures that are given to them, However, the symbolism and icons used help to identify what is going on, for example, Penny the main character has a father that many describe as “the size of an oak” he is in jail therefore Penny never was able to meet or know him. At the beginning of the comic someone references the “oak” and later on in the comic there is a TV in the background that the news reporter references a convict described as being, “the size of an oak” this flashback reminds her of her child hood and hearing that phrase she suddenly goes from mad and destructive too sad and understanding. There is a small cut scene picture that shows her pointing to her hair. That is a symbol that we see and pick up on to know that’s her dad but also its something that she finally figures out for herself.

Bitch Planet overall was a very good comic once the reader understands the purpose and the meaning of the issue that the author is trying to convey. Visual aspects are very important to comics and once you go in depth with the story you can relate the words and pictures to your emotions. 

