Bitch Planet, Volume 1: Extraordinary Machine

by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro (Artist), Taki Soma (Artist), Robert Wilson IV (Artist)

Overview

“...one of the most unique and subversive artifacts of pop culture in recent memory.” - Salon.com

"Seldom do comics burst onto the scene and shatter our worldview by being entirely poignant, raw, and captivating - but then, most comics aren't Bitch Panet." - Entertainment Weekly

Eisner Award-nominated writer Kelly Sue DeConnick (Pretty Deadly, Captain Marvel) and Valentine De Landro (X-Factor) team up to bring you the premiere volume of Bitch Planet, a deliciously vicious riff on women-in-prison sci-fi exploitation.

In a future just a few years down the road in the wrong direction, a woman's failure to comply with her patriarchal overlords will result in exile to the meanest penal planet in the galaxy. When the newest crop of fresh femmes arrive, can they work together to stay alive or will hidden agendas, crooked guards, and the deadliest sport on (or off!) Earth take them to their maker?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632153661
Publisher:	Image Comics
Publication date:	10/20/2015
Series:	Bitch Planet Series , #1
Edition description:	Mature Readers (ages 16 and up)
Pages:	136
Sales rank:	195,163
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

Editorial Reviews

DeConnick and De Landro's sci-fi women-in-prison comic book transforms misogynist tropes into lava-spitting feminist rage…There's nominally an overarching plot, but DeConnick is more concerned with building up her cast of misfits and outcasts, lampooning patriarchal rhetoric and upending the mechanics of exploitation flicks…

The New York Times Book Review - Douglas Wolk

06/01/2015
In one of the most stunning works of satire this medium has seen in recent memory, DeConnick (Pretty Deadly, Captain Marvel) and De Landro (X-Factor) craft a modern riff on pulp sci-fi exploitation novels that’s equal parts brutality and thoughtfulness. In a nightmarish future, “noncompliant” women are rounded up for minor infractions (or none at all) and sent to a prison planet. One inmate, Kamau Kogo, catches the attention of the Fathers and is put in charge of a doomed sports team designed to be annihilated in the name of compliance. Using her wits and raw strength, Kamau must turn adversity into an asset if she is to bring change to her world. DeConnick pulls no punches, crafting a relentless narrative that is hauntingly reminiscent of the misogyny facing women around the globe today; De Landro expertly supplies gritty inks, in-your-face colors, and a host of diverse character designs that underscore the book’s intersectional feminist message. The result is a must-read unlike anything else being published in comics. (July)

Publishers Weekly

★ 01/01/2016
Paying tongue-in-cheek homage to lurid exploitation films, DeConnick (Pretty Deadly) introduces a Hunger Games element into a totalitarian world-state based on male supremacy. Officially the Auxiliary Compliance Outpost, Bitch Planet is an off-world penal colony for women convicted of "non-compliance"—criminal and/or aesthetic. Shortly after newbies Kamau and Penny arrive, the state adds a team of women inmates to the popular and deadly Megaton world games. Kamau and her cohorts are promised freedom if they win—but is that the truth? The women prisoners are depicted as vivid, diverse, imperfect, strong, and often naked as they squabble, strategize, fight, and occasionally make sexual overtures to loved ones or to manipulate males in charge. The men are mostly corrupt oppressors but can be relatives, suckers, or potential allies. DeLandro's (X-Factor) classic, semirealistic color art includes subtle visual jokes, flashbacks with a grainy feel, and bogus 1950s-style ads. VERDICT This adult drama offers heavy plot traction as well as food for thought, with twisting plot, superb characterizations, and excellent writing. Fans of Orange Is the New Black will enjoy this edgier, futuristic approach.—MC

Library Journal