Dissecting The Panels: When Art Imitates Life, Loss, and Strength [Bitch Planet]

Note: You might want to read my review of Bitch Planet #7 before you read my reactions that follow. Obviously… SPOILER TERRITORY UP AHEAD! Like we do with reviews of comics here, only snippets of the panels are shown, not the whole pages because 1) we don’t want to spoil all of the actual comic, 2) we still want y’all to buy a copy and support the folks who worked on it, and more so for this particular issue, and 3) I don’t want to spoon feed you the experience of reading these pages of this issue of Bitch Planet. This is how those panels made me feel. This is how those panels ultimately saved me during an awful week. This is another stunning example of how this comic stays serving up intersectional feminism. What is Black pain? In what words would you describe it? What is Black suffering? What do you call the moments where you feel too defeated to get up in the morning, when you sit in the shower or tub and can’t find the “on switch” to jumpstart your day? Do you believe that art imitates life? Within the week, I’ve had two deaths in the family, both women, and as “Death comes in threes” I’m waiting on the third. One was an auntie of mine who passed away on her birthday last Friday. She was someone I barely remember from childhood and someone I honestly haven’t seen in ten years or more. The other woman who passed was like an auntie. She grew up with my mother and her siblings, served as my first Sunday School teacher, and babysat me and my cousins often. She was a woman w…