Artists, photographers, and comic writers all speak words through pictures. They say things through color scheme, focus, the filmic language and more. Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick does a great job of speaking about different modern day controversial topics by showing most of them and saying little about it. Bitch Planet focuses on today’s controversial issues such as weight, race and gender inequality by picturing them for the reader. 

The first topic DeConnick touches on in Bitch Planet is weight. From the first splash showing a wide shot of the main character, Penelope, she is portrayed as a woman with a little more to love (DeConnick 176). It shows Penelope in an orange jumpsuit as if she were in jail with guards behind her. DeConnick uses cooler, darker colors to give the picture a more intimidating, gloomy feeling. Another place DeConnick shows the disapproval of being overweight is on page 177 in the bottom panel. It shows the “fathers” looking at Penelope like a six headed person walked into the room and has one of the men with a speech bubble saying “what have you done to yourself?” By showing this is shows their disapproval of how Penelope looks and how she has gained weight. 

Another topic DeConnick picks at is gender inequality. In multiple panels of the comic, it shows a large screen filled with men’s faces. All of these men consider themselves of higher superiority to Penelope by making her call them “her fathers.” They also sit there and pick at her every flaw on page 177 in both panels in the second tier. She shows their disapproval of Penelope by showing scowls on all their faces and disgusted looks. 

The last topic DeConnick touches base on is race. On page 187 and 188 it shows Penelope’s “mother” asking “what are we going to do with that hair of yours?” (DeConnick, bottom left panel, 187) even though there is nothing wrong with it. She is suggesting that because Penelope is African American that she needs to do her hair a certain way which isn’t the case at all. The gutters on these pages are a tan color and the colors used in the panel are warm which should make it a more comfortable tone. Another place that addresses race inequality is the coffee shop scene. At the coffee shop there are two men that sit down and start talking negatively about Penelope. They talk about her facial features having “big lips” and referring to her as “skins” (DeConnick 194, panel 1, tier 2, 194) and refer to her as “a baboon” (DeConnick, panel 1, tier 2, 195). These are stereotypes that have stuck to African Americans over the years that DeConnick is pointing out.  

Throughout Bitch Planet, DeConnick does a really good job of using colors to help set the tone and different filmic language to help illustrate the message she is trying to relay to the reader. She points out multiple different stereotypes involving gender, race, and weight. Filmic language and color scheme are great ways to help show ideas through picturing them not verbally saying them. 
