Artists, photographers, and comic writers all speak words through pictures. They say things through color scheme, 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, a comic about a woman named Penelope who faces being judged based off todays controversial issues such as weight, race and gender inequality. DeConnick portrays these modern day issues 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 who may be considered overweight (DeConnick 176). It shows Penelope in an orange jumpsuit as if she were in jail with guards behind her. DeConnick uses cooler, darker colors in the background, on the guards, and her orange jumpsuit 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 the looks on the men’s faces and what they are saying in their bubbles we can assume that they do not approve of the way Penelope now looks. 

Another topic DeConnick picks at is gender inequality. In multiple panels of the comic, it shows a large screen filled with men’s faces. In these panels, it shows the man with disgusted faces, some of which are even covering their faces like they’re shielding themselves from something horrid. All of these men consider themselves of higher superiority to Penelope by making her call them “her fathers.” You can tell they think theyre better because of the way they talk down to her asking her what she has done to herself and what she sees wrong with herself. They also sit there and pick at her every flaw on page 177 in both panels in the second tier. DeConnick 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 indicating that it is a flashback of a time Penelope felt insecure. 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). Different hair and facial features 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. In the end, DeConnick shows Penelope standing up for herself and against todays modern day “perfect look” by repeating that you don’t fix what isn’t broken. She exhales as a sign of relief and looks in a mirror smiling with an approved look on her face showing she is perfectly fine with how she looks and feels. This is a great way to SHOW what the whole comic was about. Filmic language, pictures and color scheme are great ways to help show ideas through picturing them not verbally saying them. 
