DC Comics holds contest to draw naked woman committing suicide

DC Comics is holding a contest to find an undiscovered talent, but what they’re asking aspiring artists to draw is shocking some.

Here’s what they want drawn:

Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death. Her expression is one of “oh well, guess that’s it for me” and she has resigned herself to the moment that is going to happen.

It’s just not the idea of drawing someone committing suicide just before the start of National Suicide Prevention Week, but that by depicting the Harley Quinn character naked takes the whole panel in a sexual direction.

From Daily Dot:

Harley Quinn is one of the most popular-and arguably one of the most sexualized-female characters in DC’s deck. A member of a covert group of villains called Suicide Squad, she currently works for the U.S. government. The four panels DC wants fledgling artists to draw all depict Harley courting death. Panel 2 shows her hanging out in a crocodile pond, Panel 3, sitting happily in the mouth of a whale. But the final panel is both grim and blatantly sexual:

The whole story seemed too bizarre to me, but it’s true. See the contest details for yourself.

5 thoughts on “DC Comics holds contest to draw naked woman committing suicide

  1. Harley Quinn is darker and crazier than the Joker right? She’s a fictional comic book character after all, but it seems like a stupid contest. No such thing as bad publicity?

  2. If you all have read anything about DC’s strongarming the retailers over the novelty 3D covers on this month’s (next month’s?) entire line of books, you may have read something about the big companies’ (Marvel and DC) total lack of interest in long-term quality and customer satisfaction in favor of sensational one-time stunts that get big press. In other words, they don’t care about the readers.

    Moreover it’s over the top creepy that they *specify* that she must be naked. Lots of ways to show someone in a bathtub without getting that specific. In fact, most images of someone in a bathtub make a point of NOT getting that specific (bubble bath, reflections, camera angle, etc). And, not that it’s on point, but I would expect a super hero or villain to be costumed, no matter what. “Spider-man in a bathtub, and he must be naked.” What??

    Remember when comics were for kids? those days are gone, because the publishers don’t care. My wife thinks of them as entry-level pornographers, and I don’t disagree with her.

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