DC Comics Wants You To Draw Naked Female Suicide

[Rebel_Raven]

Guys, can people stop losing their shit over this? If Harley Quinn has a problem with herself being portrayed naked in a bathtub about to commit suicide, then she can take DC to court and matters can be swiftly settled over there.

It's pretty demeaning how everyone seems to be deciding everything FOR Harley and not even asking for her opinion on this. It's almost as if she doesn't even exist.

You have a thing for telling people "relax, she's not real!" don't you?

Thing is people get attached to characters. Especially characters that deserve to have fans like Harley Quinn.
Seeing a beloved character screwed with is going to make fans mad. Especially when they're screwed with in a pretty tasteless manner. If her new outfit wasn't bad enough, this sort of portrayal? I mean come on, DC's trying to be controvercial, or they're being stupid. It's absurd to not expect a reaction from the fans, and comic readers.

No one can ask her what Harley wants, though, but that damn sure doesn't mean her character can't be treated with some dignity, and respect. At least more than this publicity stunt.

It's not limited to comic characters. TV characters, movie characters, etc. can get enough fanbase to cause some outrage when they're put in a seemingly demeaning situation.

I know it's prolly not your thing, but some attempt at understanding, and some empathy might not hurt.

 

[The Great JT]

Keep it classy, DC!

(Flips the sarcasm switch to "off".)

DC, I am disappoint.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Funny you should mention it.

I actually posted a submission, but I doubt they'll run it or use it beyond scaring their kids into obedience, as the blood is probably the least disturbing bit in it.

Deadline is October 1, 2013, so anyone gifted or tortured enough into taking his or her career into their own hands by flinging themselves at DC with no protection whatsoever, go go GO GO GO!

For the lazy ones:

Here?s how to enter:

Read the rules & regulations listed below to confirm that you are eligible to enter DC Entertainment?s Open Talent Search and agree to the terms and conditions.

Read the following script page and give us your original artistic interpretation of what those four panels should look like on a single page:

PAGE 15

4 panels

PANEL 1
Harley is on top of a building, holding a large DETACHED cellphone tower in her hands as lightning is striking just about everywhere except her tower. She is looking at us like she cannot believe what she is doing. Beside herself. Not happy.

PANEL 2
Harley is sitting in an alligator pond, on a little island with a suit of raw chicken on, rolling her eyes like once again, she cannot believe where she has found herself. We see the alligators ignoring her.

PANEL 3
Harley is sitting in an open whale mouth, tickling the inside of the whale?s mouth with a feather. She is ecstatic and happy, like this is the most fun ever.

PANEL 4
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.

Please have your final artwork fit the following specifications:
.jpg
11" x 17"
72 dpi
Preferably 500 KB, no larger than 1MB.
Fill out the form below by 10:00am PDT on Tuesday, October 1, 2013, attach your artwork, and click "Submit."

Give'em hell. And nightmares. And all you got.

 

[[REDACTED]]

Can people please stop losing their shit over this? If Harley Quinn has a problem with herself being portrayed naked in a bathtub about to commit suicide, then she can take DC to court and matters can be swiftly settled over there.

It's pretty fucking demeaning how everyone seems to be deciding everything FOR Harley and not even asking for her opinion on this. What if she doesn't mind? How do you know? Why can't this be left up to her?

It's almost as if she doesn't exist.

If you don't care about fictional characters, why are you on a website called "The Escapist"?

 

[The Great JT]

I'm not kidding, DC is speeding to self-destruction. If this keeps up, I could see them having to start selling off properties.

 

[wulf3n]

Thing is people get attached to characters. Especially characters that deserve to have fans like Harley Quinn.
Seeing a beloved character screwed with is going to make fans mad. Especially when they're screwed with in a pretty tasteless manner. If her new outfit wasn't bad enough, this sort of portrayal? I mean come on, DC's trying to be controvercial, or they're being stupid. It's absurd to not expect a reaction from the fans, and comic readers.

Do you read the comics?

 

[Yuuki]

You have a thing for telling people "relax, she's not real!" don't you?

Thing is people get attached to characters. Especially characters that deserve to have fans like Harley Quinn.
Seeing a beloved character screwed with is going to make fans mad. Especially when they're screwed with in a pretty tasteless manner. If her new outfit wasn't bad enough, this sort of portrayal? I mean come on, DC's trying to be controvercial, or they're being stupid. It's absurd to not expect a reaction from the fans, and comic readers.

It's not limited to comic characters. TV characters, movie characters, etc. can get enough fanbase to cause some outrage when they're put in a seemingly demeaning situation.

I know it's prolly not your thing, but some attempt at understanding, and some empathy might not hurt.

Wait...her outfit is bad enough? Why do people like her if she's already sexualized, isn't that supposed to be a negative aspect these days? From whatever I've seen of Harley, she's incredibly random, only becoming said character after falling in love with Joker...and then later going completely insane.

]If you don't care about fictional characters, why are you on a website called "The Escapist"?

Oh I care about fictional characters, see there's even one in my avatar. Did DC establish this as part of that fictional characters' storyline, was it published as part of canon DC-certified comics, did it feature that event occurring in the cartoon or videogame? I'm curious.

The general reaction to this is along the lines of:
DC: Ok now draw Harley comitting suicide naked
Fans: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, THAT WOULD COMPLETELY DESTROY HER CHARACTER
DC: It's simply for an art contest, nothing more
Fans: BUT IT WOULD DESTROY OUR BELOVED CHARACTERRRRRRRRR
DC: It's not destroying anything, just consider it as simple fanart (fanart can be anything, Rule34 galore) and submit it
Fans: YOU CLEARLY JUST WANT TO SEXUALIZE HARLEY...ERR...EVEN MORE
DC: ......
Fans: HER CHARACTERRRRR WAAAAAA *explodes into incoherent wailing*

 

[Paradoxrifts]

I'm not kidding, DC is speeding to self-destruction. If this keeps up, I could see them having to start selling off properties.

DC is owned by Warner Bros Entertainment. They'll put the DC intellectual property into storage with the rest of their forgotten intellectual property before they end up selling anything.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Thing is people get attached to characters. Especially characters that deserve to have fans like Harley Quinn.
Seeing a beloved character screwed with is going to make fans mad. Especially when they're screwed with in a pretty tasteless manner. If her new outfit wasn't bad enough, this sort of portrayal? I mean come on, DC's trying to be controvercial, or they're being stupid. It's absurd to not expect a reaction from the fans, and comic readers.

Do you read the comics?

Some, Yeah. I kinda dropped off when Harley defected from the Suicide Squad coz she heard Joker was dead, though. I think I finished that Arc.

Regardless of what has happened before, there's a point where you can go too far. Looks like this point is this event.

 

[Yuuki]

Regardless of what has happened before, there's a point where you can go too far. Looks like this point is this event.

Did Harley commit suicide naked in a bathtub in the comics?

 

[Magicman10893]

So... let me get this straight... Everyone is pissed off because she's naked... in a bathtub? I don't see the problem here. So that leaves people upset that this panel is more serious than the other wacky, over the top dark humor panels. I can already picture Harley Quinn releasing the cord to drop all the appliances, realizing that she's still alive because none of them were plugged in, looking up at the sky and shouting, "You've got to be kidding me!"

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

How dare they depict a female naked, someone get her a burka ASAP.

 

[wulf3n]

Thing is people get attached to characters. Especially characters that deserve to have fans like Harley Quinn.
Seeing a beloved character screwed with is going to make fans mad. Especially when they're screwed with in a pretty tasteless manner. If her new outfit wasn't bad enough, this sort of portrayal? I mean come on, DC's trying to be controvercial, or they're being stupid. It's absurd to not expect a reaction from the fans, and comic readers.

Do you read the comics?

Some, Yeah. I kinda dropped off when Harley defected from the Suicide Squad coz she heard Joker was dead, though. I think I finished that Arc.

Regardless of what has happened before, there's a point where you can go too far. Looks like this point is this event.

Fair enough. I can understand the disappointment, It just feels like the whole issue is an overreaction. Sure it sucks if you like the character, but is it really offense worthy?

I mean offense used to be something you'd duel someone to the death over, but now it seems like offensive just means something I don't like.

I think the quote from Dr. Cox sums up my thoughts on this issue.

Don't say hate, gandhi, you keep throwing that word around so much it's lost all of its meaning. Now I have to find another word stronger than hate to describe how I feel about others.

I mega-loathe you all.

Good day.

The part about the word losing meaning, not the mega-loathe you all

 

[Rebel_Raven]

You have a thing for telling people "relax, she's not real!" don't you?

Thing is people get attached to characters. Especially characters that deserve to have fans like Harley Quinn.
Seeing a beloved character screwed with is going to make fans mad. Especially when they're screwed with in a pretty tasteless manner. If her new outfit wasn't bad enough, this sort of portrayal? I mean come on, DC's trying to be controvercial, or they're being stupid. It's absurd to not expect a reaction from the fans, and comic readers.

It's not limited to comic characters. TV characters, movie characters, etc. can get enough fanbase to cause some outrage when they're put in a seemingly demeaning situation.

I know it's prolly not your thing, but some attempt at understanding, and some empathy might not hurt.

Wait...her outfit is bad enough? Why do people like her if she's already sexualized, isn't that supposed to be a negative aspect these days?

Yeah, I still can't get used to Harley Quinn dressed in a corsette and short shorts. It seems pretty unnecessary. Too used to her in the outfit that she was named after since I grew up with that apperance, both on TV, and Comics.
The Nurse outfit actually made sense as a change, though I was a bit against it.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that's like that.

People prolly like her for the same reasons I do. She has a sense of humor, she's actually brilliant, she could dress in a full body suit and makeup that covered every inch of her body and still be considered attractive, she's capable in combat, she was written as a person with a soul despite being kinda messed up, and she has charisma. There's a reason she went off the TV screen to become a solid part of comic history.

Sexualization in one case vs sexualization as a theme are 2 different things, and then there's representation that factors in. I'm sure DC got flak for Harley's new look, but people got over it enough, I guess.

But come -on- this publicity stunt is tasteless. Asking people outside of the company to draw her naked, specifically, in a suicide attempt? I mean the first 3 were okay, but this is pretty overboard. It's obviously the line being crossed for many.

 

[lacktheknack]

The descriptions of panels one to three made me snicker. The mental image is almost Looney Tunes ish.

And then panel four is like the first three Zalgo-ified.

Seriously, what the HELL is DC Comics doing?! D:

 

[Xan Krieger]

As someone into the gorey forms of guro I find the idea kinda sexy. Personally I'd like to see the images people submit. Sadly I don't think that possible

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Regardless of what has happened before, there's a point where you can go too far. Looks like this point is this event.

Did Harley commit suicide naked in a bathtub in the comics?

Not that I know of, and considering the nature of comic books I can't deny possibility it might have happened. It's not just that act, but it's getting people outside the company involved. It's a tasteless publicity stunt done with a character with a fanbase. It's getting a lot of attention vs them doing it quietly, in house, and putting it on a cover, then publishing it.

Thing is, I wouldn't put it past DC to kill her off, or something.

 

[CazTheGamerGuy]

Your title...isn't misleading. I'd sort of assumed it would have been.

*sigh*

Pretty much my thoughts when I first read this... I really was hoping that this wasn't what it looked like it was.

I would say this is disrespectful to Bruce Timm and the creative team that originally created the character in "Batman: The Animated Series", but that would assume anyone working on the New 52 contest cared enough to watch the TV series in which the character was first introduced. That being said, speaking as a casual viewer (Read: Not comic reader) of the comic industry, making this a contest is not helping DC with the multiple accusations of sexism they've been given, along with the likes of Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Regardless of which character or gender it may be, making a contest where DC asks people to draw dead, naked characters committing suicide is distateful, to say nothing of it being a character that at one point in time, became so popular that she was migrated to the comics and remains one of Batman's more well-known adversaries. Whether one thinks this is misogynistic or disrespectful to the original creators or not, the action speaks for itself: DC wants its readers, its fans, to draw a character they likely care about, committing suicide. And that is wrong, not some bold, artistic statement by the writers at DC.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Thing is people get attached to characters. Especially characters that deserve to have fans like Harley Quinn.
Seeing a beloved character screwed with is going to make fans mad. Especially when they're screwed with in a pretty tasteless manner. If her new outfit wasn't bad enough, this sort of portrayal? I mean come on, DC's trying to be controvercial, or they're being stupid. It's absurd to not expect a reaction from the fans, and comic readers.

Do you read the comics?

Some, Yeah. I kinda dropped off when Harley defected from the Suicide Squad coz she heard Joker was dead, though. I think I finished that Arc.

Regardless of what has happened before, there's a point where you can go too far. Looks like this point is this event.

Fair enough. I can understand the disappointment, It just feels like the whole issue is an overreaction. Sure it sucks if you like the character, but is it really offense worthy?

I mean offense used to be something you'd duel someone to the death over, but now it seems like offensive just means something I don't like.

I think the quote from Dr. Cox sums up my thoughts on this issue.

Don't say hate, gandhi, you keep throwing that word around so much it's lost all of its meaning. Now I have to find another word stronger than hate to describe how I feel about others.

I mega-loathe you all.

Good day.

The part about the word losing meaning, not the mega-loathe you all

I never used the word offense, or other forms of it. I'll get to that when tasteless looses meaning. >.> What? you expect me to have a thesarus handy?!!

Look, I've seen Harley go through a lot of stuff. It's not that it's she's naked in a tub, it's that DC wants people outside of the company to draw her naked committing suicide. For what, exactly?
Suicide's pretty controvercial. Naked is controvercial. These things happening to a popular character? And outsourcing the art to the public?

I mean, this kinda dwarfs evil alternate universe Superman cooking, then snorting kryptonite like drugs and actually getting stronger for it.

 

[wulf3n]

I never used the word offense, or other forms of it. I'll get to that when tasteless looses meaning. >.> What? you expect me to have a thesarus handy?!!

... Goddamnit DC! *Facepalm* This is why we can't have nice things!

Seriously, this is pretty tasteless. I am kinda offended for a lot of little reasons like Harley Quinn being a great character, to the suicide attempts, and such.

edit: I'm not trying to single you out, I'm talking more about those who posted twitter comments about how it's offensive, disgusting and misogynist. I picked your post because I know I can have an intelligent discussion with you, that doesn't resort to insults.

Look, I've seen Harley go through a lot of stuff. It's not that it's she's naked in a tub, it's that DC wants people outside of the company to draw her naked committing suicide. For what, exactly?
Suicide's pretty controvercial. Naked is controvercial. These things happening to a popular character? And outsiourcing the art?

I guess like everything it's up to interpretation. I mean, if i was writing a comic and this was the story I'd agreed upon, I'd want the fans to come up with the best way to handle it as well. Not only do you get the opinions of the readers, you get to hand-ball responsibility when someone doesn't like it.