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.
Let’s recap this—in order to get potentially hired by DC Comics as an artist, all you have to do is draw a picture of a female character (who has already recently gone through an unnecessary hyper-sexualized redesign) completely naked and about to commit suicide.
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/09/want-to-be-a-dc-artist-just-draw-harley-quinn-naked-committing-suicide
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5 comments:
Um... Yeah. Because of the controversy that's emerged since this announcement, I'm almost ashamed to admit that I am working on this project.
When I first heard about this on Friday there wasn't this kind of backlash reaction yet, so I was actually kind of pumped at the prospect. "A major comics company is casting such a wide net looking for new talent! Oh theres no way my work could possibly get noticed! ... But what if it did?"
Granted I wasn't too fond of the idea of drawing a naked Harley, despite my fascination with the female form I like to keep my portfolio relatively clean, so all of my sketches of the tub scene involve a cheated angle so that we see the bathtub from a low angle and we only get to see Harley's head and feet at the top. None of that cheesy "bubble bath" censoring.
I'm notorious for being slow in developing my images, hence why I've been hesitant to pursue comics professionally. Plus editors aren't making appearances at conventions like they used to, instead opting for Internet searches to find the next big thing, a place where I kind of blend in with the rest. A contest were my work would be directly in front of them seems like it could be my big chance to get in the door and perhaps get some new jobs that I could really use right now.
It wasn't until recently that I considered the unfortunate implications of Harley's suicide being played for laughs or how this contest potentially exploits thousands of artists and ends up only paying one and in the name of exposure.
I guess I was blind sighted by the opportunity. A single page in a month's time, plus knowing that an editor will actually look at it?! That could be the biggest break of my career!
But now... I don't know. I have all three pages of thumbnail sketches worked out and could easily start the big thing tomorrow. I just don't know if it's right anymore.
I guess the trick is to give them what they want just not in the way they THINK they want it. The last panel of course can't show a dead Harley but a fried one with smoke coming off her head might work. But I don't like encouraging little kids to make toast in the bathroom. Now fried chicken in the bathroom is OK.
I will be interested in seeing what you come up with.
Good point. But as a girl I'm not going to be reading any DC comics for a long time, even my beloved batman, because of their actions. There's other comics/graphic novels I can read that don't use suicide as sexy tropes.
It's the girl in the the fridge all over again and that went over like a lead fart. Don't get me started on the rape of Sue Digby in that Secret Identities series. Gah.
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