So last week on What Were They Thinking (the series were we take a look at the stupidest most ill-advised events in comic book history), we talked a lot about DC comics. And we're going to again this week, because whilst doing my research for last weeks post, I came across the utter gem that was the "Harley Quinn Art Contest". Enjoy.
So, the idea behind this contest was to give aspiring artists a break into the comics industry, with the winner of the contest getting their work published in a major DC comic. Sounds like a great idea right? Well, this is DC and as we learnt last week, they're even better than Marvel at being the worst, so they monumentally screwed up the execution (no pun intended). Here's the actual specifics of what DC wanted from the entries of their art contest:
"Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord to release them all. We are watching the moment before 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."
Ok....
Riiiiiiiight...
I am not making this up, this actually happened.
And to make things even better, this contest was announced the week before National Suicide Prevention week. And when it sparked a huge [censored]storm, DC apologised for people getting offended. Not for causing the offence or trying to get people to draw one of their characters killing themselves, but for people finding that offensive, especially before a time where people are meant to be raising awareness for ways to stop that sort of thing happening to actual people.
That's it! I'm done!
