Original post here. This image was researched by Bacchus at ErosBlog as part of the “Γ commission.” The research was originally published at Hedonix as “Γ 041 – Quinnicide. Here is what Bacchus found.

This artwork, featuring DC Comics character Harley Quinn in a series of increasingly cartoonish suicide attempts, is called Quinnicide. It was drawn by UK artist Phillip M. Jackson (jollyjack on DeviantArt) to a script provided as part of a DC Comics talent search contest. He writes:

My stab at illustrating the script DC provided for their talent search.

This was done purely for fun. I’m not looking to land a gig working on a big-name comic. I’d much rather focus on my own projects than work on existing IPs.

Besides, there have got to be more talented artists out there whose style would better fit the DCU than mine. I honestly don’t think I could work fast enough for them, anyway! 😀

There has been quite a bit of internet chatter about the script DC chose for this, mainly in regards to the oversexualization of Harley Quinn (which I can’t really argue with) and how the script requires her to be depicted in a bath.

Lots of hysterical people criticising DC for “requesting her being drawn naked”.

I’d planned out my page before I’d read any of these comments. She has to be in a bath, so that she’s naked is pretty much a given, but it had never occurred to me that Harley should be rendered in any kind of pseudo-soft-core pose. That’s just not in key with the character that I know.

If you read the script and thought that was what was required, that says more about you than it does DC.

It reads:

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.

Not:

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. We are witnessing all this from a birds eye view. Suds and steam obscure the nipples but not the full rack. Her free arm is curled just under her boobs, raising them slightly out of the water and at the same time squeezing them together gently.

A rubber duck floats over her snatch. It looks happy.

If each panel of a comic tells a story, this one is meant to relay that the apparently suicidal Quinn is about to fry herself…and she’s going to be thorough about it. There’s no reason for nudity to be any kind of hang-up or focus at all, hence its complete absence from my interpretation.

It turns out there was indeed a major ruckus about the competition, and DC Comics was forced to apologize.