Daanesbury: A Psycho Analyzing

[espanolbot]

A reaction to the "draw Harley sexily committing suicide" contraversy that happened over the weekend...


http://daanesbury.com/?id=5

Yeah, not a good week for DC. First the Batwoman creator change, then Dan Didio specifically saying that Aquaman and Mera weren't married (meaning that there are not no superhero couples in DC comics anymore, not even the Bakers), then the suicide thing, and then Didio saying effectively that romance and love have no place in Batman comics...

He also implied something about a member of the Batfamily, though that might just be him not paying attention. Like him repeatedly calling Batwoman Kathy Kane while trying to defend the decision to not let her marry Maggie Sawyer.

Comments

[icon_uk]

Didio's comment on the Batwoman "Hey, two years is actually a great run, and anyway, hopefully the next team will do a better job." seems off.

All he NEEDED to say was "will do an even better job." and it would have both complimented the past and encouraged the future, but without that... it does look dismissive, which I'm hoping wasn't the intent (I don't think Didio has ever spoken publically to denigrate a creator)

As for the Harley thing, that does seem a little weird. A lot of the fuss is deserved, but when I read that the whole page was supposed to be a sequence of panels of Harley breaking the fourth wall, discussing her new (apparent) position as being basically immortal (think Deadpool or Madcap) as she tests her new limits in new and OTT ways, I could sort of see where that could be presented in a less than completely horrible way.

But it is producing some interesting art on the topic... usually via subversion.



And this one shouldn't make me laugh, because it's disturbing too, but....

<ahref="http://divalea.tumblr.com/post/60642380580/naked-ladies-named-harley-also-toasters">

[sadoeuphemist]

I don't see how that explanation is supposed to improve anything, because if she is supposed to be breaking the fourth wall, that makes it even worse that she decided to get naked for it, doesn't it?

[icon_uk]

It's very VERY poorly phrased I agree, but according to Jimmy Palmiotti on his Facebook;

"What is happening here is Harley is breaking the 4th wall…and talking to the audience about the writers of the book…and how nutty they are. We used the words “naked” because we did not want the artist to draw harley in her costume and we all know you can’t show nudity in the comic…and we also know you have to cover her “parts” with objects and what not…but the idea was she is taking a bath with all this hardware around not believing how far the writers went. The whole story is one big long imaginary scene done by different artists of extremely absurd over the top circumstances."

The fact that an open submission should require context from an experienced professional to explain what is really meant indicates what a bad idea it was when presented without such context in the first place IMHO.

[sadoeuphemist]

"We used the words “naked” because we did not want the artist to draw harley in her costume"

This part in particular is slightly more meaningless than saying 'we said she should be naked because we didn't want her to be drawn with clothes.' I still don't get what sort of point he's trying to get across here.

[icon_uk]

I think, and I stress "think", he means that they're looking for "peek-a-boo suggestive" rather than "full-frontal porn pose".

She's in a bathtub so she's not wearing clothes, but we shouldn't see bare boobs or anything unpublishable "tween navel and knee" because other objects should be artfully arranged to block the view of anything which would likely be deemed inappropriate.

As I said, without that additional context I'm not sure I care to imagine what they might end up getting.

[silicondream]

I really don't get the whole "naked" requirement here in the first place. She's not in the bath to get clean, she's there to kill herself. Why shouldn't she be wearing her costume--or a funeral dress, or scuba gear, or a 1900s full-coverage bathing suit? Lotsa possibilities, plenty of them more comedic than straight nudity.

And the "4th wall" thing kind of makes it worse, because that means she's saying that the readers would prefer her corpse naked.

[timefire]

Agreed with the possibilities here. Lotsa possibilities.

... Can't we just send in stuffs based on these possibilities anyway??? Sure they most likely will get rejected, but that's gonna be fun.

[grazzt]

Yeah, Harley is definitely the sort of person who would respond to depression by killing someone else, not herself.

On the other hand, it probably would have been just as creepy if DC had requested naked bathtub homicide instead of suicide.

[thezmage]

Jimmy Palmiotti responds
http://notalwaysworking.com/customer-serve-thyself/31454

[donnblake]

That link leads me to a brief anecdote about being mistaken for an employee after helping a fellow customer...?

[thezmage]

Shit, wrong link.

Here: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/09/jimmy-palmiotti-clarifies-controversial-harley-quinn-tryout-script/

[thezmage]

Wrong link

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/09/jimmy-palmiotti-clarifies-controversial-harley-quinn-tryout-script/

[donnblake]

DC did what now?

This

[lissa_quon]

Open talent search using a rather odd comic page with no context as the prompt:

http://www.dccomics.com/node/305151

[big_daddy_d]

then Dan Didio specifically saying that Aquaman and Mera weren't married

......Ok Nash is right. Let's forget this Batwoman mess. There is something extremely pathological with the way they are going against marriage and it's blatantly clear by this point.

By the way, to see what Nash said, just click here.

He seriously gives DC and Marvel an epic, textual smackdown the likes of which you can't help but applaud.

[superfangirl1]

I kinda love this comic because it uses an actual trait of Harley Quinn's qualifications to say "Maybe Harley Quinn's not as crazy as we think. Dan Dido though.........