In the wake of growing criticism of a scenario for its "Break into Comics with Harley Quinn!" art contest, DC Comics has issued an apology statement Thursday night, after the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Psychiatric Association and National Alliance on Mental Illness released a harsh condemnation of the contest in an emailed group statement to mainstream media.
 
"We are disappointed that DC Comics has decided to host a contest looking for artists to develop ways to depict suicide attempts by one of its main villains--Harley Quinn," the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Psychiatric Association and National Alliance on Mental Illness said in an emailed group statement to The Huffington Post and USA Today.
 
A rep for DC comics initially responded to the HuffPo article by directing them to Jimmy Palmiotti’s Facebook statement on Tuesday (Palmiotti was the Harley Quinn writer who wrote the scenario for the controversial scene), which apologized for sending out the tryout material "without an overall description of tone and dialogue."  Palmiotti explained that they "were thinking a Mad magazine/Looney Tunes approach was what we were looking for," "…to make this a fun and silly book that broke the 4th wall…"
 
DC later issued a statement to Huffington Post:  "The purpose of the talent search was to allow new artists an opportunity to draw a single page of a 20-page story.  True to the nature of the character, the entire story is cartoony and over-the-top in tone, as Harley Quinn breaks the 4th Wall and satirizes the very scenes she appears in.  DC Entertainment sincerely apologizes to anyone who may have found the page synopsis offensive and for not clearly providing the entire context of the scene within the full scope of the story."
 
DC does not appear to have altered the contest page, which still describes the scenario in question this way:  "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."
 
ICv2 columnist Steve Bennett opined on the controversy Wednesday, in a column titled "Naked, Despairing, and Dead in a Minute" (the suicide was to occur in a bathtub, see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Naked. Despairing. And Dead in a Minute").  Like other writers, although for somewhat different reasons, Bennett noted the line connecting the Harley Quinn controversy with another recent dustup, which occurred when Batwoman creative team J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman left the book over editorial conflicts, including DC’s unwillingness to allow the character to appear in a wedding to her lesbian fiance (see "Creators Leaving 'Batwoman'").