Roy Lichtenstein painted Drowning Girl in 1963 now in the MoMa in New York. The painting was inspired by the comics "Run for Love!" from the magazine Secret Hearts Number 83 (November 1962), illustrated by Tony Abruzzo and by the Great Wave of Kanagawa of Hokusai.
The girl (Vickie) says that she'd rather sink than call Brad for help.
What led this poor girl to be so desperate? Who is Brad (Mal in the original version)? Why would she rather die than ask for his help? What is the meaning of Drowning Girl?
The answers are in Run for Love of course!
So if you are curious, like I was, to know all about Drowning Girl, dive into this comic below and discover the story of Vickie :-)
Spoiler alert: NOT a feminist story and SO interesting in terms of the image of the place of women in the sixties!
Below (left) is my interpretation of Drowning Girl in a POST where Roy Lichtenstein shares about his inspiration and (right) my series You Go Girl, which highlight the change in the representation of women in comics such as Pokemon.
"Run for Love!" from the magazine Secret Hearts Number 83 (November 1962)
Summary of the story of Vickie, (since Drowning Girl has a name):
She is the ugly duckling in her family and boys are not interested because she has four beautiful sisters. One day, Vickie meets a guy in distress who happens to be a jerk. Since she has a good heart she helps him out. And even though he's a jerk, she fancies him. (wake up Vickie!) . Vickie saves his life, and he still behaves like a jerk! When you think she learnt her lesson... well I let you discover the end, it's just a few images below!
If you arrived so far, you know that she made it and got the guy. Although I'd be tempted to shake her and tell her to RUN FOR FREEDOM ! ;-)