The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Eleven.
Continuing along at the one-vote level of the Final ’90s Countdown:
Meat Cake (Fantagraphics, 1993-2008)
The greatest indie comic that may or may not have been named after a George Carlin gag (“could be meat…could be cake…meat cake!”) was created by the inventive and creative Dame Darcy.
The comic initially was released as a one-shot from Caliber Press in 1992, When Fantagraphics picked up the series in 2003, that Caliber issue was reprinted as part of the new series as an issue #0.
Dame Darcy’s art style is a little tricky to describe…you can get a taste of it on the cover I reproduced above. It’s very…well, “ethereal” isn’t quite the right description, and I’ve seen people call it “Victorian,” which doesn’t really land the plane for me either. I want to say “what if later Gene Colan had tighter pencils,” but that’ll probably get the villagers with rakes and torches swarming outside my castle. Regardless of how you’d describe it, “unique” feels like the best descriptor, even though I’m about to say she reminds me just a little of being in the same general area as, for example, Gary Panter or Mark Marek, perhaps on the more representational side of things.
Meat Cake has had a few reprtin collections, the most comprensive likely being the Meat Cake Bible, released by Fantagraphics in 2016, reprinting the entire series plus extra material intended for an unpublished issue.
In addition to Meat Cake, she’s produced work for several other publishers, including collaborations with Alan Moore.
Dame Darcy in more recent years has involved herself in other artistic endeavors, including film, TV, book illustration, fashion, teaching, and music. (A long time ago at the previous place of employment, we received a comp copy of a Death by Doll CD, Dame Darcy’s band, which I still own and occasionally listen to even now.)
Meat Cake is a very distinctive and personal artistic expression, and one well worth seeking out, especially for those who want an excellent example of just what great weirdness comics can achieve.
It’s definitely the darker end of Victorian popular art – look up some “Illustrated Police News” covers.
But…what’s it ABOUT?
I have looked through several issues of Meat Cake and they do seem graphically/visually interesting.
I think Dame Darcy’s art style seems like a bit of a mash up between the art styles of Edward Gorey and the German Expressionist artist Ernst Ludwig Kirschner.
Dame Darcy drew a few episodes of Cobweb for Moore in Tomorrow Stories which were excellent, and he returned the favour by writing a short for Meat Cake which is in the collection and just as good. The freaky end of Victoriana was a great space for both to be working in. And despite the Cobweb stuff being published by DC it’s long out of print while the Meat Cake Bible is still available.
Oh wow, this brings me back. Dame Darcy was in my social circles when I was a much younger man living in NYC. I’ve met her several times but I have not thought about Meat Cake for decades.
Her stuff is terrific, she, uh, also looks and dresses exactly like her illustrations.
Yeah, from the one issue of the comic I own it does seem the comics and music are just two facets of a larger performance art project.
I always admire creators who are super niche like Dame Darcy. She is living her truth, and she’s an amazing cartoonist. I only read a couple of issues of Meat Cake, but I remember it being beautiful and actually kind of funny.
Mike, it could be fun to do a posting on the New History of the DC Universe where folks can comment on what they thought about it compared and contrasted to the original 1980s iteration.
That Scott Koblish variant cover is amazing–but it would be great if they had provided a key to who every single character is –especially some of the funny animal and humor and 1935 to 1938 pre-Superman’s creation characters. I did notice that Golden Age Speedy –or retconned time travelling Speedy/Roy Harper–wasn’t on the cover, nor was Sandy the Golden Boy. Also, although they included a pretty good smattering of Golden Age villains, the original Harlequin–Alan Scott’s Bad Girl girlfriend wasn’t depicted.
“Meat Cake”
No thanks! I prefer cheesecake!
@Snark Shark
Dame Bettie over Dame Darcy, eh…?
I was going to come here to say that the Alan Moore short story he wrote for Meat Cake (“Hungry is the Heart”) is also available in the Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman book. Then, I noticed that Amazon has marked the Meat Cake Bible down so drastically than the two titles are about the same price. So, if anyone wants to read the Moore story, they can choose if they want to read the Dame Darcy series or would rather stick to the Moore side of the equation.
Bettie Page, EVERY time.