Meat Cake

Meat Cake

by Dame Darcy, Alan Moore, Margaret Cho (Forward)

Victorian humor, horror, and romance from a unique comics stylist. One of the most beguiling presences on the comics scene, Dame Darcy—musician, actress, cable TV star, fortune teller, dollmaker, and last but not least, cartoonist to the core—has been bewitching readers for over ten years with her neo-Victorian horror/humor/ romance comic Meatcake. Alternating between one-off (often cruelly tragic) fairy tales and ongoing romps starring her eclectic cast of characters, including Effluvia the Mermaid, the roguish roué Wax Wolf, Igpay the Pig-Latin pig, Stregapez (a women who speaks by dispensing Pez-like tablets through a bloody hole in her throat), the mischievous Siamese twins Hindrance and Perfidia, Scampi the Selfish Shellfish, the stalwart Friend the Girl, and the blonde bombshell Richard Dirt, all delineated in her inimitable luxurious scrawl, Meatcake is like a peek into the most creative, deranged dollhouse you ever saw.

Dame Darcy's Meatcake Compilation assembles in clothbound luxury the very best from the first decade of Meatcake (including "Hungry Is the Heart," the legendary collaboration with Watchmen's Alan Moore, a big Darcy fan who has worked with her on his ABC Comics)—almost 200 pages of wild and woolly comics.

Darcy's fans include many of her fellow cartoonists, and such similarly flamboyant personalities as Courtney Love (who once memorably guested on Darcy's cable TV show Turn of the Century). She also has a huge following in the Goth community, who enjoy her wickedly ghoulish sense of humor and retro art style. 200 pages b/w illustrations.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Gothic, Feminism

227 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Witchy, polymorphously perverse, and as fascinated with gory demises as the best sort of terrifying Victorian child. This is a fairground of blood, sex and pranks, in which the recurring cast range from murderous bickering with each other to idle sapphism for no other reason than that's how the mood takes them. Said cast, while ranging from a mermaid to conjoined twins, are of course all female bar one raffish wolf; any other males are strictly disposable boytoys. Interspersed with these antics, various cod-gothic short melodramas, like comics a young Angela Carter might have drawn on a rainy day in collaboration with an over-caffeinated infant Edward Gorey.

[Chriso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dame Darcy's Meatcake comics were something I knew about for an embarrassingly long time before snagging this compilation a week ago at my local library and plopping down on my bed to quickly devour it in a matter of days. How had I waited so long?! Sure, I'd seen snips and bits of it in the past, but something that delightful had been missing from my life for so damn long and it's all my fault! I think the best thing about Meatcake is that it could be a horribly precious thing in the wrong hands. But despite the fantastical characters, old timey tropes/settings and the gothic flourishes, Dame Darcy has a certain je ne sais quoi - a wicked sense of humor and a touch of sarcasm seem the likely elements - that keep things from collapsing into the overly twee. But it also helps that she started these comics in the early 90s, long before the trendy boom of ye olde everything that's been happening among hip folks in the last few years. Either way, I'm glad I finally got Meatcake in my life. The only sad part is that Richard Dirt, Friend the Girl, Wax Wolf, Perfidia & Efluvia, the Selfish Shellfish and many other of Darcy's lovingly weird characters don't exist for me to hang out with and sip tea, avoid poison and raise the dead.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

more like three & a half stars. & probably more for people who are really into comics. i am not really into comics, so i kind of automatically had to deduct a half-star for that. lots of mermaids, victorian ennui, conjoined twins, circus freaks, blood & murder, & fancy hats. it definitely does not always make sense, but it's a look. it makes me sad that when i searched for this book on goodreads so i could add my review, i had two options. one version of the book was credited to dame darcy, who actually illustrates all of the book & wrote almost all of it, & the other version credited it to dame darcy & alan moore. alan moore contributed one story in the entire many-hundred-page book...& it was arguably the worst story in the book. sorry, but it's true. kind of gross that he'd get a credit for a book he had nothing to do with just because he is more famous than the woman who actually wrote the book.

[Liz M · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's clear that these comics are self-indulgent fantasies- but that's all part of the fun. Her luxurious gothic personaes delve into nonsensical adventures, replete with blood, victoriana, and sex. Every desire is granted- mansions, vintage get-ups, handsome beaus, pearls and seas full of doe eyed sailors. Her ragged pen and ink style are beautifully rendered even when they seemed to be rapidly executed with a ballpoint pen. I've been a fan for years.

[Jessika · Rating 5 out of 5]

DUDE.
MEAT CAKE.
It's.... it's quite literally, like, ALL OF THE PERFECTION. Ever. I was soooo not expecting this one... any of it. The wickedness and delight and genius and grunge ♡ total love.
This is my new favorite thing.
I love you Dame Darcy.

[Pandora · Rating 5 out of 5]

PURE GENIUS. I want to be Dame Darcy when I grow up.

[Damon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and interesting. I liked the rhymes as well as the character stories. THe best thing though, was the cut out dolls.

[Antonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ja alltså det här är ju helt ljuvligt! Det är massa galna damer, en mordisk sjöjungfru i rullstol, ett själviskt skaldjur, mord, blod och freaks överallt! Dame Darcy alltså. Som Edward Gorey fast på knark kanske? Eller som bandet The tiger lillies? Ungefär så.

[Alexia · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful and nonsensical. more detail than my brain can even absorb

[Sanjay Varma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sexy drawings, goths, pagans, circus freaks, Halloween, witches, Victorian undergarments, unlikely love, rape, murder.

Some of the characters and jokes are not very funny but they keep reappearing. I'm thinking of Strega Pez and Scampi.

But the basic vibe evokes a goth-witch variety hour. I especially love the Siamese twins, who are named Hindrance and Perfidia, and the cruel Mermaid who "has a car" which she drives to get meals at her favorite restaurant.

She draws her female characters to be sexy in a manner that is natural, without any of the typical comic book objectification, i.e. without the usual pouty lips, perky nipples, and improbable bosom.

I'm surprised I never read this before, as I devoured comics in the 90's. But I'm guessing that the title turned me off. "Meatcake" is an unlikely title for such a feminine and fun comic.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There isn't any weird thing Darcy can't draw. Talking crawfish? Check. Ghost of somebody's murdered mother buried under a tree? Check. Two-headed sisters co-piloting a helicopter? Check. There are some days that I curse my imagination - Dame Darcy has me feeling less alone and marveling at hers. Completely original - sometimes creepy, always surprising.
Since this is the first collection of her Meatcake series, her art shows progress along the way - the final installment is much better inked and much cleaner than, say, her first strip drawn in 1992. Comparisons to Gorey are correct, but more than that, Darcy creates her own style. So happy to have this one in my collection.

[K.m. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dame Darcy has such an endearing style, I could forgive her sometimes unsatisfactory plotlines. I enjoy her graphics, a combination of classic tattoo design, vintage cartoon, Edward Gorey, Addams Family, and circus sideshow elements. Her designing of a page is a whole affair complete with borders, panel frames and decorative fonts. She has an appreciation of victoriana in style and content, using old-fashioned language, her characters, mermaids, conjoined twins, wolves, and more inhabiting a strange, creepy world of stockings and gloves, murder and suitors. Her humor runs to the morbid and surreal, aimed for the childish adult. I particularly liked her illustrations of old murder ballads.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first came across Dame Darcy's stuff in the illustrated version of Jane Eyre, which for some weird reason goodreads doesn't let me review since it links the illustrated version with the regular edition...booooooooo. But anyway, I fell in love with her depictions of one of my most favorite stories...and had to find anything else she might have birthed. I checked out Meat Cake from my library and found it thoroughly macabre and darkly humoresque for a compilation of her first works. Pretty excited to get my library to order her next works- Frightful Fairytales!

[yengyeng · Rating 3 out of 5]

using only black pen ink, dame darcy spins her wacky yarn in a whimsical victorian gothic fashion featuring pre-raphaelite drowned girls, fairy tale characters like a sleazy talking wolf and an aggressive mermaid, and a bunch of tawdry circus misfits, including a set of cozy-knitting-obsessed conjoined twins. with a foreword and back page quote by 90s personalities comic margaret cho and sonic youth's thurston moore. includes a story collaborated with alan moore. good fun.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wicked little indie comic compilation, I liked it, but it felt like the art was a little too busy, and was distracting at times. That sounds funny since it's a comic, but if you see it you'll know what I mean. I think Dame Darcy's characters are wild, and perfect for that girl who never really fit in...

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gothic queer collection of gorgeous comics by Dame Darcy. Mermaids and fantastical talking crustaceans are some of the magical, haunted and tormented characters. Foul mouthed sassy ladies in striped socks are queen in these stories. Twisted fairy tales and lots of blood. Hilariously dark humor.

[Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG Dame Darcy! (yes, I just said OMG - and she deserves it). She is the most amazing comic book creator ever, with characters that eat the souls of shoes, bitchy mermaid sex sluts, horny Big Bad Wolves, and siamese twin co - conspirators.

[Juliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this comic. Dame Darcy's drawings are creepy, sexy, funny, and cool. Mermaids, a sexist wolf, a girl with a Pez-dispensing neck for communication purposes, and lots of evil do-ers all coexist in this creepy world.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

i'm officially not a fan of the Dame. this was my second go with her work and most likely will be my last. i should love this stuff and i probably would have back in high school but it's just not for the emily of today.

[Cassandra Mazur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Illustrations are great. Very imaginative, some stories can be interesting while others fail to hold your attention. Great to flip through for the art, read the words only if you're curious about what's happening in the pictures.

[Chantel Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect mix of the macabre and the feminine, the lovely Dame Darcy takes you on a ride through the charming eccentricities of a world somewhat like Victorian America, only to leave you in a ditch somewhere with a broken leg and the wolves fast approaching.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a bit to get into this book - initially I was very unsure but somehow without realising it I got pulled into the characters and like the morbid, victorian, humor. I found myself laughing out loud and loving the craziness of the characters that seemed so ridiculous yet so true to life...

[Allyssa]

I was running with Charles aka Rube Ruben all the time then dame darcy comes to town and next thing you know I'm the chopped liver poet. These comics are pretty good.

[Pamster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it. A mermaid, Siamese twins, and a girl who speaks in words written on oversized Pez that comes out of a bloody hole in her neck. Also a titgrabber wolf. And everything is super pretty.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blew my mind as a teenager.

[Jamie Felton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strega Pez! I love you!

[Tara Carlisle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting...dark, weird and funny.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

These comics are funny. That's something that i can't say about a lot of comics. Read it.

[sweeny todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

real good!!!!

[Jenn]

One of my fave comic books. Weird. Creepy. Wacky. Lovely.