''Meat Cake'' is a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series written and drawn by

Dame Darcy Darcy Megan Stanger (born June 19, 1971, Caldwell, Idaho), better known by the pen name Dame Darcy, is an alternative comics, alternative cartoonist, fine artist, musician, cabaret performer, and animator/filmmaker. Her "Neo-Victorian" comic boo ...

. Originally published by

Caliber Press Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of America ...

, ''Meat Cake'' was published by

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was founde ...

in the United States from

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

to 2008. ''Meat Cake'' has been described as "neo- Victorian," with each issue containing a collection of stories featuring a cast of oddball characters. All the same, ''Meat Cake'' was characterized by one critic as extremely personal: "the aesthetic that made ''Meatcake'' so distinctive wasn't cultivated; it was who ame Darcywas, and how she was."Weaver, Damien
"An Interview with Dame Darcy,"
''Bookslut'' (April 2004).

Publication history

One issue of ''Meat Cake'' was published in 1992 by

. In 1993 Fantagraphics picked up ''Meat Cake'' as an ongoing series, starting over the numbering with issue #1. Early issues were produced approximately every 6 months, but by issue #8, only one issue was published per year, until issue #17 (2008). No new issues of ''Meat Cake'' have appeared since.

Collected editions

* ''Dame Darcy's Meat Cake Compilation'' (Fantagraphics, 2003; reprint edition, 2010) — collects material from the first decade of the comic; includes "Hungry is the Heart," a collaboration between Dame Darcy and

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including '' Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and '' From He ...

* ''The Meat Cake Bible'' (Fantagraphics, 2016) — every story from all 17 issues (1993-2008), as well as new stories from the unpublished 18th issue

Recurring characters

* Effluvia the Mermaid * Wax Wolf — a roguish roué * Igpay the

Pig Latin Pig Latin is a language game or argot in which words in English are altered, usually by adding a fabricated suffix or by moving the onset or initial consonant or consonant cluster of a word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syllable ...

pig * Stregapez — a woman who speaks by dispensing

Pez Pez (, ; stylised as PEZ) is the brand name of an Austrian candy and associated manual candy dispensers. The candy is a pressed, dry, straight-edged, curved-corner block 15 mm ( inch) long, 8 mm ( inch) wide and 5 mm ...

-like tablets through a bloody hole in her throat * Hindrance and Perfidia — mischievous

Siamese twins Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined ''in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence ...

* Scampi the Selfish Shellfish * Friend the Girl * Richard Dirt — a blond bombshell

References

1993 comics debuts Caliber Comics titles Fantagraphics titles {{comics-stub