''Meat Cake'' is a comic book 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 cartoonist, fine artist, musician, cabaret performer, and animator/filmmaker. Her "Neo-Victorian" comic book series '' Meat Ca ...

. Originally published by Caliber Press, ''Meat Cake'' was published by Fantagraphics 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 peace ...

to 2008. ''Meat Cake'' has been described as "neo-

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

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Meat Cake Bible'' (Fantagraphics, 2016) — every story from all 17 issues (1993-2008), as well as new stories from the unpublished 18th issue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

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* Igpay the Pig Latin pig * Stregapez — a woman who speaks by dispensing Pez-like tablets through a bloody hole in her throat * Hindrance and Perfidia — mischievous Siamese twins * Scampi the Selfish Shellfish * Friend the Girl * Richard Dirt — a blond bombshell

References

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