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Dame Darcy

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This article is about the American cartoonist. For the English ballerina, see Darcey Bussell.
Dame Darcy
Dame Darcy swimming as a mermaid
Born (1971-06-19) June 19, 1971 (age 54)
Caldwell, Idaho, U.S.
Area(s)Cartoonist, designer of Dame Darcy Mermaid Tarot and Queen Alice Tarot decks, fine artist, musician, performer, animator, filmmaker
Notable works
Meat Cake
damedarcy.com

Dame Darcy Pleasant[1] (born June 19, 1971, Caldwell, Idaho),[1] better known by the pen name Dame Darcy, is an alternative cartoonist,[2] fine artist, musician, cabaret performer, and animator/filmmaker. Her "Neo-Victorian"[3] comic book series Meat Cake was published by Fantagraphics Books from 1993 to 2008. The Meat Cake Bible compilation was released in June 2016[4] and nominated for an Eisner Award in July 2017.[5] Vegan Love: Dating and Partnering for the Cruelty-Free Gal, with Fashion, Makeup & Wedding Tips, written by Maya Gottfried and illustrated by Dame Darcy, was the Silver Medalist winners of the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2018.[6]

Biography

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Dame Darcy acquired her initial skill set while still a child and teen working as an apprentice to her father in his sign-painting studio, Green Tree Graphics. She began her own career at age 17 when she won a scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute.[1] During this time, she acted in films by George Kuchar.[7]

She made her first publishing deal at the age of 21 when her comic book series Meat Cake was picked up by Fantagraphics Books.[1] She originally considered using the pen name "Richard Dirt" but her father suggested adding a title to her own first name instead, so Darcy used the name Richard Dirt as a character in her comic book.[8]

She worked with writer Alan Moore and for such publishers as America's Best Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, Kitchen Sink Press, Starhead Comix,[9] Penguin Putnam, PressPop Tokyo, Merrell, Henry Holt and Company, and Seven Stories Press.[citation needed] Dame Darcy published over 100 books internationally, with her comics being translated into Japanese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, among others. Her films and animation won awards and have been shown internationally.[citation needed] Her fine art and dolls were exhibited and sold in art galleries globally for more than 20 years.

In the 1990s, Dame Darcy made a doll for Courtney Love which included hair from the late Kurt Cobain. The doll was a gift to Love's daughter Frances Bean Cobain.[10] Dame Darcy planned to auction some of Kurt Cobain's leftover hair in 2015[11] but withdrew it following a complaint from Love.[12]

In the late 1990s director Lisa Hammer and Dame Darcy produced a variety TV show titled Turn Of The Century profiling their short "silent film" style movies for Manhattan public access, which is now part of the Getty Museum Collection.[13] Turn Of The Century is currently streaming on Night Flight Plus as of 2024. Due to the popularity of this TV show on Night Flight, and with the support of the "Girls to the Front - Nineties and Now" Exhibition, The Elaborate Empire of Ache, an experimental surrealist short film directed by Lisa Hammer and starring Dame Darcy was shown in the Museum of Modern Art.[14]

She performed for a time with Lisa Crystal Carver and Jean-Louis Costes's underground cabaret Suckdog Circus.[15] A documentary concert film starring Lisa Carver (Lisa Suckdog) as "The Dish" and Dame Darcy as "Ghost Mother" called SUCKDOG Reunion Tour 2016 was produced in 2016.[16]

Dame Darcy's autobiographical graphic novel, Hi Jax & Hi Jinx (Life's a Pitch and Then You Live Forever), was published by Feral House in 2019 [17] Other graphic novels include Handbook for Hot Witches, The Illustrated Jane Eyre,[18] Frightful Fairytales, Gasoline, and Dollerium.[18] Her self-published Mermaid Tarot and Queen Alice tarot card decks are independently distributed.[19][20]

She has illustrated for fashion designers Anna Sui and Gothic Lolita designers CWC, Baby Doll, Ku, Coi Girl Magic and Jared Gold[21] while working as a runway model in NYC and LA.

Her teaching experience varies among all ages and contexts. Dame Darcy taught an independent comics publishing course at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, as well as lecturing and workshops at Columbia University, and in Europe and Japan.[citation needed]

Dame Darcy is married to J. Pleasant as of 2023.

Further reading

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  • Dark Stars Rising, by Shade Rupe — 24 years of interviews with various creators of darker art (Headpress, 2010)
  • A Conversation With Dame Darcy, By Ron Rege "Dame Darcy's Meat Cake was one of the most culturally visible alternative comic book titles of the 1990s." (The Comics Journal, 2016)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Sullivan, Darcy (September 1994). "The Dame Darcy Interview". The Comics Journal (171). Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016.
  2. ^ Hundley, Jessica (November 21, 2002). "Artist's vision lives; Dame Darcy turns a new page with her stylized graphic novel, Frightful Fairytales". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
  3. ^ Kirchner, Lisa (July 30, 2010). "Books: Meatcake". Bust. New York, New York. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  4. ^ Darcy, Dame (2016). "Meat Cake Bible". Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics Books. Archived from the original on December 12, 2018.
  5. ^ Brown, Tracy (May 3, 2017). "2017 Eisner Award nominees include The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye and Saga". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 19, 2018.
  6. ^ "2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards General Results". Independent Publisher Book Awards. 2018. Archived from the original on May 19, 2019.
  7. ^ "Dame Darcy". Lambiek Comiclopedia. December 13, 2006. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Darcy seriously began pursuing a life in art when she won a scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute in 1989. She majored in film and studied animation...At the same time, she pursued a career as an actress with parts in local independent films by director George Kuchar
  8. ^ Collins, Sean T. (August 11, 2016). "Let Us Play: Comics Artist Dame Darcy on Her Mind-Blowing Meat Cake Bible". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016. When I first started self-publishing comics I wanted to experiment with having my pen name be Richard Dirt...My Dad advised against it, saying that if I add a title to my first name, like Queen Latifah or Dr. Seuss, I would not have to deal with the hassle of actually changing my last name. I came up with Dame because it is alliterative with my first name and is a ladies' title.
  9. ^ Dame Darcy at the Grand Comics Database
  10. ^ Escobedo Shepherd, Julianne (November 3, 2015). "Frances Bean Has a Creepy Doll Made With Locks of Kurt Cobain's Hair". Jezebel. Archived from the original on May 15, 2016.
  11. ^ Grebey, James (November 2, 2015). "Lock of Kurt Cobain's Hair to Be Sold at Auction Because People are Creepy Weirdos". Spin. Archived from the original on April 25, 2016. Courtney Love commissioned doll maker and comic artist Dame Darcy to make a doll for her daughter using some of Cobain's blonde hair. The leftover hair is now on sale starting at $4,000.
  12. ^ Scott, Shannon (May 11, 2016). "My Interview With The Inimitable Dame Darcy". Shannonscott.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2016. She legitimately had in her possession some of Kurt Cobain's hair and nearly sold it for a significant sum of money before the auction was pulled because of Courtney Love's protest.
  13. ^ Hammer, Lisa (March 14, 2008). "Empire of Ache - short film by Lisa Hammer". YouTube. Caught on the living celluloid for the first time- the hot-blooded mania of Dame Darcy conversing with dolls no bigger than Gods foot.
  14. ^ "Girls to the Front: Nineties and Now". press.moma.org.
  15. ^ Calhoun, Ada (August 11, 2000). "Prophet for Our Times". The Austin Chronicle. Austin, Texas. Archived from the original on December 19, 2016.
  16. ^ "SUCKDOG Reunion Tour 2016". Suckdog. n.d. Archived from the original on August 19, 2018.
  17. ^ Darcy, Dame (2019). Hi Jax & Hi Jinx: Life's a Pitch - and Then You Live Forever. Port Townsend, Washington: Feral House. p. 305. ISBN 978-1627310697.
  18. ^ a b Weiland, Jonah (August 15, 2006). "Dame Darcy on The Illustrated Jane Eyre". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on December 28, 2016.
  19. ^ Darcy, Dame (n.d.). "Dame Darcy". DameDarcy.com. Archived from the original on May 21, 2019.
  20. ^ "Dame Darcy's Mermaid Tarot Review". Cosmictarot.co.uk. October 16, 2015. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016.
  21. ^ "Artist Bio – Dame Darcy". Fantagraphics Books. n.d. Archived from the original on December 27, 2016.
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