Dame Darcy
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Darcy Megan Stanger, known professionally as Dame Darcy is one of the most popular and well-regarded alternative comics artists today -- along side cartoonists like Peter Bagge, Robert Crumb, Tony Millionaire, Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware. Her visual aesthetic has been informed equally by underground cartoonists and illustrators in the Victorian tradition like Sir John Tenniel and Edward Gorey. Her comic, Meatcake has been published by Fantagraphics since 1993.
She is also an experimental musician/performer whose work with Caroliner Rainbow, Lisa Crystal Carver's Suckdog, Rock Rock Chicken Pox and other collaborations/solo ventures have inspired other members of the avant-garde including Thurston Moore, for the way she has combined bluegrass music and Americana with a unique combination of classic Expressionism and transgressive aesthetics. Her newest music project is Death By Doll, a duo with Benjamin Mahoney.
Her television collaboration with Blessed Elysium's Lisa Hammer, Turn of the Century, lasted from 1996-1999, creating a new television episode every week for New York Public Access. The pair created hundreds of hours of original drama and comedy in a German Expressionist style, utilizing New York underground personalities like Jennifer Nixon (aka Queen Itchie), Peter Moran, Bliss Blood, Banjo Pete, Miller Duvall, Secretary Jenny, Cynthia Mitchell, Patrick O'Clock (aka Patrick Hambrecht), Jasper McVain, Daisy Miller, Li'l Sweetie, Countessa Cinorre, Duchess Daria (aka Daria Klotz), Lisa Crystal Carver, among others. The show also randomly featured celebrity actors like Moore, Courtney Love, Tiny Tim in its Caligari-like featurettes. New York Magazine cited the show as the best public access show of 1997. It has since been released in a retail "Best of" Collection and is syndicated on public access stations across the country.
Dame Darcy has recently expanded into clothing design with Mindy LeBrock, releasing her B.I.T. (Bat Institute of Technology) series in a fashion show with Margaret Cho at Los Angeles's Congo Room in June 2004.
External links
- Dame Darcy's official website (http://www.damedarcy.com)
- Photos from the Bat Institute of Technology Fashion Show with Margaret Cho (http://www.filmmagic.com/Gallerylisting.asp?navtyp=gls====65447)