{mosimage}Renaissance woman Dame Darcy won a scholarship to the San Francisco Art institute at the age of 17 in 1989. There she majored in film and animation, studying under George Kuchar and Larry Jordan. During this time, she self-published Meat Cake Comix; joined the band Caroliner with Lisa Carver, where she performed, released albums and toured; and illustrated Lisa’s magazine Rollerderby, as well as other Bay Area magazines and papers.
Darcy moved to New York in 1992. Her Meat Cake comic-book series began publication with Fantagraphics Books Inc., who publishes Meat Cake and its compilations, which are distributed internationally, to this day.
In New York, Darcy began working as a freelance illustrator and animator for many magazines and papers such as The Village Voice, The New York Press and Paper magazine. She also worked for production companies such as MTV, Cartoon Network and Curious Pictures, and taught a class on cartooning and self-publishing at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Her fine-art painting, illustrations from her various books and handcrafted dolls began being exhibited in New York and galleries worldwide.
Darcy pursued music as well; her various bands toured and put out albums. Darcy has toured with Michael Gira from the Swans and Angels of Light, recorded with the Coctails, and has opened for Sonic Youth, Will Oldham, and John Spencer Blues Explosion, among others. At this time, her side projects included working as a fashion model; creating a series of short films; and a TV program, Turn of the Century, which was directed by Lisa Hammer.
In 2001 Dame Darcy relocated to Los Angeles. Her graphic novel Frightful Fairytales was released by Ten Speed Press and her CDs Dame Darcy’s Greatest Hits and My Eyes Have Seen the Glory came out. She made a further foray into fashion, creating a ladies’ tops line with Baby Doll/Ku and collaborated with international designers Anna Sui, Coigirl Magic and Laforet based in Tokyo. Both her designs and comics can be seen in the Tokyo-based fashion magazine/catalog Gothic Lolita Bible, and she came up her own line, BIT (Bat Institute Technology) in 2004. Darcy was also hired to interior design the homes of Courtney Love and Margaret Cho, the Parlour club, and did a window display for the L. A. Amoeba Records. She is currently represented in L.A. by Synchronicity Productions in development of her animated TV series and by the Gernert Co. for her non-Meat Cake publishing projects, which include a graphic-novel version of the literary classic Jane Eyre and her latest graphic novel, Gasoline, is to be made into a feature film of the same title. Musically, her band Death By Doll signed to the Emperor Penguin label and plays often, and her international fan base, documented at 10,000, grows daily as she continues to tour in the U.S. and internationally, to Europe, Japan and Australia.
Darcy continues to reside in Los Angeles, California, where she takes the time to teach art to middle-school children as part of the LACER after-school program and mess with reality show contestants.
Featured books by Dame Darcy (click covers for complete product details & ordering information)
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