Sanho’s Purgatory Funeral Cakes comic wins Eisner Award
South Korean author Sanho has won an Eisner Award for the comic Purgatory Funeral Cakes, which became the first Korean work to receive the honor. The award was presented in the category of Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia, where Japanese works had previously won most often, Korea Herald reports.
Sanho’s debut three-volume comic tells the story of baker Margot and her ghostly assistant Miro, who make special cakes for the deceased. Each cake is created for a specific person: their loved ones share memories that influence the flavor, texture and design of the dessert.
Memories as an ingredient of dessert
In one episode, Margot makes Irea a crepe cake with cream and fresh strawberries. The thin layers, resembling the pages of a book, recreate the ending of a detective novel that Irea loved but did not have time to finish. Fragments of her life are recorded on a cassette tape, and a special player adds these memories to the cake.
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According to the author’s concept, the deceased gradually lose their memories during their journey through purgatory, while the living return to them in an attempt to preserve the memory of a loved one. The idea for the comic came from Sanho’s childhood memory: at the age of eight, she left a piece of her birthday cake on an unmarked grave near her family home in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.
From an independent publication to translations
Purgatory Funeral Cakes was first released as an independent publication in 2019. It was later published by Munhakdongne Publishing. The comic also received several awards in South Korea, and its editions are now available in nine countries and territories, including the United States and France.
Sanho deliberately chose a print format rather than the vertical webtoon format popular in South Korea. According to her, a page makes it possible to work with broad space and spreads, while a book can be “opened like a door to enter.” The author is currently working on two new stories: one about a terminally ill man who wants to make his own grave, and another about a woman who must eat forbidden things to survive.
