'Yonokdang' Breaks Through the U.S. Comics Scene… Korea’s First Eisner Award Winner for a Comic

Sangho’s ‘Yonokdang, the Funeral Cake Specialty Shop’… Earns Its First Eisner Award at the 38th

Final honors in the U.S. edition’s Best Asian Comics category, completing a sweep of the world’s three biggest international comic prizes

‘Yonokdang, the Funeral Cake Specialty Shop,’ a fantasy graphic novel that captivated the North American continent

In the prestigious U.S. comics awards, the ‘Eisner Awards’, a Korean comic earned the honor of winning for the first time in history.

On the 31st (local time), according to the U.S. Comic-Con International and Munhakdongne, in the Best Asian Comics category in the U.S. edition of the 38th Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the ‘Yonokdang, the Funeral Cake Specialty Shop’ by writer Sangho was named the final winning work. The category is a prestigious award given to the best among translated editions of Asian comics published in English in North America.

There have been previous nominations for Korean comics, including ‘Yellow Earth Stories’ (Kim Dong-hwa), ‘Grass’ (Kim Keum-suk), and ‘Hell’ (Yeon Sang-ho and Gyu-seok Choi), but this is the first time in Korea that a title has crossed the threshold to actually win.

‘Yonokdang, the Funeral Cake Specialty Shop’ is an original fantasy graphic novel created by Sangho. It captures an earnest narrative about people who order special cakes for the dead, so they can reach the gateway to rebirth after the bodies die, traveling through the fields of Yeonok for 49 days. In Korea, it was published through Munhakdongne, and translated for global readers through renowned U.S. comic publisher Dark Horse Comics in 2025, drawing attention worldwide.

Known as the academy awards of the U.S. comic industry, the ‘Eisner Awards’ are considered one of the three biggest international comic awards in the world along with France’s ‘Angoulême’ and America’s Harvey Awards. At the previously held Angoulême International Comics Festival, Angko’s ‘Bad Friends’ (2017) and Park Yoon-seon’s ‘My goodness, what is this, Bangsojeo!’ (2024) brought home awards, while at the Harvey Awards, Ma Young-shin’s ‘Mothers’ (2021) and Kim Keum-suk’s ‘Grass’ (2020) lifted the trophies.

Inside and outside the industry, people are saying, “With this Sangho author’s landmark win, Korean comics achieved the feat of sweeping the three biggest international comic awards in the world all at once,” and they are also praising the elevated status of K-comics.