Purgatory Funeral Cakes

This sweetly melancholy debut fantasy from And the Witch Went into the Forest webcomics artist Sanho transports readers to a charming bakery that serves the recently deceased. As the intro explains, souls need baked goods to safely cross the plains of Purgatory, thus “the final present for those departing is achingly sweet.” At Breath’s End, the boundary between life and death, baker Margot and her assistant, Miro (a classic ghost draped in a sheet), consult with the loved ones of the departed and create perfectly matched funeral cakes for their final journey. In the two stories in this volume, their clients include a sickly teenager befriended by an aspiring mystery writer and a vampire trucker whose night-shift schedule made it hard for her to spend time with her daughter. The characters’ gentle adventures take place in a world both familiar and populated by supernatural beings, anthropomorphic characters, giant plants, and fantastic devices like the kitchen appliance Margot uses to add sound as flavoring to cakes. Sanho’s elegant, flowing linework, tinted with spot color in shades of pink and red, has a storybook feel with touches of classic shojo manga. The characters have delicately drawn faces, and the food looks delectable. It adds up to a cozy and slightly bittersweet treat. (Nov.)