2020 CUPCAKE AWARD WINNER: Congrats to Joi Yao!

Joi Yao is an alternative comic artist from south China, currently based in Minneapolis, MN.

She creates mysterious, existential, semi-autobiographical comics through nontraditional storytelling. She provokes doubts about reality, the digital world, and human civilizations. People either don’t want to read her comics, or would read them twice.

Joi was kind enough to provide us with this quote:

“To be amongst comic people is one of the few situations that I feel at ease as a permanent tourist. The 2020 Cupcake award is more than a boost to my juvenile ego but would provide great companionship and opportunity for my vacation. With the funds and mentorship, I'd like to bring more comics to whoever shares a tourist side of identity.”

We’d also like to highlight some outstanding submissions with an honorable mention:

Jon Woolley

M. Sabine Rear

Alice Holleman

Thank you so much to Tyrell Cannon for being Cupcake 2020’s guest judge and mentor! We look forward to what beautiful and mysterious comics Joi will have at CAKE this year!