Hotel Paradiso

Johanna dies on a summer’s day and finds herself in the luxurious Hotel Paradiso, the hereafter in the form of a resort, complete with goodie bag, segway tour and information points. The souls lack for nothing. She goes in search of her husband Luk, who died thirty years earlier, hoping at last to be reunited with him. But it soon turns out that even after death, life isn’t that simple.

Fin Ilsbroekx portrays the hereafter in black-and-white pencil drawings, in which the souls consist merely of bodies with little floating balls for heads. The enthusiastic promo for Hotel Paradiso is a constant thread as the images depict the intriguing architecture of paradise. Contrasting with it are the colour drawings that show how this world looks through Johanna’s eyes, and there we can read her thoughts. The disappointment when it emerges that Luk is no longer the person Johanna thought he was is both sad and funny, a combination to which Ilsbroekx does justice throughout the story. The visually interesting style of ‘Hotel Paradiso’ marks her out as an up-and-coming talent.