A new Catalan-language manga label is launched, spearheaded by Vicent Sanchis

BarcelonaThe Catalan comic book edition continues in an expansive phaseJournalist and comics expert Vicent Sanchis, director of TV3, is behind the creation of the new Catalan-language manga imprint Catway, which aims to normalize the presence of comics in Catalan. "The publishers that release the most manga in Catalan are Norma and Planeta, but they are always series that have already been released in Spanish, and sometimes with less quality," says Sanchis, who at Catway doesn't rule out publishing manga in Spanish as well. "But it will always be published first in Catalan," he assures.

One of Catway's first titles is Head and tailMizu Shara's novel, about the relationship between a high school student and a classmate who hides a secret: he has a pig's tail at the end of his back. The other titles in Catway's initial release are: Cube Artsby Tomomi Usui, which is set in a virtual video game world, and the fantastic The Witch of Cards Castleby John Tarachine. The three collections are short, with few issues per series. "We're a modest publisher, and the rights to collections with three or four issues are more affordable," explains Sanchis, who is joined in this venture by bookseller and publisher Albert Mestres.

Catway aims to complete these three series during 2026 and, depending on the results, will begin publishing one or two more. "We look for good manga, preferably those without a Spanish translation and belonging to genres with less supply and higher demand," says Sanchis. "The idea is to carve out a niche, although it's an extremely tough market requiring significant investment for minimal returns." Financial gain, in any case, is not the objective. "By publishing in Catalan, we're aiming for zero profit," adds the journalist. "What we want is to break even. We'll reinvest everything we earn."

In a way, the imprint that Sanchis and Mestres are promoting wants to take over from Kaji Manga, the Catalan-language manga imprint created by the Enciclopèdia Catalana group. "I convinced the people at Enciclopèdia to create a major manga imprint," Sanchis recalls. "They spoke with Norma about publishing their manga catalog in Catalan, but there was no agreement, and in the end, they went it alone. Then they had problems, and when they had problems..." They were acquired by the Abacus group and Jaume Roures"All of that faded away."