The Finestres bookstore bets on adult comics in Catalan

New cultural venture from the Finestres bookstore. The project, promoted by businessman Sergi Ferrer-Salat ---owner of the Ferrer pharmaceutical laboratories--- extends its scope of action and focuses on adult comics in Catalan, an underserved market niche, with the aim of reaching readers who are accustomed to reading graphic novels in Spanish because they cannot find them in Catalan. The response to fill this void will have a triple approach, with the creation of a publishing house and a literary prize specialized in this type of work, and the opening of a second location, situated on Diputació street, directly opposite the current one.

"The goal is to normalize the presence of adult comics in Catalan," explains Montserrat Terrones, who is in charge of directing this new initiative. To do so, the Finestres publishing house's strategy will consist of publishing ten works each year, which will be divided between international new releases and, to a lesser extent, reference works previously unavailable in Catalan. It will debut this Wednesday with the titles L'accident de caça, by Landis Blair and David L. Carlson, recently awarded at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, the most prestigious in Europe, and Intrèpides, by Pénélope Bagieu, a bestseller with over a million copies sold.

In a few years, the new publishing house will publish its own works, both from authors who create them in Catalan and from the winners of its literary prize. In this regard, the Finestres Comic Prize in Catalan will be aimed at creators who present a graphic novel project in the Catalan language. The prize for the winner will be 25,000 euros, the same amount as the other awards promoted by the bookstore, specialized in essay and narrative works, which have categories in both Catalan and Spanish.

This commitment will be complemented by the creation of its own space in the Finestres bookstore, which will have two locations at the beginning of next year. The new establishment will specialize in art, with a special focus on comics, but also including works on classical arts, dance, music, and cinema. It will feature 14,000 references and 20,000 volumes in different languages.

The future local store will not resemble the main one, inaugurated in April with silence as its main characteristic, and will have "a more industrial look", says the bookstore's head of purchasing, Mireya Valencia. With construction still underway, it has been conceived as an open-plan space with elements such as thin columns and a cement floor. It will have a tiered seating area for presentations and cultural activities. "We don't know if we'll manage to give it a rebellious look, but we'll try," Valencia remarks. It will have a total area of 215 square meters, smaller than that of the main establishment, which has 800 square meters.