HarperCollins is officially establishing a dedicated manga and comic footprint in North America. Announced during a panel at Anime NYC, the publishing heavyweight detailed its multi-year roadmap for KAZÉ, a new U.S. imprint scheduled to launch in fall 2027. The initiative represents an ambitious effort to bridge Asian graphic literature with Western distribution, leveraging HarperCollins’ unique direct infrastructure in Japan alongside its historical European publishing acquisitions.
Strategic Expansion and Slate
The imprint will initiate its rollout with 3 to 5 titles in late 2027 before scaling up operations to 20–25 releases in 2028 and 25–30 titles by 2029. Beyond publishing localized Japanese series and original intellectual properties from HarperCollins Japan, KAZÉ’s catalog will encompass Korean manhwa, Chinese manhua, and original English-language (OEL) manga. The imprint unveiled its debut title: SOL Sistah by Saxton Moore and Phillip Johnson, described as a superhero slice-of-life work centering on a goddess-turned-highschooler in a kaiju-populated setting. Crucially, representatives explicitly stated during the panel that the imprint will strictly avoid AI-assisted translation work.
Global Infrastructure and Team
This North American expansion builds upon HarperCollins' acquisition of Crunchyroll's manga publishing assets in France and Germany, which saw the historic French brand name KAZÉ—originally founded in 1994—restored to active publishing catalogues. KAZÉ's U.S. editorial operations will also expand simultaneously into Spain and Brazil in 2027. Led by Vice President and Publisher Andrew Arnold, editors Emilia Sowersby and Josh Sippie, art director Christina Quintero, and assistant designer Mikhail Fernandes, the venture intends to collaborate closely with sister imprint HarperAlley to source works from established creators and unlocalized talent alike.
