The kids love manga (Part 103)

The San Luis Obispo (Calif.) Tribune takes note of the rapidly increasing popularity of manga:

Lincoln Krautkraemer, general manager for the San Luis Obispo Borders store, remembers how obscure manga was when he started working in bookstores six years ago.

"It was a footnote in the graphic novel section, which itself was a subset within a subset," Krautkraemer said. Now, he and his staff consider manga to be on par with romance novels, science fiction and thrillers -- and they treat it accordingly.

"I have several people on staff now, who are specifically devoted to this section," he said. "It's amazing to see how many people will come in looking specifically for manga -- and looking for specific titles. The audience for this is everyday -- as frequent as those folks coming in for the latest David Baldacci book."