Worlds Within Worlds...

The Pulse has an article on the New York is Book Country book fair. The most interesting part for me was at the end:

However, traditional publishers might have taken note of what was going on over at the Books Kinokuya booth, partly sponsored by Viz Comics. Selling rare early issues of SHONEN JUMP, and giving away Yu-Gi-Oh cards, the booth was swarmed by kids, all of them trembling with excitement over finding their special material. Typical comments from the 11 year old male set: "Aiee! Yo-yo Haku!" and "Oh my god! Yu-gi-oh!"

It is good to see that Jump is still doing well and attracting kids. For all of the Yu-Gi-Oh phenomenon helping things out, they do have some good stories running in the magazine, and at a very reasonable price. Just the fact that there was a swarm of kids at a book fair for anything other than Harry Potter is impressive in itself.

As far as games go, things will get really interesting if Hikaru no Go, starting in Jump in a couple of issues, proves to be popular (and it just might due to the addictiveness of the manga). A strategy board game popular with kids? That'd be even more impressive than kids reading comics. ;)