Jay, you wouldn’t say that if you came to my school and saw what the kids are borrowing. The Toon Books are getting checked out, as are Bone (I’m now constantly mending beat-up copies that have seen many check-outs), Little Lulu, the few manga titles I have, the Marvel digests, and more. Books in graphic format account for roughly 50% of our little library’s circulation every week. So, it’s true the kids don’t have the drugstore/dime store (yeesh, I’m dating myself)/supermarket comic book rack exposure, but they are seeing graphic novels (and some comics) in their school and public libraries (school libraries are an up-and-coming comics market).

However, I have to admit that Into the Volcano left me cold. Could be that, since I’m from Hawaii, Wood made things too similar to Hawaii but wanted it different so the names of people and places GRATE on my nerves. A kid named Sumo? Excuse me, that’s a major sport in Japan. Stuff like that, little niggling details, kept popping me out of the story as I became increasingly annoyed. Others will most likely have no problems with this book. For me, m’eh.