We went up to Pittsburgh last night and stopped at one of the older Borders. They’ve made some changes to their layout, swapping the graphic novels and manga with the fiction and literature, if you can believe it. The comics sections seem to have expanded somewhat, but especially the graphic novels. The manga selection doesn’t seem to be any more diverse, though the selection of other graphic novels seems like it’s a lot more comprehensive.
The store’s layout is kind of weird. It’s on two floors, with a big opening down to the lower level. The graphic novels and manga used to be on the shelves running along the railing around the opening, the new home of Hamingway and Austen and their ilk. Now the comics on the main walls, and they’re some of the first things you see when you walk in. They also seem to have moved some of their other shelving units so that they could set up a seating area near the manga, which makes sense.
There were a few kids reading manga in some chairs near the shelves, but there were more thirty-something men looking at the graphic novels, which was a change of pace. Those DC Showcase editions seemed to be the big draw.