NEWS
HEAVY METAL DRUMMER CLOSES COMIC SHOP, BIZARRO-WUXTRY SHUTS DOWN, NEW STORE OPENS IN OHIO
Shop Talk, July 2026
Posted by Brigid Alverson on August 1, 2026 @ 9:40 pm CT
Torpedo Comics, the Las Vegas, NV, store owned by System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, has closed its doors, Neon reports. Dolmayan was a comics retailer before he was a drummer; a comics fan since he was 12, he began selling comics at age 18, first through the mail and then at conventions. (He claims to have taken a big pay cut to join System of a Down.) Eventually he acquired a warehouse, and he opened his first Torpedo Comics store in 2003. Although the brick-and-mortar store he opened in 2017 has closed, he will continue to sell comics online. ICv2 has profiled the store several times, most recently in 2024 (see “Explore the Store: The Las Vegas Tour, Part 2”).
Bizarro-Wuxtry Comics in Athens, GA, recently announced it would be closing its doors after 35 years. The location is being sold, the student newspaper Red and Black reports, and the store posted on Instagram that it was “looking to liquidate our inventory to anyone interested in stocking their own business or in creating their very own comic book store.” The store opened in 1991 as a subsidiary of Wuxtry Records, and Bizarro-Wuxtry’s manager Dan Thompson says the name is an homage to Superman’s strange counterpart. Thompson also says he hopes to continue the business in some way, but not in that location. Robert Newsome also penned a tribute to the store at The Comics Journal.
Ray Medrano and Zachary Kersis-Warner talk to Fort Worth Report about their newly opened store, Odyssey Comics, in Fort Worth, TX. The store is just the first of several planned businesses in a 5,000-square-foot space that the owners envision as a “third place” where people can simply hang out with other people. The project will also include a game room where customers can bring their own games to play as well as a quiet room for those who want to get away from the hubbub.
The Outer Limits in Waltham, MA, is closing its doors after 43 years, and former customer Kevin Keaney reminisced about the store and the many new things he discovered there in a farewell column in the Waltham Times.
Lake Effect Comics of North Ridgeville, OH opened its doors on August 1, 2026, with an inventory of over 30,000 comics and an area for reading and gaming. “The biggest thing for us is to have somewhere for people to actually go and feel like there’s people with similar interests,” owner Matt Petz told the Chronicle-Telegram, adding that comics started as a hobby for him before growing into a business.
Knoxville, TN, is rich in comic stores, and K.W. Leonard takes readers on a tour of them, including Comics Exchange, Krypto Comics, Nirvana Comics (see “Nirvana Comics Wins First Image Retailer Award”),Snake Eyes Comics, and Sci-Fi City, as well as Resolute Bliss Publishing, for Inside of Knoxville.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brigid Alverson
Contributing Editor. Alverson has been writing about comics since she launched MangaBlog in 2005. She wrote the Comics A.M. column for Robot 6 (now part of CBR), and currently edits the Good Comics for Kids blog at School Library Journal. In her earlier life, she had roles at magazine and book publishers.
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