Alan of All About Comics And Books, of Phoenix, Arizona has announced that he and Marsha are retiring as comic book store and closing the store. Alan writes,

A Special Note "All About" Alan and Marsha's Retirement

To all our loyal, dedicated and sincerely appreciated customers and friends, Marsha and I have decided…and a very difficult decision it was… to retire this April. It's time.

When we purchased our business, known as " A Little Bookstore" in December of 1981, we were youngsters looking for a new venture. And brother, has it been an adventure for the last 38 years! Fun and rewarding, it has been a great ride, and an amazing place to raise our children, but now it is time to say goodbye to the brick and mortar side of our business.

We will continue to carry a full line of new releases of comics, trade paperbacks and specialty merchandise up to and including Wednesday, March 25th. We hope you will stay with us these next few months.

Going forward we will continue selling back issue comics from our vast one million back issue inventory through mail order and eBay (seller AMGIROUX). We hope you will continue to email us with your back issue want lists at Alan@AllAboutComics.com.

In the meantime we are offering big discounts on existing merchandise now through April.

We want all of you to know that this isn't a "going out of business" scenario, but a Celebration of Retirement! Comic books are still a valuable and viable entertainment form and we will miss it greatly, but as stated in the beginning of this missive, it's time.

After nearly 40 years of owning our business, Marsha and I need a little less "retail" responsibility…more time for traveling, and lots more time with our new grandbaby, due in June.

All About Books and Comics wouldn't have been what it has been these last many years without Phil (the Professor) Mateer and his back issue brilliance or Eddie, the do EVERYTHING best all time AABC manager. We will forever be grateful to them, our great current staff members Abdiel, Gabby, Eric and Ken and the many wonderful staffers over the years (too many to name) that helped make AABC the place it is today. They are all part of our AABC family.

Thirty-eight years ago, we never thought that comic books and pop culture would be as vast as it has become today. There will always be a comic book market, so for anyone that has always wanted to own their own comic book business, from Millennials to Generation Y'ers to Z'ers, then live your dream. Just do it.

Marsha and I have had a great life with this, but we feel it's OK…at least for these two middle-aged boomers, to ride off into the comic book sunset!