Comic Universe of Darby, Pennsylvania will celebrate its 40th birthday in February – but it will be its last. Owner Frank Link, now in his seventies, is quitting.

He told the Delco Times "For so many years, you work and you put everything you have into what you're passionate about, which was the store. And I'm happy with the way it came out, with the way people seemed to enjoy the shop, and that I could provide for them what was so important to me as well."

But now he's retiring – and doesn't have anyone to hand the store over to.

The store opened in February 1979 after Link was inspired by a comic store he saw in New York a decade before, and took that vision to the suburbs, crediting Mike Ferraro, owner of Bleeding Cool-favourite Fat Jack's Comicrypt in Philadelphia with helping it all come together.

Growing into a chain saw, he had to close stores after the nineties boom and bust, and was down to one store. Which is now set to close. The store will run a closing sale from February the 20th, with a final auction on the 23rd, And the store will close when the lease runs out in May – unless something changes.

The paper reports that some longtime customers are trying to raise the money to buy Comic Universe and keep it going. Link is also open to other offers.

The store has been running some memories on Facebook…