Arizona’s Atomic Comics Closes

Atomic Comics, which was featured in the movie Kick-Ass, has closed the doors of all four of its locations in Arizona.

Owner Michael Malve sited a downturn in the economy and an accident that saw one of the stores flood losing millions of dollars in sales and product, among other things.

“As some of you may have already heard, after 25 years of running a successful business, sadly and much to my dismay, I have shut the doors of Atomic Comics,” Malve stated in a newsletter. “The villain in this tragedy is the economy. I had hoped to be the superhero and triumph over the recession, but sadly the economic downturn of the past 5 years has proven to be unsustainable.”

And on the flood:

“I think the catalyst for Atomics’ downfall, as some of you may remember, occurred in October of 2006, just as the recession was beginning,  when a 16 year old uninsured driver, drover her car through the window of our Mesa Superstore, our largest and greatest revenue producer. This in turn caused a flood as the water main had been hit. This caused such severe damage and loss that we had to shut down for over 5 months. The damages were so severe we lost close to a million dollars in product. The loss of revenue due to being closed all those months as we headed into retail’s busiest season was astronomical,” wrote Malve.

Industry professional and fellow retailers have reacted to the news, some with speculation that the digital comics market was a factor.

Head on over to CBR’s Robot 6 for the full run-down.