Lone Star Comics

Last updated
Lone Star Comics
Company typeComics retailer
Industry Retail
Founded1961 (as a mail order company)
1977 (as a brick-and-mortar store)
Founder Jake "Buddy" Saunders
Defunct2013 (continues as online retailer)
Headquarters Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Texas, U.S.A.
Products Comics, collectibles
Website mycomicshop.com

Lone Star Comics was a chain of comic book stores located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in north central Texas. The chain's offerings included comic books, action figures, gaming supplies, videos, and many other pop culture items. [1]

Contents

Originally established as a quaint mail order company in 1961 [2] by area fanzine publisher and entrepreneur Jake "Buddy" Saunders, Lone Star opened its first brick-and-mortar store in 1977, eventually operating a chain of nine retail outlets in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. While still maintaining business locally, the company returned to its mail order roots in the early 2000s, this time as an online subscription and back-issue service. With the contraction of the overall economy beginning in 2008, the store sold off their various locations, closing the final one in the fall of 2013. The online store is called mycomicshop.com.

History

Saunders opened the first store in Arlington in 1977. [2]

Lone Star was involved in the 1988 founding of the Harvey Awards, the first industry award voted on entirely by comics professionals. Lone Star employees tabulated the ballots for the first Harvey Awards, [3] presented at the Chicago Comicon in July 1988.

Saunders closed the Irving location in 2008, the South Arlington location in 2011, and the Dallas store in October 2012.

In July 2013, Lone Star Comics sold off three of their five remaining stores, in Mesquite, Hurst, and Plano. [2] [4] In September 2013 Lone Star Comics sold off their remaining brick-and-mortar stores (the original Arlington location and the store in Fort Worth) to become solely an e-commerce business website. [5] [6]

Former store locations

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Market (Texas)</span> American gourmet grocery store chain in Texas

Central Market is an American gourmet grocery store chain owned by H-E-B Grocery Company based in San Antonio, Texas. Most locations also have a full-service kitchen, offer cooking and wine classes in their culinary school, and offer catering services. The chain has ten locations, all in Texas. Central Market was named "Outstanding Specialty Food Retailer" by Specialty Food Magazine and the National Association for Specialty Food Trade.

Foley's was a regional chain of department stores owned by Federated Department Stores, later owned by May Department Stores (1988–2005) and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's South divisions. Foley's operated stores in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. On September 9, 2006 Foley's and all the regional May Co. stores names were phased out and rebranded as Macy's.

Carson Pirie Scott & Co. is an American department store that was founded in 1854, which grew to over 50 locations, primarily in the Midwestern United States. It was sold to the holding company of Bon-Ton in 2006, but still operated under the Carson name. The entire Bon-Ton collection of stores, including Carson's, went into bankruptcy and closed in 2018. Bon-Ton's intellectual property was quickly sold while in bankruptcy, and the new owners reopened shortly afterwards as a BrandX virtual retailer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Thumb (grocery store)</span> American supermarket chain in Texas owned by Albertsons Companies, Inc

Tom Thumb is a chain of supermarkets in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It operates under the name Tom Thumb for traditional grocery stores and Flagship Tom Thumb for higher end stores in affluent areas. It makes up part of the Southern division of Albertsons. When combined with sister chains Albertsons and Market Street, it is the number two supermarket group in the competitive Dallas/Fort Worth area behind Walmart. The chain's distribution center is in Roanoke, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitsuwa Marketplace</span> American chain of Japanese supermarkets

Mitsuwa Marketplace is a Japanese supermarket chain in America, with locations in California, Illinois, Texas, Hawaii, and New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North East Mall</span> Shopping mall in Texas

North East Mall is an American super-regional shopping mall located in Hurst, Texas, United States, a suburb in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. It is located below highways SH 121, SH 183, and is east of Interstate Highway 820 S. It features two units, the main mall and the outside being the Shops at North East Mall both encompassing a total of 2,134,000 square feet and featuring 135 stores. The mall features Macy's, Dillard's, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Penney's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BI-LO (United States)</span> American supermarket chain owned by Southeastern Grocers

BI-LO was an American supermarket chain owned by Southeastern Grocers, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. At the time of the banner’s elimination, supermarkets under the BI-LO brand were operated in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randalls</span> American supermarket chain in Texas owned by Albertsons Companies, Inc

Randalls is an American supermarket chain which operates 32 supermarkets in Texas under the Randalls and Flagship Randalls banners. The chain consists of 13 stores located around the Houston area and 15 stores located around the Austin area as of May 2020. Randalls today forms the nucleus of the current Houston division of Albertsons and is headquartered in the Westchase district of Houston. The office served as the headquarters of the independent Randalls company before its takeover and later the Texas division of Safeway. The Randalls distribution center was near Cypress, Texas, and now is serviced by the Tom Thumb distribution in Roanoke, Texas, in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiesta Mart</span> Latino-American supermarket chain based in Houston, Texas and established in 1972

Fiesta Mart, L.L.C., formerly Fiesta Mart Inc., is a Latino-American supermarket chain based in Houston, Texas that was established in 1972. Fiesta Mart stores are located in Texas. The chain uses a cartoon parrot as a mascot. As of 2004 it operated 34 supermarkets in Greater Houston, 16 supermarkets in other locations in Texas, and 17 Beverage Mart liquor store locations. During the same year it had 7.5% of the grocery market share in Greater Houston. Many of its stores were located in Hispanic neighborhoods and other minority neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Fenix (restaurant)</span> Chain of restaurants in Texas

El Fenix is a popular chain of Mexican restaurants in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, (Texas) and the oldest chain of Mexican restaurants in the U.S. The name is Spanish for "the phoenix", the legendary bird which, according to mythology, arose from its own ashes. The chain has its headquarters in Dallas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonebriar Centre</span> Shopping mall in Frisco, Texas

Stonebriar Centre, commonly referred to as Stonebriar Mall, is a super-regional mall located at the intersection of Preston Road and the Sam Rayburn Tollway in Frisco, Texas. The mall features Macy's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, JCPenney, and Dick's Sporting Goods, as well as a 24-screen AMC movie theater and a food court with a carousel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jake Saunders (writer)</span> American comics writer and retailer

Jake "Buddy" Saunders is an American author and businessman, working in the fields of comic books and science fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Vista (Lewisville, Texas)</span> Shopping mall in Texas, United States

The Vista, formerly Music City Mall, and originally Vista Ridge Mall, is a shopping mall in Lewisville, Texas, United States, owned and managed by 1000 South Vermont LLC. Opened in 1989, it is located on the southwest corner of Round Grove Road and the portion of Interstate 35E known as Stemmons Freeway. As of September 2024, the mall contains 59 businesses. The current anchors are Dillard's Clearance, Cinemark, and Zion Market. The mall contains two vacant anchors, a former JCPenney and a former Macy's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collin Creek Mall</span> Former shopping mall in Plano, Texas

Collin Creek Mall was a regional shopping mall in Plano, Texas. The two-level, 1.1-million-square-foot (100,000 m2) structure was built in 1981 and was located on the western side of North Central Expressway (US 75) near President George Bush Turnpike. The mall's name was a combination of Collin County and Spring Creek, the latter of which it was built on top of.

Six Flags Mall was a shopping mall that opened in August 1970 in Arlington, Texas. Arlington's first enclosed shopping center, it was named after the nearby Six Flags Over Texas theme park. When it opened, it was the largest shopping center in Tarrant County and the area's first regional shopping facility. A new owner acquired roughly one-third of the mall in December 2012 and announced plans to redevelop it as a Hispanic-oriented shopping mall called "Plaza Central" and, after resolving legal issues, reopened in October 2014, but closed again in February 2016. Demolition began in summer of 2016, but was slowed by a lawsuit filed by Cinemark. Two separate two-alarm fires occurred on February 6 and March 2 during demolition. The site was rebuilt as industrial space to accommodate suppliers to the GM auto assembly plant.

Town East Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas, United States. The mall features Macy's, Dillard's, JCPenney, and Dick's Sporting Goods.

RLS Supermarkets LLC, doing business as Minyard Food Stores, was a privately owned supermarket chain in Texas.

The Dallas Fantasy Fair was an annual multi-genre fan convention held between 1982 and 1995 in Dallas, Texas. From 1989 until the show's demise in 1996, it was the home of the Harvey Award ceremonies. During its heyday, the show was one of the largest comics conventions in the country, third in attendance behind the San Diego Comic-Con and the Chicago Comicon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Mexican Americans in Dallas–Fort Worth</span>

There is a rapidly growing Mexican-American population in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Dallas–Fort Worth is the most populous metropolitan area of Texas, and the Southern United States. Having 7,637,387 residents at the 2020 U.S. census, the metropolitan statistical area has experienced positive growth trends since the former Dallas and Fort Worth metropolitan areas conurbated into the Metroplex. By the 2022 census estimates, its population grew to 7,943,685.

References

  1. Chuang, Tamara (May 31, 1998). "Zoom – Arlington Comic Store Chain Takes Off; It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Lone Star Comics!". The Dallas Morning News .
  2. 1 2 3 Melrose, Kevin. "Lone Star Comics owners sell three locations," Comic Book Resources (July 12, 2013).
  3. C. M. "Behind the Harveys," The Comics Journal #122 (June 1988), p. 19.
  4. MacDonald, Heidi (July 15, 2013). "Buddy Saunders turns over three stores to new owners". The Beat.
  5. Koller, Dan (September 17, 2013). "R.I.P., Lone Star Comics". D Magazine . Dallas, TX . Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  6. Melrose, Kevin (September 10, 2013). "Lone Star Comics owners sell remaining brick and mortar stores". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved December 23, 2013.