TFAW.com, aka the Things from Another World e-commerce portal for all things nerdy and cool, is closing down on April 30th, it was just announced. Three physical stores – two in Oregon and one at Universal City Walk in Burbank, CA – will stay open.
TFAW (Things From Another World) began as a comics shop owned by Dark Horse owner Mike Richardson in 1980. In the ’90s it expanded to a chain of stores, including the prominent location on the popular Universal City Walk. TFAW.com launched in the early days of e-commerce, and billed itself as “the third-largest comic book retailer in the nation,” offering a wide range of comics, toys and collectibles.
Hey, TFAW customers! We’re sad to announce that https://t.co/n9sE8fra8R will be closing on April 30, 2025. Our thanks for making us your go-to comic shop! Don’t worry—our physical stores are open and ready to serve you in person. Learn more here: https://t.co/bR9uu0lrLJ. pic.twitter.com/ah9xHL1Oe0
— Things From Another World (@TFAW) April 2, 2025
In January, TFAW announced it was ending its affiliate program, perhaps the first sign that the site was having problems. Soon after, Dark Horse also announced its digital comics platform was shutting down. The moves came amid difficulties for Dark Horse parent company the Embracer Group, which in turn led to downsizing at Dark Horse.
According to the TFAW website, they will stop taking preorders on April 9th, and that will be the last day that subs and preorders will be processed. April 21st is the last date to order in-stock items.
On April 30th, the site will go offline.
TFAW customers on Reddit reacted with shock, praising TFAW as a reliable place to not only buy comics but to preorder them – something that is lacking from many other sources.
Whether it was the problems with Embracer that did in TFAW.com, or whether the Diamond bankruptcy was the last straw, readers are losing a reliable online source of comics, publishers are losing a big store, and it’s another sign of change and upheaval. And as a journalist, I’m also very sad beyond the obvious: the TFAW site was a great source for images and information, and with Diamond’s website also in limbo, god only knows where we’ll be getting our covers from here on.
“Whether it was the problems with Embracer that did in TFAW.com” <– it was not. More than that I won’t say.
This is a “good” thing, TFAW was a disreputable company, hopefully they will close down for good.