I used to live in Tulsa, and I thought I knew the comic book stores.
Apparently, I was a fool.
Somehow I completely missed The Comic Empire, a small, comic-first shop on South Mingo Road that has been around long enough to make my oversight feel personal. The Better Business Bureau lists Comic Empire of Tulsa as starting January 1, 1976, which puts it at 50 years old in 2026.
That is not just old by Oklahoma comic-shop standards. A comic book store opening in 1976 puts it near the early days of the modern comic shop as we understand it now.
I’m not going to declare it the oldest comic shop in America, because those claims get messy fast. But multiple Tulsa collectors and comic sources point to The Comic Empire as Tulsa’s oldest, and some have described it as possibly Oklahoma’s oldest comic shop.
Either way, 1976 is the number that stuck with me.
That means this shop has been selling comics through Star Wars, the 1990s comic boom and crash, the rise of superhero movies, the death of malls, online shopping, and every other strange turn the industry has taken. Meanwhile, I was apparently driving around Tulsa thinking I knew things.
What a Comic Shop Looks Like in My Head
The Comic Empire is not enormous. That’s part of what I liked about it.
The place feels packed in the best comic-shop way. New comics. Old comics. Back issue boxes. Graphic novels. Magazines. Supplies. The kind of inventory where every available inch seems to have another book tucked into it.
It is not trying to be a giant pop-culture store with a little bit of everything. It is a comic book store.
That distinction matters more than it used to.
There are plenty of places now where comics share space with toys, figures, games, shirts, collectibles and whatever character is currently on a lunchbox. Nothing wrong with that. But The Comic Empire felt more direct than that. The focus is the books, especially the back issues, and the fun is in the digging.
I like a store that makes you slow down and look. Not everything has to be clean white shelves and perfect retail spacing. Sometimes the better version is a tight aisle, a long box, and the feeling that the thing you came in for might be hiding three rows deeper than expected.
The Counter Talk Is Part of the Point
The guys working inside were friendly right away, and almost immediately I started thinking about *Comic Book Men*.
That show is my favorite, and *Tell ’Em Steve-Dave!* is basically the only podcast I consistently listen to. So, fair warning, I have a very specific idea of what a comic shop is supposed to feel like.
It should not feel like walking into Walmart, silently grabbing something, and leaving.
You should be able to stand around and talk comics. You should be able to ask about some odd issue from 25 years ago. Somebody behind the counter should probably have an opinion about Batman they are willing to defend longer than necessary.
Comic Empire had that feeling.
That is the thing I kept coming back to after I left. It felt like a Wednesday comic shop.
New Comic Book Day. Pull lists. Regulars. Somebody stopping in for three books and leaving 45 minutes later because the conversation wandered into whatever Marvel or DC is doing this week.
That culture is a big part of what built comic shops in the first place. Seeing a store from that earlier era still doing the thing, still packed with comics, still built around people who actually know comics, made the whole stop feel better than I expected.
The strange part is still how I missed it.
I lived in Tulsa. I like comics. I actively look for independent stores with a little dust and personality on them. Comic Empire has apparently been sitting there since Jimmy Carter was running for president, and I never walked in.
That may be one of my favorite parts of doing these Okie Almanac trips around Oklahoma. Every time I start thinking I’ve got a city mostly figured out, I run into something that proves otherwise.
The Comic Empire is not the place to go if what you really want is a giant modern merch wall with every category of fandom represented. Tulsa has other stops for that.
But if you want a small shop packed with actual comic books, a deep back issue feel, new releases, supplies, and people who can talk the language, this is the real deal.
It is the comic shop I picture when somebody says “comic book store.”
And somehow, it took me this long to find it.
Details
- Address: 3122 S Mingo Rd, Tulsa, OK 74146
- Phone: (918) 664-5808
- Hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM-6 PM, Saturday 10 AM-5 PM, Sunday 12 PM-5 PM
- Website: http://www.thecomicempire.com
