Fort Worth is not Dallas. That is not an insult — it is a fact that geeks in Tarrant County know better than anyone. The scene here is smaller, more concentrated, and in some ways more tightly knit precisely because it does not sprawl across a dozen suburbs the way the DFW Metroplex does on the Dallas side. Fort Worth’s geek community gravitates toward specific pockets: the Near Southside, the Cultural District, the TCU corridor, and a handful of game and comic shops that have survived and thrived by knowing their regulars. This is your Fort Worth geek guide, built for people who actually live here and want to know what is worth their Saturday afternoon.
Fort Worth Comic and Game Shops Beyond Sci-Fi Factory
Sci-Fi Factory on Camp Bowie Boulevard is the most visible comic shop in Fort Worth, and for good reason — the selection covers back issues, new releases, statues, and a solid slice of vintage gaming hardware. But limiting yourself to one shop means missing what the rest of Tarrant County has developed. Lone Star Comics, which operates a Fort Worth location on South Hulen Street, runs one of the most comprehensive back-issue databases in North Texas and lets you search inventory online before you make the drive.
Madness Games and Comics in Grapevine sits at the eastern edge of Tarrant County and draws a crowd that mixes card players, miniature painters, and longbox diggers in equal measure. The gaming tables in the back run MTG Commander and Pokemon leagues on rotation, and the staff tracks pre-release allocations tightly enough that you can actually get your hands on sealed product without camping the store. For Warhammer specifically, the Games Workshop store on North Beach Street in Fort Worth runs official Warhammer Underworlds and Kill Team nights that feed into regional ranking events.
Dragon’s Lair Comics and Fantasy, while headquartered in Austin, maintains a robust Fort Worth presence through community crossover — players from the Fort Worth area regularly carpool to Dragon’s Lair Austin events and bring the competitive metagame knowledge back home. The point is that Fort Worth’s LGS scene is not a single destination; it is a web of overlapping stores, each with a different specialty, and knowing which one fits your hobby saves you gas and disappointment.
Anime and Gaming Community in Fort Worth
Fort Worth Anime, one of the longest-running fan clubs in Tarrant County, meets monthly at locations across the city and organizes cosplay meetups around major national conventions including A-Kon and Anime Matsuri. The group is not large by Houston or DFW-Dallas standards, but what it lacks in headcount it compensates in organization — members coordinate group hotel blocks for out-of-town cons and run skill-share sessions covering wig styling, thermoplastic armor work, and EVA foam pattern drafting.
The competitive gaming scene in Fort Worth is anchored by a Fighting Game Community (FGC) presence that shows up at local venues including Dave and Buster’s Grapevine Mills and Barcade-style venues that cycle through bracket nights. Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Guilty Gear: Strive all have active bracket communities, and players who grind ranked online frequently cross the Metroplex to compete at Dallas FGC events documented on the Texas con calendar. The Fort Worth-Dallas corridor is short enough that the two communities function almost as one extended network for competitive play.
Tabletop RPG groups in Fort Worth cluster around the Near Southside and use game shop event space when available. Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition is the dominant system, but Pathfinder 2e has carved out territory, and the Fort Worth Tabletop Society runs open game nights that welcome system-agnostic players. Finding a table is easier than it was five years ago because Discord normalized low-friction group coordination — the Fort Worth TTRPG Discord server functions as a living bulletin board for open seats.
Near Southside and Cultural District for Geeks
The Near Southside — roughly the stretch of Magnolia Avenue between South Main and College Avenue — is Fort Worth’s most creatively dense neighborhood and the closest thing the city has to a geek cultural anchor outside of a dedicated convention center. Makeready and Magnolia Motor Lounge both host themed trivia nights that lean into pop culture, genre fiction, and gaming fandoms. These events are not officially billed as geek trivia, but the question categories consistently reward people who know their Star Wars canon from their Star Trek lore.
The Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth sit in the Cultural District near West 7th, and both institutions have run programming adjacent to speculative art — the Kimbell’s exhibition history includes ancient civilizations content that maps directly onto the worldbuilding interests of fantasy and tabletop players. The Modern regularly features work by artists whose aesthetic vocabulary overlaps with science fiction concept art traditions. Neither museum is a genre venue, but geeks who skip them because they do not look like comic shops are leaving worthwhile experiences on the table.
West 7th Street itself is the nightlife spine connecting the Cultural District to the Near Southside, and the walkable stretch between the two neighborhoods hosts independent bookstores and pop-up markets that reliably carry manga, independent comics, and genre paperbacks. Half Price Books on West 7th is a genuine hunting ground for affordable graphic novel collections, and the store turnover means that patient shoppers regularly find complete manga runs at clearance prices.
Fort Worth Maker Spaces and Creative Tech Resources
Tarrant County’s maker infrastructure is less developed than Dallas’s, but DMS (Dallas Makerspace) is accessible enough from Fort Worth — the 45-minute drive on I-30 is not a barrier for weekend projects. For locals who want a Fort Worth-based option, Fort Works Art on Morton Street in the Near Southside operates as a working artist studio complex that provides shared fabrication resources including laser cutters, a woodshop, and large-format printing equipment. Cosplayers with complex prop builds use the facility for projects that exceed what a home workshop can support.
The Fort Worth Public Library system runs digital fabrication programming through its branch locations, including 3D printing workshops that require no prior experience. The Ridgmar and Southwest branches both maintain printer access during scheduled sessions, and the library system has loaned 3D printing filament and basic electronics kits as part of maker literacy programming. These are not dedicated makerspaces, but the access points are real and free for cardholders.
TCU’s engineering and design departments occasionally open maker resources to community participants through Continuing Education programming. The university’s connection to the broader Fort Worth creative community means that students working on prop fabrication, wearable tech, and game design projects sometimes collaborate with outside makers through organized workshops. The Idea Factory at TCU is the on-campus hub for this kind of interdisciplinary making, and it has hosted sessions on Arduino integration and microcontroller-based costume electronics that directly serve the cosplay community.
Day Trips: What Fort Worth Residents Gain from DFW Access
Living in Fort Worth with a car means the entire DFW geek infrastructure is within reach. The Dallas geek guide covers Galaxy Comics, Zeus Comics, and the broader Dallas convention ecosystem — all of which are under an hour from most Fort Worth zip codes on a non-peak traffic day. Texas Frightmare Weekend at the Irving Convention Center draws horror fans from across Tarrant County and positions itself squarely between the two cities in terms of logistics. Fan Expo Dallas at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is the region’s largest multi-genre convention and the event most Fort Worth geeks treat as their home con by default.
The Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas, which sits directly between Fort Worth and Dallas on the SH-183 corridor, hosts a rotating calendar of anime, gaming, and collectibles events that make it practically equidistant for both cities’ fanbases. Anime North Texas and A-Kon have both used Irving as a base, and the venue’s hotel corridor makes overnight stays viable for out-of-towners or for Fort Worth residents who want to avoid late-night drives. Proximity to DFW Airport also means that national guests and voice actor signings at Irving events draw talent that smaller dedicated Fort Worth events cannot compete for.
For Fort Worth residents, the honest framing is this: the local scene is real, it is growing, and it is worth supporting through LGS patronage, club membership, and attendance at library maker programs. But the DFW geography means you do not have to choose between supporting your local community and accessing world-class convention and gaming experiences. Both are available, and the Fort Worth geek who treats Tarrant County as a base rather than a limitation gets the best of both cities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there comic book stores in Fort Worth?
Fort Worth has several comic book stores serving different parts of the city. Sci-Fi Factory on Camp Bowie Boulevard is the most well-known, with a wide selection covering new releases, back issues, and collectibles. Lone Star Comics on South Hulen Street offers one of the largest searchable back-issue databases in North Texas, making it essential for collectors hunting specific runs.
Does Fort Worth have an anime community?
Fort Worth Anime is an active fan organization that meets monthly and coordinates group attendance at regional conventions including A-Kon and Anime Matsuri. The community is smaller than Dallas’s anime scene but organized and welcoming to new members. Cosplay skill-shares covering EVA foam fabrication, wig styling, and armor construction are a regular part of the group’s programming calendar.
What maker spaces are available in Fort Worth?
Fort Works Art in the Near Southside neighborhood is the primary working fabrication facility in Fort Worth, offering laser cutting, woodshop access, and large-format printing for artists and cosplayers. The Fort Worth Public Library system runs 3D printing workshops at multiple branches for cardholders. TCU’s Idea Factory provides maker programming through Continuing Education that is occasionally open to community participants.
Is the Fort Worth Cultural District good for geeks?
The Cultural District anchored by the Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth offers genuine value for geeks with interests in worldbuilding, speculative art, and historical artifacts that inform genre fiction and game design. The district’s proximity to West 7th Street — which has Half Price Books and pop-up markets carrying manga and indie comics — makes it a full afternoon destination for geek-adjacent exploration. It is not a genre destination in the conventional sense, but the creative density rewards the curious.
What geek events happen in Fort Worth that are not Texas Frightmare?
Fort Worth hosts tabletop gaming nights through local game shops including Madness Games and Comics in Grapevine and Games Workshop’s North Beach Street location, which runs official Warhammer league nights. The Fort Worth Tabletop Society runs open game nights welcoming players across systems. For larger events, the Irving Convention Center hosts Anime North Texas, A-Kon, and Fan Expo Dallas, all within easy driving distance for Tarrant County residents.
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