Women’s comic book retailer group The Valkyries will disband, the administrative team announced in a statement on Twitter.

"The mission statement of The Valkyries since its foundation almost six years ago has always been to support women in comic book retail.  When an organization stops supporting marginalized women, it is failing at supporting women.  Because this has become the case for The Valkyries, it is time for the group to be disbanded," the statement said.

The Valkyries was founded in 2013 by Kate Leth as an online support group for female comic store owners and employees.  It was instrumental in turning titles like BOOM! Studios’ Lumberjanes into major hits (see “'Lumberjanes' Harnesses Tumblr, Hand-Selling Power”).

The series of events that led to the shutdown began with an essay published by former member Jazmine Joyner in email newsletter The MNT in December, and then posted on the publication’s website last week.   Joyner had called the group to task for a lack of support for women of color in comics.  The Valkyries administrative team responded with a Tweet announcing a meeting to consider the issue, and then announced the shutdown today.