Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, IDW, Marvel Comics | Tagged: diamond, idw, marvel, Penguin Random House

Next Week's Marvel & IDW From Penguin Random House Will Be Delayed

Published Wed, 13 Jul 2022 11:59:16 -0500

Penguin Random House is the exclusive distributor of Marvel Comics and IDW Publishing comic books to comic book stores, though they do allow sub-distribution through previous exclusive distributor Diamond Comic Distribution. PRH has just issued the following message to comic book stores that next week's titles will be delayed.

Hello Retailers,

We wanted to let you know that we experienced severe thunderstorms in the Maryland and Pennsylvania areas last night that downed trees and took out power in many areas. Unfortunately that includes our Hampstead facility, which lost power yesterday afternoon and has not yet been restored.

As you may know, all comic shipments are processed out of our Hampstead facility. As of right now we're not able to ship out of that facility, so some comic orders—including July 20th releases—will unfortunately be delayed.

Graphic novels, manga, and book products that ship from our other facilities have not been impacted at this time.

The main street leading to the Hampstead facility is being cleared of trees and debris, and we are working as quickly as possible to have power restored so we can resume processing. We will continue to keep you updated as we get more information.

Thank you, – The US Direct Market Sales Team

Presumably, this will also affect Diamond Comic Distributors' receipt of such titles from PRH, so there won't be a benefit to using a rival distributor. Britain is already suffering a one-week delay to Marvel and IDW titles meant to be on shelves today, as Penguin Random House didn't get copies to the Diamond UK truck in time to make the flight. With more delays for next week, maybe that means British comic shops won't get a double week next week, it will just be passed on down the line. Our best of luck to those dealing with both the power outage and the comics outage.

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