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Penguin Random House On Marvel/IDW/Dark Horse/Boom West Coast Delays

Penguin Random House on Marvel/IDW/Dark Horse/Boom West Coast delays to comic book stores

Published Fri, 14 Nov 2025 12:57:05 -0600

Article Summary

Penguin Random House confirms shipping delays for Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse, and Boom comics to West Coast stores.
Recent barcode scanning issues at a UPS terminal in Salt Lake City led to manual processing of shipments.
Penguin Random House and UPS have resolved the barcode issue and tracking is now back to normal.
Retailers and readers are asked for patience as comic shipments get back on schedule after the UPS delays.

Penguin Random House is the exclusive distributor for Marvel Comics, IDW, Dark Horse, Boom Studios, Valiant, TokyoPOP, and Dstlry to comic book stores in the USA. However, it appears that there have been some delays recently, and PRH is pointing to UPS as the source of the issue, specifically affecting comic book stores on the West Coast.

Penguin Random House Pulls Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW Out Of Diamond — Penguin Random House PRH comic book publisher logos

"Late last week, Penguin Random House became aware that UPS was having difficulty scanning PRH generated maxi-code barcodes at one of their terminals in the Salt Lake City area. Without the ability to successfully scan these barcodes, local UPS staff members were required to hand-key all shipping and tracking information in order to generate updated labels and barcodes. Unfortunately, the time required to perform these manually intensive processes caused some of our shipments to be delayed in transit. The moment this was brought to our attention, UPS and PRH teams collaborated to determine the root cause of the issue and implement a solution. Additionally, communication was sent to retail partners.

"The root cause of the issue has been identified, and all newly generated barcodes are scanning successfully. In the meantime, UPS has developed contingency plans to process any remaining cartons with non-scannable barcodes with minimal impact to transit time. Our teams are continuing to closely monitor next week's shipments and are working with UPS to ensure real-time resolutions that prevent further delays.

"If you are still seeing shipments without tracking details for your 11/12 releases, please contact Customer Service as soon as possible… We recognize the impact that delays of this nature can cause and apologize for the disruption. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding."

So, give your comic book retailer some slack if you are on the West Coast, and hopefully things will be a bit better this week.

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