Titan Comics Promises to Stop Reusing Barcodes

Barcodes on comic books used to mostly be seen on newsstand editions of comic books from the seventies, but not for comic store direct market editions. Often it would be that which wiuld separate them and make one more collectable… or not.

There was great resistance to the UPC bar code creeping into comic stores, seen as ugly, ruining covers and the like. However, as comic stores became more of a business and less of a way for fans to sell their comic collections, they returned with a vengeance in the nineties. However, some publishers tried to shrink them, so as not to put off buyers. There were as many barcodes types as there were publishers, it seemed.

Eventually, in the noughties, Diamond Comic Distributors insisted on a standard format. But there have been a few glitches since. One of which is a publisher reusing barcodes from one comic to another future issue. Most standard formats go up to issue 1000 before going back round to 0001 again, something only Detective Comics and Action Comics are going to have to deal with now. But some publishers have been known to cycle through them faster, often not on purpose, accidentally reusing a previous code for a variant cover or other. Which means that stock systems can mistake one comic for another, which can cause real issues – exacerbated if they have different prices as well.

Well, at ComicsPRO, Titan Comics seemed to realise that this was an issue with them. And so made a pledge, reported by comics retailer Tim Stolzfus of Keith’s Comics in Dallas.

A thought as we head into the last day of the #ComicsPro meeting here.
A bunch of people seem to be waiting for news out of this event. This picture is piece of news that I will share (with permission!)
That’s @ComicsTitan announcing a new barcode policy, met with applause. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/QxiqTPVdGY

— Tim Stoltzfus (@TimAtMoreFun) February 23, 2019

What, you don’t find that exciting? Exactly. That’s why you don’t see a lot of “news” out of this meeting. That news is a big deal to those of us who have to manage our orders and inventory to do our best to have the right items on our shelves, but irrelevant to readers. 2/5

— Tim Stoltzfus (@TimAtMoreFun) February 23, 2019