We’ve compiled The Walking Dead cover art gallery to celebrate the long-running living dead series collected in single issues, volumes, hardcovers, and compendiums. We'll continue to update this page as new covers are released for our readers to reference, peruse, and ultimately enjoy for years to come.
In The Walking Dead cover art below, you’ll see the faces of characters long dead and those new to Robert Kirkman’s zombified epic. You’ll find both gore and grace. But perhaps most of all, you’ll see how far Kirkman’s journey has taken us, from a hospital bed during the old world’s last, dying breath, to a vibrant (and violent) new world that’s just getting started.
Upcoming Issues:
Get a look at what’s to come in the cover art for new single issues of The Walking Dead, featuring artwork by Charlie Adlard, gray tones by Cliff Rathburn, inks by Stefano Gaudiano, and colors by Dave Stewart that bring to life the indelible images of beloved and notorious characters from Robert Kirkman’s living dead world. Huge thanks are also in order to Skybound Entertainment, Image Comics, and TheWalkingDead.com for continuously and consistently releasing The Walking Dead cover art and helping spread the must-read word on Robert Kirkman's living dead comic book series.
Individual Issues and Variants:
The Walking Dead begins with an awakening, not of the dead but of the living. A Kentucky sheriff’s deputy named Rick Grimes frees himself from the clutches of a coma that’s kept his eyes closed for weeks. When those eyelids pop open, his world is a shell of what he remembers. As slow as the shambling brain-munchers in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, these walkers are nonetheless tenacious, relentless, and ultimately dangerous in their pursuit to consume the flesh and innards of the world’s scattered human survivors.
From Tony Moore's iconic The Walking Dead #1 cover art featuring Rick Grimes loading his shotgun against a backdrop filled with the reflections of approaching walkers in a shattered storefront window, to Charlie Adlard's memorable depictions of situations that offered Rick Grimes and company "No Way Out", gave them "Something to Fear" and ultimately provided them with "A New Beginning", the cover art gallery below will take you on a journey through the dead, the living, and everything in between that has been featured on the covers of The Walking Dead individual issues.
Special Issues:
The Walking Dead readers have witnessed Rick Grimes' post-apocalyptic story from the beginning, but the eclectic characters he encounters along the way all have backstories that are just begging to be told. Fortunately, Robert Kirkman has lifted the veil on the early living dead days of select characters in special prequel issues of The Walking Dead. Through these special flashbacks, Robert Kirkman takes us to the past to focus on Michonne, Tyreese, and The Governor, giving us insights into how their psyches were shaped for the better or worse prior to crossing paths with Rick Grimes. Below, you'll find the fronts of these special issues as well as covers for other unique entries to the The Walking Dead printed family, including Robert Kirkman and Tim Daniel's The Walking Dead Survivors' Guide, The Walking Dead 100 Project, the artist's proof edition of The Walking Dead: All Out War, the Black Friday 10th Anniversary issue, and The Walking Dead Coloring Book. For those looking for a hard copy of the cover art you've seen above, you can get started with The Walking Dead: The Covers – Volume 1.
Softcover Volumes:
There are many ways to enjoy reading Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic book series. In addition to the immediacy and gorgeous covers of the individual issues, readers also have the longer story arcs and eye-popping visuals of the paperback volumes to dig into. Comprising 12 issues apiece, the softcover volumes of The Walking Dead don't include the original cover art from the single issues, but they do contain the same spellbinding stories wrapped within new artwork by Charlie Adlard that prominently places The Walking Dead title against a backdrop of protagonists, villains, and of course, the living dead.
Hardcover Volumes:
Also collecting Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead in volume form are the hardcover books. Haunting artwork graces the covers of these durable editions, depicting a human from the series standing out in full color while surrounded by the shadowy living dead. Rick Grimes, Andrea, Negan and Lucille, and many others have highlighted the fronts of these collectible editions. Like the softcover volumes, these hardcover books each collect twelve issues of The Walking Dead.
Omnibus Volumes:
Featuring double the amount of issues per book as the hardcover and paperback volumes, The Walking Dead omnibus volumes give readers the opportunity to collect Robert Kirkman's zombified series in beautiful deluxe hardcover editions. These are the types of books you'd find on the shelves of the library in the Clue mansion. A walker adorns each cover in a square of color that seemingly jumps off its pitch black backdrop. Elegant, eerie, and ultimately collectible, The Walking Dead omnibus volumes are pictured below.
Compendiums:
Containing 48 issues of The Walking Dead apiece, the softcover compendiums allow readers to experience the wide range of villains and conflicts from the entire series in impressively massive chunks. The Walking Dead: Compendium One takes us from Rick Grimes' hospital bed to the The Governor's assault on the prison. The hungry Hunters and deceptively "safe" confines of Alexandria are featured in compendium two, while Negan and his beloved barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat named "Lucille", along with the introduction of The Whisperers, steal the show in compendium three. The compendiums have also been released as limited hardcover versions—the Red Foil edition for compendium one and the Gold Foil edition for compendium two. Below, you can gaze upon the adventure-promising covers for all of the compendiums.
Wizard World #1 Variants:
In 2013 and 2015, Wizard World teamed up with Skybound Entertainment to offer Comic Con attendees around the country the chance to collect new variants of The Walking Dead #1. A wide range of talented artists were brought on to bring Rick, Michonne, Carl, and other characters to life in their own unique ways. These variants double as convention souvenirs and interesting entries to The Walking Dead cover art gallery collection.
Additional The Walking Dead #1 Variants:
The fine folks at Wizard World aren't the only ones to release new The Walking Dead #1 variant covers. Over the years, a number of other conventions and special events have released their own covers for the beginning of Robert Kirkman's epic comic book series, with unique offerings like The Walking Dead #1 Artist's Proof Edition also giving fans a new take on an old favorite.
Credit: The Walking Dead comic book series in all forms and The Walking Dead cover art seen above has been released by Image Comics and Skybound Entertainment.
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