The comic will be exclusive to comic book stores and not released digitally. Kirkman said in the press release, ““I’ve been inspired by Steve Geppi and Diamond’s efforts to shine a light on how essential the Direct Market is to our beloved industry with their #backthecomeback campaign. While Charlie Adlard and I had laid the series to rest, this felt like something special we could do for the store owners who made our series a success to begin with. To that end, I’m happy to report that 100% of the revenue generated from this book will go to the stores selling it. The retailer community does backbreaking work to get comics into the hands of our loving fans, we should all be doing more in these trying times to show them how appreciated they are.”
Kirkman and Adlard ended “The Walking Dead” unexpectedly in July 2019, after 193 issues since 2003. This will add to the handful of comics in the post-apocalyptic universe published outside the main series.
“The Walking Dead: Negan Lives” hits comic book stores on July 1, and will be available with extremely rare Gold and Silver foil variant covers. The same day will also mark the release of Kirkman and Chris Samnee’s “Fire Power, Vol. 1: Prelude,” and the promotional comic originally planned for Free Comic Book Day.
