Over 50 Walking Dead characters collide for The Art of cover

The Art of AMC's The Walking Dead Universe
(Image credit: Brian Rood (Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment))

Behind-the-scenes artwork from all three of AMC's The Walking Dead shows will be spotlighted in an upcoming coffee-table book called The Art of AMC's The Walking Dead Universe - and now we have a first look at the cover to this 240-page tome.

Artist Brian Rood has drawn a widescreen image with over 50 characters from The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, and The Walking Dead: World Beyond. 

"We're thrilled to reveal this monumental painting by Brian Rood, combining all three of The Walking Dead Universe series like never before," says AMC Networks' head of publishing Mike Zagari. "The image perfectly encapsulates the epic scope of the ever-expanding TWD Universe, and we look forward to sharing more with fans as we approach the book's launch this fall."

Here's the full wraparound cover to The Art of AMC's The Walking Dead Universe:

(Image credit: Brian Rood (Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment))

Rood is best known for his photo-realistic commercial artwork for major franchises such as Star Wars and Transformers, and actually broke into the industry wanting to be a comic book artist.

Written by Matthew K. Manning, The Art of AMC's The Walking Dead Universe compiles pre-production and production artwork from all three of the TV shows. Some of it has been seen before, but Skybound Entertainment assures us that there's many never-before-seen original sketches, storyboards, concept art, and more to be revealed here.

But if you want to look at the real artwork that inspired the whole thing, Image Comics is currently re-serializing the original comic books as The Walking Dead Deluxe - re-presenting the work of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard now in full color thanks to Dave McCaig.

And if you're looking for more The Walking Dead, celebrated writer/artist Tillie Walden is bringing the comic book franchise out of hiatus for an all-new series titled The Walking Dead: Clementine, following the character from the hit Telltale Games' series.

On the TV front, the main The Walking Dead returns for its eleventh season on August 22, followed by new seasons of both Fear The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: The World Beyond.

The Art of AMC's The Walking Dead Universe goes on sale on September 29 in comic book shops, and then available everywhere else beginning October 5.

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Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)