Landmark issue was best-selling first printing in 15 years

Berkeley, CA – July 18, 2012 — Coming off a whirlwind release day the week of Comic-Con International and supported by special events at comic book stores around the country, THE WALKING DEAD #100 by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard will receive a second printing after selling out of its record-setting first printing. At 383,612 copies, the sales of THE WALKING DEAD #100 were the best initial orders for a single issue of a comic book since 1997.

A harrowing and heart-wrenching event in the lives of Rick Grimes and his band of survivors, THE WALKING DEAD #100 has been critically acclaimed for its examination of violence and mortality.

At The Comics Journal, Sean T. Collins considered the depiction of brutality: “It’s hugely graphic and gory, but more importantly it’s predicated on anguish and agony, on a character begging for their life and slowly losing it anyway, in view of other characters, including children, made to watch as punishment,” he wrote. “A ‘bad guy’ is committing the violence, but its horribleness is quite of a piece with the series’ presentation of human-on-human violence overall.”

Augie De Blieck, Jr. at Comic Book Resources wrote, “[T]his issue delivers. It is not, however, the massive rampage of blood and guts I expected it to be. Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard deliver something much smaller, but just as effective, creepy, tense and sad.”

The issue inspired Bleeding Cool‘s Adi Tantimedh to ponder the function of tragic fiction in society. “I wonder if the popularity of THE WALKING DEAD and the zombie apocalypse genre is a kind of atavistic ritual that the culture is partaking in to magickally ward off the worst that could happen, which is societal collapse into full horror,” Tantimedh wrote. “…[T]he proxy of fiction allows the audience to mentally put themselves through the horror to find catharsis and feel more secure after the experience.”

The second printing of the milestone issue will feature a new cover with art by Adlard. It is available for order now with the Diamond code JUN128066.

ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visitwww.imagecomics.com.

ABOUT ROBERT KIRKMAN
Robert Kirkman’s success and passionate advocacy for creator-owned comics led him to become the first person invited to become a partner at Image Comics since the company’s inception twenty years ago and he formed his own imprint there, Skybound, in 2010.  Kirkman is the creator/writer of the Eisner Award-winning The Walking Dead, long-running Invincible, all-ages Super Dinosaur, The Astounding Wolf-Man, and new title Thief of Thieves, among many others. Kirkman has earned the respect of the comic, writing and television communities and topped the New York Times bestseller list for graphic novels in 2011 and in April 2012, he took the top five spots on both the hardcover and paperback lists. He’s the creator/executive producer and writer of the hit television show, AMC’s The Walking Dead, the highest-rated basic cable drama of all time in the U.S, also an international success in 120 countries and 250 million households. AMC is developing Thief of Thieves as a  potential series with Kirkman serving as creator/executive producer and writer.  www.Skybound.com is your destination for all news and merchandise for Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead and all Skybound titles.