Creation Story
Rick Grimes is the protagonist of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore’s creator-owned zombie-apocalypse series that ran 193 issues from October 2003 through July 2019. The book was Kirkman’s breakthrough title and became one of the best-selling creator-owned comics of the modern era. Image Comics published, with Kirkman’s Skybound imprint handling the book from 2010 forward.
The Walking Dead #1 (October 2003) opens with Rick, a Kentucky small-town police officer, waking up in a hospital bed months after the zombie apocalypse has begun. He finds his family, joins a group of survivors, and becomes the book’s center-of-gravity for 193 issues of collapse, rebuilding, and moral deterioration. Tony Moore pencilled the first six issues. Charlie Adlard took over with issue #7 (April 2004) and drew the majority of the run. The Moore-to-Adlard transition is widely discussed among collectors because the visual style shifts substantially; Moore’s black-and-white work is tighter and more horror-traditional, while Adlard’s style is harder and more illustrator-like.
The surprise death
The Walking Dead #192 (June 2019) killed Rick Grimes. Kirkman and Adlard kept the event secret from comics retailers; the issue shipped as a regular monthly with no advance indication that it would be a pivotal character death. Issue #193 (July 2019) concluded the series with a time-jump epilogue. The unexpected ending was controversial among readers who had been tracking what appeared to be multi-year plot threads that were never resolved, but Kirkman has stated the ending was planned and was timed to the book’s natural conclusion.
The AMC era
The Walking Dead on AMC, developed by Frank Darabont and later Scott Gimple, launched in October 2010 and ran eleven seasons through November 2022. Andrew Lincoln played Rick for most of the series, departing in 2018 before returning for the 2024 limited series The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The AMC show substantially diverges from the comics in plot details but preserves the core Rick-Grimes character arc; Lincoln’s performance is the version most audiences know.
The AMC adaptation reset the character’s cultural visibility at a scale the comics never reached. First-print copies of The Walking Dead #1 moved sharply in value throughout the show’s eleven-year run.
Collector context
The Walking Dead #1 is the Rick Grimes Image key and one of the most valuable modern-era non-Marvel/DC comics. High-grade CGC 9.8 copies have crossed $5,000 at auction. First-print copies with the Tony Moore cover are the primary collector target. The book’s value accelerated sharply after the 2010 AMC launch and held steadily through the show’s run.
Secondary keys: The Walking Dead #7 (Adlard takes over). The Walking Dead #100 (first Negan). The Walking Dead #193 (series finale).
