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The Walking Dead Comics Reading Order/Timeline, a Zombie post-apocalypse universe by Robert Kirkman

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The Walking Dead Comic Book Reading Order

There is no doubt that The Walking Dead is one of the most popular comic book series, gaining widespread recognition at the start of the 2010s with the television adaptation by AMC. Now a media franchise, it includes seven live-action television series, eight web series, several video games, novels, a role-playing game, and even an indoor roller coaster haunted attraction at Thorpe Park in England. The zombie apocalypse that captured the world’s attention began in 2003 with the original comic series.

Created by Robert Kirkman (Invincibles) and Tony Moore, The Walking Dead almost didn’t see the light of day as the two men struggled to sell their pitch. Their initial proposal, titled Dead Planet, was set in the 27th century, where a mysterious mineral on a newly discovered planet turned people into zombies, intended as a weapon. After Image Comics rejected the idea, Kirkman returned with a reworked concept, this time set on Earth and centered around the Grimes family during a zombie apocalypse in the 1960s. The comic series was initially called Night of the Living Dead, after the 1968 George Romero classic film. However, Image Comics co-founder Jim Valentino pushed for a more original concept, one with no ties to another classic zombie story.

Kirkman then proposed The Walking Dead with a more traditional approach, but the pitch was again rejected for being “too normal.” To secure the green light from Image Comics, Kirkman added a twist: the zombie plague was caused by aliens, turning the story into an alien invasion tale. Although this secured approval, Kirkman never actually intended to include aliens in the comic book.

Drawing inspiration from 28 Days Later (itself a nod to The Day of the Triffids), The Walking Dead begins with Rick Grimes, a Kentucky deputy who is shot in the line of duty and awakens from a coma to find that the world as he knew it is gone. In just a few months, society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, and no cable TV. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. With his family missing, Rick travels to a military evacuation zone in Atlanta to find them and joins a small group of survivors along the way, all while trying to adapt to life in this terrifying new world…

The Walking Dead Comics Universe

The Walking Dead Comic Book Universe consists of the main series, a few one-shots, several novels, and the Telltale video games, which also inspired a comic book title. For first-time readers, we recommend starting with the original series. The rest is optional and can be explored later to avoid any spoilers—or, in the case of the video games, in parallel with the comics. With that said, this article also provides a Walking Dead Comic Book Chronological Order (see below!).

The Walking Dead, The Main Series

The Walking Dead Deluxe

Ongoing Collection. The Walking Dead: Deluxe is a re-release of the original comic, featuring new coloring by Dave McCaig. This edition also includes additional content, revealing scenes and scenarios that were left out of the original story and insights into how the story evolved (called The Walking Dead: Cutting-Room Floor).

You can purchase these issues digitally on Amazon.com or in print at your local comic book store.

The Walking Dead Compendium

A compendium is a standard-sized softcover collection, matching the dimensions of a regular comic book, that collects a large number of issues in each volume. In this case, each compendium contains approximately 48 issues.

The Walking Dead Omnibus

The Walking Dead omnibus is an oversized hardcover collection presented in a slipcase. Each omnibus collects around 24 issues, offering a deluxe edition with bonus content and special features.

The Walking Dead Hardcovers

The Walking Dead hardcover collection features an oversized trim size, larger than the paperbacks, and includes the contents of the comics, along with their original covers. In some cases, these editions also contain bonus material. Each hardcover typically collects two story arcs from the series.

The Walking Dead, The Classic Trade Paperbacks

The Walking Dead trade paperbacks collect story arcs of six issues each, featuring only the story without the original cover art from the comics. The complete comic book series have been collected in a total of 32 volumes.

The Walking Dead Specials

Short one-shot comics focusing on a specific character part of the Comic book universe. Most are telling stories from the early days of the apocalypse.

The Walking Dead novel series

The first four books in The Walking Dead novel series, written by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga, were released between 2011 and 2014 and focused on The Governor. After the conclusion of that story, Jay Bonansinga continued the series as the sole author, with Robert Kirkman’s name still affixed to the title.

The Walking Dead Short Stories

  • Alone, Together – Focused on Timothy Stinnot. Written by Robert Kirkman. Published in the anthology The Living Dead 2.
  • Just Another Day at the Office – Set after the events of Rise of the Governor. Written by Jay Bonansinga and Robert Kirkman and published in the first issue of the Official Walking Dead Magazine.
  • The Night the World Ended – Focused on James from Telltale. Written by Lauren Mee and published on Tumblr.
  • How I Protekted Clem –  From Alvin Jr. point of view from Telltale. written by Michael Kirkbride and published on Reddit.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead series

The games can be all purchased together with The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series.

  • The Walking Dead: Season One
  • The 400 Days DLC
  • The Walking Dead: Season Two
  • The Walking Dead: Michonne
  • The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
  • The Walking Dead: The Final Season

The Clementine Comic Book Series

A continuation to The Telltale Series, Clementine is the star of a comic book trilogy written by Tillie Walden. Serving as a bridge between the games and the trilogy is the one-shot comic Clementine Lives.

Other The Walking Dead Books

  • The Walking Dead Survivors’ Guide: Collected Edition – Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the cast of The Walking Dead. The Survivor’s Guide is a handy checklist of all the characters who have appeared in the series thus far, alive or dead. This series is a can’t-miss supplement to the hit comic book series that is now a hit TV series on AMC!
  • The Walking Dead 100 Project – Robert Kirkman and Skybound team up with the Hero Initiative to present 100 all-new covers envisioning the horrors of the bestselling The Walking Dead.
  • The Walking Dead: The Covers (Volume 1) – A full-color hardback collection of the first 50 covers of the series, as well as covers for the various collected editions of the series, with added sketch material and commentary by series creator/writer Robert Kirkman, and artists Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn.
  • The Walking Dead: The Covers (Volume 2) – AKA The Walking Dead Art Book 2. A French exclusive edition collecting covers 51-102 with commentaries by Charlie Adlard.
  • The Walking Dead: All Out War Artist’s Proof Edition – This special artist’s edition collects the monumental “All Out War” story arc all in one volume ― as seen through artist Charlie Adlard’s raw pencils.
  • The Walking Dead: Cutting-Room Floor – Out of Print book offering a behind-the-scenes look at Robert Kirkman’s original, hand-written plot lines and an in-depth look at how the series came together. 
  • Rick Grimes 2000 – Published as part of Skybound X #1 (like Clementine Lives), this story is set in an alternate universe and serves a sequel to the non-canon ending of Issue #75.

The Walking Dead Comics Timeline, A Chronological Reading Order

As said earlier, we don’t recommend following a chronological order for first-time readers or players. Stick to the main series and the games if you are experiencing the Walking Dead Universe for the first time, as the chronological order will feel confusing, the special comic book issues contain minor spoilers and are not great introductions for the characters.

Note: An earlier version of this article originally appeared on the site in 2020. The article has been updated with new information and collected editions!

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