The Walking Dead - Here’s Negan Preview Sketch Edition 1 1

[StephenWA]

Introduction

In April 2017, Image Comics celebrated its 25th Anniversary. To commemorate its birthday, a limited edition of 1992 Blind Boxes were produced containing a randomly selected collection of 25 polybagged Image comics. The comics included in these boxes comprised six different, limited edition, cover variants of the 17 new-for-2017 series - 102 in total. The 103rd (and final) variant was the Here's Negan Preview Edition, which was limited to just 500 copies.  Of these 500, just 25 had an additional hand-sketched over-cover (which sometimes spills over to the back cover - see photographs) by Charlie Adlard. This is the rarest of all The Walking Dead comics.

As of 6 August 2024, just eleven (11) of these had been graded by CGC - 10 copies @9.8 and 1 @8.5 (8 Qualified, 1 SS, and 2 Restored). There are no Universal or Signature series because none of the sketches were verified as required by CGC. There are also some blank covers which appear to have "escaped" into circulation. CGC will NOT grade these.

This thread contains photographs and details of the known covers from this rare and tiny family. So far (as at 6 August 2024), we have located a total of 12/25 (plus a blank one):

• Character Rick Grimes (raw)
• Character Michonne (raw)
• Character Andrea: CGC #1238584001 (also pictured raw)
• Nine different zombies: the five CGC graded ones we have found are #1238584001, 1246666011, 1297002001, 1586358001 (signed by RK and with a Cliff Rathburn sketch on back cover) and 2105850016
• A blank cover (raw)

Please feel free to add any additional ones. Together, can we capture the full 25?

 

More about the comic:

The comic contains parts 1-8 of the Negan 'back story' from the Image + series of 16 comics. Parts 9-16 have never been released as a comic. The Here's Negan story is a stand-alone volume related to Image Comics' The Walking Dead, featuring the backstory of Negan. The story was initially separated and released into chapters consisting of four pages each, published monthly from 27/4/2016 within the Image + series. The completed version was planned to contain a total of 48 pages to play out over the course of a year. On 7/12/2016, in the Letter Hacks of TWD issue 161, it was announced that Here's Negan would be extended to a total of 16 issues. A hardcover version containing all sixteen chapters was released (in several variant covers) on 4/10/2017 to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the comic series 

Story summary (for the 8 parts in this comic): 

Chapter 1 
Negan is in his garage where he beats a young boy at a game of ping-pong. Gloating over his victory, he challenges the boy's friends as they stand in shock. The defeated teen quickly runs away, humiliated as the others chase after him, apologizing for him being 'kind of a '. Negan sits back into his recliner expecting consequences when his wife walks in. 

The woman approaches Negan and berates him for cussing out the teens; their parents having just called her. She explains that he is seen as a role model and needs to act better or else he'll be fired from the school where he works as a coach. 

Negan explains he only cussed out one of them and that he was just kidding, he elaborates that he's just trying to be the cool teacher and that they won't respect him if he acts like he has a 'stick up his butt'. He points out that she should hear some of the stuff that they say. The woman tries to rebuttal this, but suddenly collapses to the pavement, Negan rushes to her side. 

Chapter 2 
Negan hugs his wife on the floor and makes sure she is okay. A man walks up and Negan yells at him to call 9-1-1. Later at a hospital, a doctor arrives to deliver horrible news, to Negan and his wife. Later, while in the bed with another woman, Negan becomes distraught. When his lover asks what's wrong, Negan reveals his wife has been diagnosed with cancer. 

Chapter 3 
After being told by Negan that his wife has cancer, Negan's mistress quickly becomes angry at him, understanding that Negan told her this to make her feel guilty, and ends the relationship. Later, Negan reveals to his wife that he ended his extra marital affair. Negan's wife quickly becomes angry and while Negan explains that he ended his affair because he only loves her, she expresses distress over the fact Negan chose to stay with her, "the sick one", over a perfectly healthy woman. Time passes, and the wife's state quickly worsens. Negan is then seen at a hospital bed, his wife now (presumably) living with the help of machines. As Negan is confessing his love and regrets to his wife, an alarmed nurse comes in and exclaims that the hospital has been evacuated, the area isn't safe and he must come with him. After refusing to leave with the nurse, because his wife cannot leave in her condition, Negan is told to save himself. He then looks at the window and is dumbfounded to see the chaos below him, as a car burns and a doctor flees from the dead. The apocalypse has started. 

Chapter 4 
Negan continues to watch the outbreak unfold from the window of the hospital, and realizes that there's something wrong with the "people" on the street. He hears a sound and turns to the door to see a young man running past, and is instructed to run as well. He quickly shuts the door and blocks it with a cabinet. Negan then tells his unconscious wife that it's better that she's sleeping through the strange events unfolding and that everything should be normal once she wakes up, right before breaking down. He then hears a loud sound coming from the streets, prompting him to look down the window once more, only to see the situation has gravely worsened, with a larger number of walkers destroying a car, and bodies scattered all around. He then hears a sound behind of him, made by none other than his wife, who had died, and is now turned. She falls from her bed, and Negan then calls her by her name: Lucille. 

Chapter 5 
Negan rushes up to Lucille to check on her till she looks up. Her eyes are glazed over, her nose broken from the fall. She reaches out and growls at him causing him to fall back in shock. After a moment of disbelief, he tries to talk her back but to no avail. Teary eyed- he plants a kiss on her forehead as her weak body lays flat on the floor. He walks away and leaves the room to find a survivor fending off an attack by two walkers. The survivor calls out for help as Negan watches. 

Chapter 6 
The walkers grab the boy as Negan rushes in to help. He fends off the two infected with a fire extinguisher and is horrified at having to kill them. The boy thanks a shocked Negan for saving his life and offers him help. Negan asks the boy if he could put down Lucille for him and the boy agrees. After putting Lucille down, the boy returns and the two begin to leave the hospital. 

Chapter 7 
Negan and the boy leave the hospital, and the boy says he needs to get home. Negan stops the boy and, argues that his house is probably too far to go on foot and offers him a ride home. As they make their way to the parking lot, they begin to bond, with the boy being quick to notice Negan's rude behavior. Negan says that he "traded in nice for funny a long time ago". He then goes on to explain to the boy that life is just a constant hunt for sex right before he stops himself. He asks the boy his age and says that his thirteen. The boy then asks if Negan's fine, because of his wife dying minutes before, and his weird behavior in light of that event. Negan reluctantly says he is. Arriving in the parking lot, Negan starts giving life advice to the kid, saying that is best for him if he waits to lose virginity using Moby as an analogy. The analogy makes the boy smile, and he talks about a girl he likes and how he thinks that if he could protect her from the events unfolding, she'll like him. The conversation is cut short by a walker that emerges suddenly and kills the boy. Negan watches angrily. 

Chapter 8 
After the boy's death, Negan drives home. He is seen boarding up windows, and alone on the road afterwards. Time passes and a bearded Negan is seen stealing gas from a group of men. After clumsily threatening to beat them down, Negan offers to join them and use a car that he found with the keys still in it but with no gas. Negan notices a baseball bat that belongs to one of the men and remarks that it is nice. Afterwards, Negan and the men walk away from the car, having discovered that lack of gas wasn't the car's only problem, and Negan defends himself, saying that he knows " all" about cars, and he comitted an honest mistake. Time passes and Negan is seen getting along with the group he found, bragging about walker kills and discovering places with beds for them to sleep. However, Negan lies about his past, and says that he didn't lose anyone. At a fireplace, Negan is crudely talking about how he doesn't need overcompensation, believing his to be the mightiest. He is completely clueless about the herd of walkers closing in on him and his group. 
 

Edited August 6 by StephenWA
Updated content

[Sensei Ryan]

[MrWalkingDead]

PLEASE- let me crack that book open and color it-  (theres plenty more- heehee)

[rogue14]

Very nice. Definitely need one too. If I ever meet Adlard, maybe I can get a sketch done.

[Beardeddeadpool]

I pulled one of these with a zombie sketch on the front. Want to ship it for grading but need to figure out the value for insurance purposes. Any idea how much there valued at ? 

[Sensei Ryan]

On 2/16/2020 at 6:53 PM, Beardeddeadpool said:

I pulled one of these with a zombie sketch on the front. Want to ship it for grading but need to figure out the value for insurance purposes. Any idea how much there valued at ? 

I would value it up to 2K (1K at lowest). You would have to submit this under the Standard tier if I recall correctly, though, because under Modern Tier you can only get coverage for $200 max per book submitted. It’s a little more expensive but if you like peace of mind it’s worth the extra cost, in my opinion. 

[Beardeddeadpool]

Thanks, might have to get around todo it soon, Then sell it and purchase a copy of issue one graded.

[StephenWA]

On 2/16/2020 at 11:53 PM, Beardeddeadpool said:

I pulled one of these with a zombie sketch on the front. Want to ship it for grading but need to figure out the value for insurance purposes. Any idea how much there valued at ? 

Hey Beardeddeadpool, 

Please can you send or add a photo for of it this collection? We're aiming to find all 25!

Best wishes

Stephen

[Beardeddeadpool]

[Curly253]

I have one. It is of michonne. 

[Sensei Ryan]

21 hours ago, Curly253 said:

I have one. It is of michonne. 

That Michonne sketch is awesome! Congrats!!!

[StephenWA]

On 3/12/2020 at 5:23 AM, Curly253 said:

I have one. It is of michonne. 

That Michonne is amazing - thank you for posting it.

[BladeTX]

On 2/6/2020 at 5:25 AM, StephenWA said:

Introduction

In April 2017, Image Comics celebrated its 25th Anniversary. To commemorate this birthday, it produced a limited edition of 1992 Blind Boxes containing a randomly selected collection of 25 polybagged Image comics. The comics potentially included in the boxes comprised six different, limited edition, cover variants of the 17 new-for-2017 series - 102 in total. The 103rd (and final) variant was the Here's Negan Preview Edition, which was limited to just 500 copies.  Of these 500, just 25 had an additional hand-sketched over-cover by Charlie Adlard. This is the very rarest of all The Walking Dead comics.

As of 6/2/2020 [dd/mm/yyyy], just seven (7) of these had been graded by CGC - all at 9.8 (5 Qualified and 2 Restored). There are no Universal or Signature series because none of the sketches were verified as required by CGC. There are also some blank covers which appear to have "escaped" into circulation. 

This thread will accumulate photographs of the known covers from this rare and tiny family. So far (as at 18/3/2020), we have located a total of 10/25 (plus a blank one):

• Comic character Rick Grimes (raw)
• Comic character Michonne (raw)
• Comic character Andrea (raw)
• Five different zombies; sixth one added to thread on 6/2/2020, seventh one added to thread 23/2/2020. The CGC graded ones we have found are #1238584001, 1246666011 and 1586358001
• A blank cover (raw)

Please feel free to add any additional ones. Together, can we capture the full 25?

 

More about the comic:

The comic contains parts 1-8 of the Negan 'back story' from the Image + series of 16 comics. Parts 9-16 have never been released as a comic. The Here's Negan story is a stand-alone volume related to Image Comics' The Walking Dead, featuring the backstory of Negan. The story was initially separated and released into chapters consisting of four pages each, published monthly from 27/4/2016 within the Image + series. The completed version was planned to contain a total of 48 pages to play out over the course of a year. On 7/12/2016, in the Letter Hacks of TWD issue 161, it was announced that Here's Negan would be extended to a total of 16 issues. A hardcover version containing all sixteen chapters was released (in several variant covers) on 4/10/2017 to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the comic series 

Story summary (for the 8 parts in this comic): 

Chapter 1 
Negan is in his garage where he beats a young boy at a game of ping-pong. Gloating over his victory, he challenges the boy's friends as they stand in shock. The defeated teen quickly runs away, humiliated as the others chase after him, apologizing for him being 'kind of a '. Negan sits back into his recliner expecting consequences when his wife walks in. 

The woman approaches Negan and berates him for cussing out the teens; their parents having just called her. She explains that he is seen as a role model and needs to act better or else he'll be fired from the school where he works as a coach. 

Negan explains he only cussed out one of them and that he was just kidding, he elaborates that he's just trying to be the cool teacher and that they won't respect him if he acts like he has a 'stick up his butt'. He points out that she should hear some of the stuff that they say. The woman tries to rebuttal this, but suddenly collapses to the pavement, Negan rushes to her side. 

Chapter 2 
Negan hugs his wife on the floor and makes sure she is okay. A man walks up and Negan yells at him to call 9-1-1. Later at a hospital, a doctor arrives to deliver horrible news, to Negan and his wife. Later, while in the bed with another woman, Negan becomes distraught. When his lover asks what's wrong, Negan reveals his wife has been diagnosed with cancer. 

Chapter 3 
After being told by Negan that his wife has cancer, Negan's mistress quickly becomes angry at him, understanding that Negan told her this to make her feel guilty, and ends the relationship. Later, Negan reveals to his wife that he ended his extra marital affair. Negan's wife quickly becomes angry and while Negan explains that he ended his affair because he only loves her, she expresses distress over the fact Negan chose to stay with her, "the sick one", over a perfectly healthy woman. Time passes, and the wife's state quickly worsens. Negan is then seen at a hospital bed, his wife now (presumably) living with the help of machines. As Negan is confessing his love and regrets to his wife, an alarmed nurse comes in and exclaims that the hospital has been evacuated, the area isn't safe and he must come with him. After refusing to leave with the nurse, because his wife cannot leave in her condition, Negan is told to save himself. He then looks at the window and is dumbfounded to see the chaos below him, as a car burns and a doctor flees from the dead. The apocalypse has started. 

Chapter 4 
Negan continues to watch the outbreak unfold from the window of the hospital, and realizes that there's something wrong with the "people" on the street. He hears a sound and turns to the door to see a young man running past, and is instructed to run as well. He quickly shuts the door and blocks it with a cabinet. Negan then tells his unconscious wife that it's better that she's sleeping through the strange events unfolding and that everything should be normal once she wakes up, right before breaking down. He then hears a loud sound coming from the streets, prompting him to look down the window once more, only to see the situation has gravely worsened, with a larger number of walkers destroying a car, and bodies scattered all around. He then hears a sound behind of him, made by none other than his wife, who had died, and is now turned. She falls from her bed, and Negan then calls her by her name: Lucille. 

Chapter 5 
Negan rushes up to Lucille to check on her till she looks up. Her eyes are glazed over, her nose broken from the fall. She reaches out and growls at him causing him to fall back in shock. After a moment of disbelief, he tries to talk her back but to no avail. Teary eyed- he plants a kiss on her forehead as her weak body lays flat on the floor. He walks away and leaves the room to find a survivor fending off an attack by two walkers. The survivor calls out for help as Negan watches. 

Chapter 6 
The walkers grab the boy as Negan rushes in to help. He fends off the two infected with a fire extinguisher and is horrified at having to kill them. The boy thanks a shocked Negan for saving his life and offers him help. Negan asks the boy if he could put down Lucille for him and the boy agrees. After putting Lucille down, the boy returns and the two begin to leave the hospital. 

Chapter 7 
Negan and the boy leave the hospital, and the boy says he needs to get home. Negan stops the boy and, argues that his house is probably too far to go on foot and offers him a ride home. As they make their way to the parking lot, they begin to bond, with the boy being quick to notice Negan's rude behavior. Negan says that he "traded in nice for funny a long time ago". He then goes on to explain to the boy that life is just a constant hunt for sex right before he stops himself. He asks the boy his age and says that his thirteen. The boy then asks if Negan's fine, because of his wife dying minutes before, and his weird behavior in light of that event. Negan reluctantly says he is. Arriving in the parking lot, Negan starts giving life advice to the kid, saying that is best for him if he waits to lose virginity using Moby as an analogy. The analogy makes the boy smile, and he talks about a girl he likes and how he thinks that if he could protect her from the events unfolding, she'll like him. The conversation is cut short by a walker that emerges suddenly and kills the boy. Negan watches angrily. 

Chapter 8 
After the boy's death, Negan drives home. He is seen boarding up windows, and alone on the road afterwards. Time passes and a bearded Negan is seen stealing gas from a group of men. After clumsily threatening to beat them down, Negan offers to join them and use a car that he found with the keys still in it but with no gas. Negan notices a baseball bat that belongs to one of the men and remarks that it is nice. Afterwards, Negan and the men walk away from the car, having discovered that lack of gas wasn't the car's only problem, and Negan defends himself, saying that he knows " all" about cars, and he comitted an honest mistake. Time passes and Negan is seen getting along with the group he found, bragging about walker kills and discovering places with beds for them to sleep. However, Negan lies about his past, and says that he didn't lose anyone. At a fireplace, Negan is crudely talking about how he doesn't need overcompensation, believing his to be the mightiest. He is completely clueless about the herd of walkers closing in on him and his group. 
 

This says that there is a Rathburn sketch on the back.  Can we see a picture of that?

[StephenWA]

7 hours ago, BladeTX said:

This says that there is a Rathburn sketch on the back.  Can we see a picture of that?

It's not mine. I don't recall where I got this front from. If its owner sees this post/string, I'd be pleased to receive for posting a scan of the back.

[BladeTX]

How does this book end up Restored?  It's a pretty straight forward modern book.  Do you think someone got them with the sketch cover ripped off?  I don't see any Restored labels here.

[Juggernaut1981]

Is anyone willing to trade Their Heres Negan Sketch?  I have a #1 9.8 Blue label with White Mature Readers I would trade for it

[StephenWA]

On 3/24/2020 at 2:43 AM, BladeTX said:

This says that there is a Rathburn sketch on the back.  Can we see a picture of that?

Hey @BladeTX, I was sent a photograph of that Rathburn back cover, and have added it into the thread. It was sketched at NYCC '17, and also signed by RK (hence the Yellow/Green label). I understand it sold for $4k.

[ZombieVet]

On 7/13/2020 at 5:14 PM, BladeTX said:

How does this book end up Restored?  It's a pretty straight forward modern book.  Do you think someone got them with the sketch cover ripped off?  I don't see any Restored labels here.

I think they are actually the yellow/green label ones already pictured above, as there are no signature series ones on the census. It's kinda weird they would categories it that way but that's my guess.

[BladeTX]

On 12/16/2020 at 3:45 AM, StephenWA said:

Hey @BladeTX, I was sent a photograph of that Rathburn back cover, and have added it into the thread. It was sketched at NYCC '17, and also signed by RK (hence the Yellow/Green label). I understand it sold for $4k.

It’s a phenomenal sketch.  Truly a one-of-a-kind book.

[ZombieVet]