The Walking Dead Deluxe # 1 2020 NM

The Walking Dead #1 (October 2003) is the landmark first issue of the legendary survival horror comic book series published by Image Comics. Written by Robert Kirkman with stark black-and-white artwork by Tony Moore, this debut issue kicks off the "Days Gone Bye" story arc and establishes the grim, character-driven blueprint that eventually launched a massive, multi-media global franchise.

Plot Overview: "Days Gone Bye"

The comic foregoes any explanation of the zombie virus outbreak, plunging the reader directly into the personal struggle of its protagonist:

• The Shootout: The story opens in a rural town in Kentucky where small-town sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes and his partner, Shane Walsh, get into a violent shootout with an escaped convict. Rick is critically shot and falls into a deep coma.
• The Awakening: Rick awakens a month later inside an eerie, completely abandoned Harrison Memorial Hospital. As he searches the dark corridors for help, he discovers a terrifying reality: the building is crawling with reanimated, flesh-eating corpses that attack him on sight.
• The Empty Home: Barely escaping with his life, Rick makes it back to his suburban house. He finds it completely ransacked and abandoned, with no sign of his wife, Lori, or his young son, Carl.
• The Survivors: While panicking on his front lawn, Rick is struck in the back of the head with a shovel by a young boy named Duane Jones, who mistakes him for a zombie. Duane's father, Morgan Jones, takes Rick in and explains the brutal truth about the zombie plague, how the dead rise to consume the living, and how society completely collapsed overnight.
• The Mission to Atlanta: Morgan notes that the government initially urged citizens to head to large military evacuation zones, specifically pointing toward Atlanta, Georgia. After raiding his old police station to secure a squad car and a stash of guns, Rick leaves a portion of supplies with Morgan and Duane before driving off alone toward Atlanta to hunt down his family.