By Zack Quaintance — This week Image/Skybound sent out a new substantial chunk of preview pages from Clementine by Tillie Walden, a new graphic novel set in the universe of The Walking Dead. This is actually Clementine Book One, making it the start of a trilogy of books about the character, who first appeared in The Walking Dead video games.

The book — which is aimed at the YA market — is slated to hit in June, launching when it does a new imprint for YA and middle grade audiences called Skybound Comet. And now the publisher has shared a whopping 10 (10!) finished interior pages from the new series. Check out the description of the book below, with the aforementioned preview pages after the jump.

To me, this is such an interesting combination of creator and property. For years, The Walking Dead comics were probably the biggest franchise in the medium that wasn’t being actively and aggressively expanded, at least not within comics. There was for the most part one book, with one creative team, telling one streamlined story. Sales were massive, but with the giant success of the franchise in other mediums (be it TV or video games), there was no need to wring money from it with more comic books. Instead, series writer/co-creator Robert Kirkman was able to be patient, and the result is now finally arriving — a Walking Dead comics expansion helmed by Walden, one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic talents working in the medium today.

Anyway! Enough of my take. These pages sort of speak for the whole deal much better than I can type a bunch of thoughts…enjoy!

Clementine by Tillie Walden Preview

For the (somehow) unfamiliar, Walden is relatively young creator who has already put out a handful of graphic novels that felt like masterpieces, from On a Sunbeam to Spinning to Are You Listening? Those books hit one-per-year from 2017 to 2019, marking and incredible breakout and a really stunning period of sustained production for the creator. Walden’s work is visually striking, ethereal and fearlessly-framed. You could maybe call it all YA-skewing, but in my opinion there’s really no limit on the sort of audience that can enjoy the work. A collection of Tillie Walden’s earliest work, Alone in Space, landed on our Best Graphic Novels of 2021.

Phew. In short, I just can’t wait for the first part of this series to arrive.

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He has written about comics for The Beat and NPR Books, among others. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.