COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Walking Dead 1 Qualified
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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2096751001
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Owner:
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StephenWA
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
TWD #1: The Last Wine Variant (The Last Wine Edition on the grading label) was the 253rd different TWD #1 variant cover. It was produced in 2019 for The Last Wine Company (a brand of Treasury Wine Estates) located in Sonoma, California. Mine was signed by its cover artist, Chris Burnham. According to the Registry, it was the first signed version graded by CGC.
CGC census 11/2020: 47. 34 @9.8 Universal, 10@9.8SS, and this one, mine at 9.8 Qualified*
CGC census 10/2022: 77. 72 @9.8
CGC census 1/2023: 77. 72 @9.8. There are 24 SS examples. Mine remains the only 9.8 Qualified.
* = It was signed by Chris Burnham at NYCC on 2/10/2019, but as the signature was unwitnessed, it bears the CGC green label.
The Last Wine Company has been selling Walking Dead wine via their website since the start of 2018 (with wines as old as a 2015 Blood Red Blend). Buyers of the wine could also download the "Living Wine Labels" app. When the phone camera is pointed at the wine bottle label, things come to life on the screen such as Sheriff Rick Grimes and zombies breaking out of the wine bottle(!).
This cover variant first came to light at the NYCC in October 2019 where the cover (and wine label) artist Chris Burnham sold his artist's complimentary copies. He highlighted the forthcoming sale in his Twitter feed (see photograph / right). He mentions that the comic is "...INSANELY rare..." and also followed up that Tweet with another daring anyone to find any more: "I double dog dare you to find this anywhere online".
Since NYCC, only a few copies have come to secondary markets. Five copies were sold on eBay in November 2019 (selling for $438, $325, $595, $566 and $1,000 for a verified signed CBCS copy grading 9.8). Mine is this latter copy, re-graded and re-slabbed for me by CGC (and thanks to Sensei Ryan for helping with the logistics for this).
The comic seems very hard to get hold of. It was reported on one website that the comics were available in some liquor stores selling the wine, though this remains anecdotal. It does not match up with the majority of reports of people not being able to find them at stores (as well as the incredibly low numbers sold or for sale by mid-February 2020).
On the CGC Forum, Robert Kirkman's son Shawn (who works for Skybound) said "[These] were promo items for the company that we did the TWD wine with. They gave them out to shops that carried the wine.... the wine company sent the promo copies out to local wine distributors in CA, CO, GA, KY, OH, IL, LA, OK, TX, SC and WA. I believe the distributors would then send the books to their accounts that would carry the wine".
Cover price: None shown
Robert Kirkman - creator and writer
Chris Burnham - hand-signed cover
Tony Moore - interior art. (770)
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