After 126, I think we can be fairly certain this is Rick, who now has to walk with a cane due to his royally f'd up leg. I was really hoping it was the old guy from Jurassic park.

 

reck

 

It kind of looks like the handle of a bat.....possibly with barbed wire. Perhaps it's an upgraded version of Lucille. Maybe this is Dwight on the cover. I could also entertain the possibility that it's something Rick uses to support himself after he had his leg broken and he has fitted it with something deadly to allow him to off some walkers when he is in a pinch.

 

I've been thinking it could be Ezekiel's cane. But it is Rick using it. After sustaining the broken leg, and ordering Doc Carson to save Negan's life before setting his leg(which Rick was warned may yield bad results), Rick is left with permanent damage, and a terrible limp. After the dust has settled and things are starting to return to some form of "normal"; in a huge gesture of gratitude and loyalty Ezekiel with bestow his scepter upon a humbled Rick Grimes.

As for a trick in the cane, you disappoint me Z! We already know Ezekiel's cane doubles as a sword, which is his main weapon of choice. He even refers to it as such when questioned about Shiva being his weapon. Heck, it was even featured on the cover of #110! LOL--Just giving you a hard time bud, someone's got to =P

 

Man, I've been waiting so long to see them begin to design and employ the use of siege weaponry. I mean, the stuff is without a doubt proven. And would be even more effective against the mindless dead. Trebuchets, boiling pitch, pit traps, fields soaked with oil that can be lit with a flaming bolt, moats, dry moats, water moats with some sort of small water tower full of oil that could be mixed into the water through gravity-flow when needed, light it up and you have an impassable lake of fire. Wall-mounted scorpions with bolts the size of small trees, strategically placed barrels of explosives and homemade napalm(styrofoam, gasoline and salt peter), and my personal favorite, cannons. Good old fashioned, civil war-era howitzer style cannons. Like a modern day shotgun, a cannon has the widest variety of ammo available to it, nearly limitless. And with Eugene around, and the Hilltop blacksmith manufacturing ammo would be a cinch. They could make explosive rounds, incendiary rounds, frag rounds loaded with shrapnel, bolo rounds(two 20lb iron balls joined by 6 feet of 3/8 chain; guaranteed to cut a herd in half). Cannons are like giant blunderbuss's, they'll fire anything you can shove down the breech. Maybe now that they can focus on thriving instead of fighting, my wish will come true and we'll start to see some of these awesome, and effective fortifications!

 

Ide say it was Rick, his leg was pretty badly broken.

 

My thoughts as well. My money is on Rick.

 

Ok now I want to see a cannon and people that talk in "ye olde English"

 

Yeah, I'll make no excuses, I just flat out forgot that. There is a great deal about the Kingdom that I seem to have blocked off and swept under the carpet... And I totally remember Ezekiel correcting her on her form too! I will have to reread vol 18-20 again... You know, as penance.

Thanks for the reminder of that which I had long forgotten.

 

I guess we now know it's Rick, don't we?

 

The Walking Dead #129 & Manifest Destiny #8 Skybound Exclusive Connecting Variant Covers for sale at the San Diego Comic-Con. I really like this drawing of Jesus!





http://www.thewalkingdead.com/skybound-sdcc-merch-exclusives/

 

OMG I need this variant! It would be a perfect addition to my "Variant-Wall".

 

I found an image that shows how they connect. I don't read Manifest Destiny, but this is so cool! Pre-orders for the set of two are already starting at around $40 on eBay.

Who is the artist who did these? I've been Googling around but can't confirm.

 

I'm having trouble figuring out the artist as well. But since this is a SDCC exclusive, a two-series connecting cover, and Manifest Destiny is brand new; I'm going to guess the artist here is Manifest Destiny's main artist Matthew Roberts. The styles look dead-on the same, I'd imagine since this is a new comic, they're using this variant to not only promote the series, but to showcase Matthew Roberts as an artist as well.

 

Good point! I think you're right; I'm looking at preview panels on the Image website, and these covers do look very similar to the Manifest Destiny interior artwork. I like the way the artist uses lots of colour -- some images are beautiful -- but it's still a horror comic.

This is a smart marketing move. And it worked, because I'm thinking about picking up that first Manifest Destiny trade paperback...

 

Do it. It's really good. I'm a little biased myself because I've always been a huge fanatic when it comes to the real "Manifest Destiny" and westward expansion(I'm always reading old western novels and watching spaghetti westerns). But even if you're not an early-American history buff, I think you'll still enjoy it. I mean, how can you not enjoy watching Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea embarking on an epic journey into the untouched and unmapped American Frontier; and here's the awesome twist; being the first pioneers to venture west, they find themselves face to face with the otherworldly and unnatural terrors and horrors of the untamed wilds of the American West. So we follow these storied explorers as they blaze the trail westward while kicking a whole ton zombie, yeti, sasquatch, and swamp monster ass. As well as many other dangerous monsters.

It's really cool; the premise that the reason we got the Louisiana Purchase for so cheap was because all of the land west of the Mississippi River was terribly infested with evil and dangerous monsters. So, President Thomas Jefferson forms and elite unit of scouts(Lewis&Clark) and sends them to blaze the trail for America's westward expansion. Just a short amount of time into their journey the two pioneers realize that they have not been sent to explore the west, and blaze trails and map land and record new flora and fauna; they have been tasked with the sacred duty of purging the entire frontier off all things evil and dangerous. Essentially, they are embarking on America's very first "black-ops" mission.

 

This sounds really interesting, thanks. I think I will check it out.