By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

The Walking Dead comic spurned a popular television series. But the graphic novels still have its loyal legion of fans.

Cryptozoic will release the second edition of The Walking Dead Comic Trading Cards on June 5, featuring artist autographs, chase cards and oversized sketch cards.

This set will feature artwork not depicted in the first series that came out last summer. The 24-pack box will contain at least one sketch card. Each pack will come with five cards.

The 72-card base set will consist of memorable comic covers from the series and two different chase sets: Something to Fear (the storyline surrounding the 100th issue) and Quotable (best quotes from the series).

“In the first set, we focused very heavily on the characters of the story – each character selected had nine cards featuring interior black and white art, highlighting some of his or her most dramatic moments,” Cryptozoic brand manager Miranda Charsky wrote on the company blog. “For the second set, we really wanted to focus on the awesome full-color cover art, for which I just finalized the opaque whites for the foil parallel base set, and they look fantastic!”

Collectors will get a chance to pull sketch cards, parallels and printing plates.

Autographs will be from creator Robert Kirkman, artist Charlie Adlard, letterer Rus Wooten and editor Sean Mackiewicz.

More than 75 artists will be used in the set.

Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Sports Card Monthly. You can email her here with questions, comments or ideas. Follow her on Twitter here. Follow Beckett Media on Facebook and Twitter.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

The Walking Dead didn’t start as a hit cable television show. The origins of the show started with comics in 2003.

Writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore – who was later replaced by Charlie Adlard in the seventh issue – got together to create a story about a zombie apocalypse. The story follows survivors of the apocalypse and what they do to get through it.

Cryptozoic had a hit when it issued trading cards from the television show’s first season. The company is coming back with the second season on trading cards, which will be released in the fall.

But the celebration of The Walking Dead continues with a trading card set devoted to the comics, where it all started. The Walking Dead Comic Book Trading Cards are scheduled to be released at the end of July.

About 80 artists were employed as they took the series and created sketch cards with their own unique rendition of moments from the comics. The sketch cards are considered inserts and found just one per box for The Walking Dead Comic Book Trading Cards.

There are 90 cards in the base set with foil parallels to go with them. Chase sets include Mini-Book, featuring nine monthly comics and Killed in Action highlighting nine characters. Printing plates will also be found in the product.

There is a redemption card for the set: an oversized signed art card by creator Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard.

The Walking Dead Trading Cards Second Season won’t be out until later this year, but collectors could expect more of what they got in the first series with autographs, wardrobe cards and more sketch cards.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.