Wizard World, Inc. and Skybound have announced that Mythos painter and Daredevil penciler and Eisner Award winner Paolo Rivera has drawn the 12th in a yearlong series of Limited Edition Exclusive Variant Covers of The Walking Dead #1 comic, to be provided free to all full-price attendees at Wizard World Comic Con Sacramento, June 19-21.

The exclusive The Walking Dead #1 edition will be produced in extremely limited quantities and is available at registration to fans at the Sacramento Convention Center only while supplies last. VIP attendees will receive an additional black & white sketch version of the comic.

Rivera started working for Marvel Comics in 2002. Although he began his career painting in oil, he has since moved on to penciling, inking, and coloring (with some occasional sculpting). He was born and raised in Daytona Beach, Fla., and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003, where he studied under David Mazzucchelli. He broke into the comics industry thanks to writer Jim Krueger, whom he met at Megacon in Orlando, Fla. (while still in high school).

Rivera’s best-known painted work is Mythos , a series of six richly-painted origin stories written by Paul Jenkins. Originally published as one-shots, it was collected into a hardcover edition in 2008. He now limits his painted work to covers including The Twelve, The Iliad, The Amazing Spider-Man and Wolverine, among many others. More recently, he penciled six issues of Mark Waid’s Daredevil run. His father, Joe Rivera, inked the issues, for which they received two Eisners.

The Walking Dead stars attending the second annual Wizard World Comic Con Sacramento include Norman Reedus, Christian Serratos and Scott Wilson. The celebrity roster also includes Danny Trejo, Katie Cassidy, Henry Winkler, Kelly Frye, WWE Divas The Bella Twins and Eva Marie, Charlie Carver, Malcolm McDowell, Alfonso Ribeiro and many others.

In addition to Rivera, Artist Alley in Sacramento will feature Neal Adams, Humberto Ramos, Mel Rubi, Phil Ortiz, Peter Bagge, Arthur Suydam, Ethan Van Sciver and more.

The Sacramento show hours are Friday, June 19, 3-8 p.m.; Saturday, June 20, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday, June 21, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.