The Walking Dead's Entertainment Weekly Photo Shoot

Several additional images from The Walking Dead that won't appear in your paper copy of Entertainment Weekly have appeared online via EW.com. And while not all of them are available for download or embed, these four profile shots have been making their way around the Web. They look to be variations on the four variant covers that the magazine ran earlier this week in support of the show's third season return, as they feature the same key figures: There's a heroic Rick (Andrew Lincoln), a bad-ass Michonne (Danai Gurira), a menacing Governor (David Morrissey) and...well, a shot of Merle that seems just so self-evidently B-movie that it's easy to see why it didn't make the cover of a major publication. According to the captions: ''Rick has stepped up,'' says Lincoln of his my-way-or-the-highway leader. Adds showrunner Glen Mazzara, ''Rick's leadership is what's keeping [the survivors] alive.'' That's good, because while the comic book readers have been pretty invested in Rick from the beginning, fome of my friends whose first experience with Kirkman's world is watching it on television haven't been so charitable toward or patient with his waffling and self-doubt.

Gurira hasn't let the pressure of portraying a highly anticipated fan favorite get to her. ''There is pressure, but it's not a pressure that immobilizes,'' she says.

Creator Robert Kirkman told ComicBook.com in a July interview, "We definitely held out on that character and didn't rush her into the show for a reason. I think when you see what we're going to do with her, you'll agree that she was brought into the story at just the right time." "He assumes a position of power, which is almost religious in a way," says Morrissey of The Governor, but ''I don't think he gets to the position he's in without having a ruthless nature.'' The most interesting bit there is that the article seems to imply Rick may not lose his hand, as he did in the comics. Protecting a spoiler, or making one of those little changes Kirkman talked about? And of course there's Merle, missing since the first season. ''Maybe we'll get together, maybe we won't," teases Mallrats star Rooker of his character and brother Daryl. Check 'em out. The Walking Dead returns on AMC October 14.