Cliff Rathburn is an American comic book artist whose versatility behind the scenes has made him one of the more quietly essential figures in contemporary Image Comics publishing. Though his precise birth details are not on record in available sources, his professional activity stretches from 2000 through the mid-2020s, encompassing work across more than three hundred issues as an artist, colorist, and inker.
The Walking Dead #53 (2008)
Rathburn is best known for his long association with Robert Kirkman's *The Walking Dead*, where his greyscale rendering work gave the series much of its distinctive muted, atmospheric texture. That sustained collaboration placed him at the center of one of the most commercially successful independent comics of the 2000s and 2010s. Beyond the zombie apocalypse, he contributed to other Kirkman properties including *Invincible* and *Brit*, demonstrating a reliable range across superhero and genre material alike.
The Walking Dead #100 (2012)
His credits also include work on Marvel's *She-Hulk* and the Image promotional title *Image+*, reflecting an ability to move between publishers and tones. Rathburn's particular strength lies in his facility with greyscale and inking — crafts that often go unheralded yet fundamentally shape a reader's emotional experience of a page. No major awards are noted in available sources, but his decades-long output and close collaboration with Kirkman represent a substantial and consistent body of work.
