Treyarch Art Book Pre-Orders Open, Includes Exclusive Animated Zombies Calling Card

Pre-orders are live for "Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies: The Art of Treyarch," an official hardcover art book authored by James Asmus that traces Zombies mode from its origins as a hidden Easter egg in 2008 through more than fifteen years of franchise history. Every copy ships with a physical code for an exclusive animated Call of Duty Zombies Calling Card tucked inside the packaging. The official Call of Duty Shop lists the book as scheduled to ship August 2026.

The volume promises never-before-seen art alongside exclusive interviews with the Treyarch development team, covering behind-the-scenes anecdotes and detailed intel on the full game-making process. The product description pitches it as opening "the Mystery Box" on a mode that began as a secret unlock and became one of the franchise's most enduring pillars, calling it an all-inclusive collection covering all aspects of the fan-favorite mode. The book is also available through Heartleaf Books and Amazon, where it is listed under ISBN 9798886630787.

Fifteen-plus years of Zombies content is a substantial catalog. Treyarch's undead mode has accumulated multiple generations of map design, character art, environmental concepts, and lore across every major Black Ops entry, and the book positions itself as the comprehensive retrospective that covers all of it, with developer interviews promising firsthand accounts of the grassroots process behind a mode that shipped without announcement and grew into a franchise cornerstone.

The animated Calling Card is the immediate in-game incentive. The code arrives physically inside the packaging rather than through any separate digital redemption flow. The official Call of Duty Shop is explicit that pre-order items are excluded from all promotions and are not eligible for promo code discounts, meaning the listed price holds regardless of any concurrent store sales or active codes at the time of purchase.

Community sources have circulated a June 2026 release window, but the official Call of Duty Shop page is specific: the book is "scheduled to ship August 2026." Whether listings at Heartleaf Books and Amazon align with that exact date is worth monitoring for anyone placing orders internationally.

The marketing copy promises art that, as it puts it, "helped to reanimate the dead," alongside developer accounts of the process that brought Zombies to life in the first place. Zombies lore has lived largely in-game through collectibles, cryptic radio messages, and community-decoded ciphers for the better part of two decades. A formally compiled illustrated retrospective pulled directly from Treyarch is a different kind of document entirely.