Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden announces 184-page graphic novel — we’ve got an exclusive cover

’The Mandrake Project: Year One’ collects the first four issues of the Dickinson-created comic, that accompanies his first solo album in nearly two decades.

Mar 27, 2025 - 17:37

Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden announces 184-page graphic novel — we’ve got an exclusive cover

Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson released his first solo album in nearly two decades, The Mandrake Project, last year, and he also created an accompanying comic series for it, which was scripted by Tony Lee, with art from Staz Johnson and Piotr Kowalski. The first four issues of that series will now be collected in a new graphic novel, The Mandrake Project: Year One, due out on August 5 via Z2. We have an edition with an exclusive, limited edition cover, with art by Bill Sienkiewicz. The 9″x9″ hardcover comes with a prologue that was previously only available in the vinyl release of “The Afterglow of Ragnarok” single, and has an introduction by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, and an essay, photos, and art covering a “Year in the Life” of The Mandrake Project comic series, album release and tour. It’s available for pre-order now in the BV shop.

“Finally we are at the end of the beginning,” Dickinson says. “I honestly have to pinch myself to believe that Volume 1 of The Mandrake Project is upon us. I sometimes get the feeling that I am not fully in control of the story, and that some other entity is squeezing the blood out of my subconscious and turning it into ink on the page before my very eyes. We are just getting going. We are all… formed… of the dead.”

Z2 Editor-in-Chief Rantz Hoseley adds, “You pray for collaborators like Bruce Dickinson. While we’ve always taken pride in the presentation and production of our books, Bruce challenged us to exceed our previous best, and we happily took that challenge on. The end result is a design so ambitious and lush it’ll make your jaw drop, and we cannot wait to have you dive into this beautiful beast of a book!”

Dickinson is also going on a North American tour for The Mandrake Project starting in August, including an NYC show at Brooklyn Paramount on September 10. See all dates below.

Pick up the new graphic novel here.

BRUCE DICKINSON: 2025 TOUR DATES
AUG 22 – House of Blues, Anaheim, CA, USA
AUG 23 – House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV, USA
AUG 25 – Marquee Theatre, Phoenix, AZ, USA
AUG 26 – Revel, Albuquerque, NM, USA
AUG 28 – House of Blues, Houston, TX, USA
AUG 29 – House of Blues, Dallas, TX, USA
AUG 31 – Rocklahoma, Pryor, OK, USA *
SEP 02 – House of Blues, New Orleans, LA, USA
SEP 04 – Revolution, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
SEP 07 – The Town, Sao Paulo, Brazil *
SEP 10 – Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY, USA
SEP 11 – House of Blues, Boston, MA, USA
SEP SEP 13 – Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
SEP 14 – The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD, USA
SEP 16 – HISTORY, Toronto, ON, Canada
SEP 18 – MTELUS, Montreal, QC, Canada
SEP 21 – Louder Than Life, Louisville, KY, USA *
SEP 23 – The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA, USA
SEP 25 – The Fillmore, Detroit, MI, USA
SEP 27 – Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL, USA
SEP 28 – Uptown, Minneapolis, MN, USA
SEP 30 – Summit Music Hall, Denver, CO, USA
OCT 05 – The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA, USA

*Festivals