BRUCE DICKINSON And Z2 Unleash 'The Mandrake Project: Year One'

2024 was the year of IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson, as he rocked the world with the release of his seventh solo album, "The Mandrake Project", and an accompanying tour across Europe and South America. Never content to simply do the expected, Dickinson also released a companion comic series by the same name as an integral part of "The Mandrake Project" identity. The series, which had been brewing in Dickinson's head for over a decade, was received to thunderous acclaim.

Now, Z2 is proud to announce the impending release of "The Mandrake Project: Year One" on August 5, 2025, which collects the first four issues in the series, along with the prologue (previously only available in the vinyl release of the single for "The Afterglow Of Ragnarok"). Additionally, the oversized 12"x12", 184-page volume deluxe editions include an extensive series of interviews and essays recounting the road Dickinson and the creative team took in bringing the album, tour, and comic series to life. With an introduction by "Sons Of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter, the book is housed in an exquisite slipcase with a rotating embossed Mandrake dial and is bound with a sealing ribbon and gilt paper edging. The case also contains four exclusive foil collectors cards and the cast metal "The Mandrake Project" medallion seen in the comic and music videos.

"The Mandrake Project" is a dark, adult story of power, abuse and a struggle for identity, set against the backdrop of scientific and occult genius. Created by Dickinson, the comic series is scripted by Tony Lee and stunningly illustrated by Staz Johnson for Z2 Comics.

When asked about the book's release, Dickinson said: "Finally we are at the end of the beginning. 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."

In May 2024, Dickinson became a patron of the William Blake Cottage Trust, which owns and preserves William Blake's only surviving house. In homage to the storyline and with total reverence for "The Mandrake Project"'s inspiration, the Z2 team collected soil from the grave of the legendary English artist and poet, which was mixed into the ink for the printing of "The Mandrake Project: Year One" Deluxe Editions.

Bruce added: "William Blake has given me so much over the years and I want to repay the debt by helping to restore the Cottage. Despite his impact on the world, there is no center for Blake, nowhere people can visit to see where he actually lived and worked during a key part of his life. I want to change this."

The oversized 12"x12" Deluxe Edition with spinning slipcase and the limited, signed platinum edition will only be available directly from Z2 at Z2Comics.com, while a 9"x9" smaller hardcover edition without slipcase will be available via Z2's retail partners Amazon and Barnes & Noble in the United States, and at HMV UK (Exclusive HMV Cover + Trading Card),as well as many independent comic and music shops worldwide.

When asked about "The Mandrake Project: Year One", Z2's editor-in-chief Rantz Hoseley shared: "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!"

Preorder yours today at Z2comics.com/BruceDickinson.

This summer Dickinson takes "The Mandrake Project" on the road for his first extensive North American solo tour in almost 30 years.

A year ago, Bruce told Side Jams With Bryan Reesman that his favorite American superheroes growing up were Doctor Strange, the Silver Surfer and the Human Torch. Dickinson explained: "As an adolescent, the Silver Surfer is just pissed off about everything in general, but always permanently. And that was me, you know? And then Dr. Strange, he can control everything. And as an adolescent, I can control nothing. So I was, like, 'I want to be him.' And then I didn't know anything about girls, but the Human Torch can set fire to himself. He could fly. And all the girls were, like, 'Yeah, I want to jump his bones.' I'm, like, 'I want to be him too.' Those were my three comic go-tos."

Bruce said he bought up a lot of back issues of "Doctor Strange" and "Silver Surfer" at a comic book shop in Chicago before he began working on the new series a decade ago.

"By the time I went to Z2, who were already working with MAIDEN on the 'Piece Of Mind' comic, I said, 'Look, I've got this crazy idea. You're probably going to throw me out because you've got too much on your plate. But how do you fancy doing a 'Watchmen'-style comic?'" Dickinson told "Side Jam". "And I think they thought it was just going to be like one page. When I gave them 20 or 30 pages of synopsis and script and character sketches and backstory and world, they were' like, 'This is really cool.' That's when they put me in touch with Tony Lee. I was doing the story for 'Revelations', and Tony and I did the script together. I realized then [that a] comic script is not like any other kind of script I've ever written. This is a whole different world, a whole different regime, even the dialogue. Now I could do dialogue that would maybe work in a screenplay, and sometimes it would work in a comic. But other times it wouldn't work in a comic. I would never have written something like that. I would have done something more wordy. It's getting the feel of where dialogue's going and getting the feel of where the frame sits on the page."

"The Mandrake Project" album was released in March 2024 via BMG. Bruce and his long-term co-writer and producer Roy "Z" Ramirez recorded the LP largely at Los Angeles's Doom Room, with Roy Z doubling up as both guitarist and bassist. The recording lineup for "The Mandrake Project" was rounded out by keyboard maestro Mistheria and drummer Dave Moreno, both of whom also featured on Bruce's previous solo studio album, "Tyranny Of Souls", in 2005.

In November 2023, Bruce told Brazil's Omelete about the lyrical concept for "The Mandrake Project": "So 'The Mandrake Project' is, one, is an album. It's the name of the album. The comic is a 12-episode graphic novel, kind of adult. There's lots of stuff in it — there's lots of sex and drugs and violence and all kinds of stuff. But it's basically a story about a guy who is looking for his identity, Dr. Necropolis. He's an orphan, he's a genius, and he hates it, and he hates life, but he's involved in The Mandrake Project. And The Mandrake Project aims to take the human soul at the point of death, capture it, store it and put it back in something else. And the guy that's running the project, Professor Lazarus, he has one vision of what's gonna happen with this technology, and Necropolis has other ideas. And on we go with the story."

Asked how he came up with the idea to mash together music and comics, Bruce said: "Well, I think they do kind of go together. They really do. Music and games, music and comics, comics and games, they're all related."

He continued: "Years ago, IRON MAIDEN, we were doing some cover art, and I said, 'Why don't we do a comic?', like the comics that I used to read when I was a kid… When I suggested doing some covers, comic covers, we did some single artwork for IRON MAIDEN, and I thought, 'You know what? This is kind of cool.' Then later, MAIDEN had a video game called 'Legacy Of The Beast'; we still do. But what came with a video game, somebody produced a series of comics. And I thought they looked fantastic, but they lacked a story. And that got me thinking, what if you had an album that had a story that could be turned into a comic and the two things would work together? As it happened, they've actually grown apart. So, the [original] album, in 2014, was gonna be one comic with the album — that's it. Then, COVID happened, other things happened, seven years went by, and I had a 12-episode graphic novel. And I went, 'I don't wanna restrict the album to being like a script for this.' These two things exist separately, but they inform each other. So you can look at the album and go, 'Oh, yeah, that's kind of related to the comic.' And you look at the comic and go, 'Oh, I see that might be a little bit related to the album,' but they're not dependent on each other. So you can buy the comic or you can buy the album — or both."

Dickinson made his recording debut with IRON MAIDEN on the "Number Of The Beast" album in 1982. He quit the band in 1993 in order to pursue his solo career and was replaced by Blaze Bayley, who had previously been the lead singer of the metal band WOLFSBANE. After releasing two traditional metal albums with former MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith, Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999 along with Smith.