The deluxe edition collects individual issues from the acclaimed series and actual soil from William Blake’s grave
2024 was the year of 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 5th, which collects the first four issues in the series, along with the prologue that was 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 Mandrake Project medallion seen in the comic and music videos. This book is the must have item for all lovers of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, and supernatural tales!
“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,” Dickinson shares.
In May of 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 deluxe editions.
“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,” Dickinson adds.
The oversized 12”x12” deluxe edition with spinning slipcase and the limited, signed platinum edition will only be available directly from Z2, while a 9”x9” smaller hardcover edition without slipcase will be available via Z2’s retail partners Amazon and Barnes and Noble in the United States, and at HMV UK with an exclusive HMV cover and trading card, as well as many independent comic and music shops worldwide.
This summer Bruce Dickinson takes The Mandrake Project on the road for his first extensive North American solo tour in almost 30 years.
